Lost beaches and fishing boats

Simon Gygax
Apr 19, 2023
4 min read

Santiago de Tolú

A report about war at the bus terminal, monkeys on the beach, glowing plankton and density stress on a small island.

White sandy beaches and turquoise sea - Palma Island is reminiscent of the Maldives

War-like conditions prevail at the bus terminal in Cartagena. The terminal does not organise the bus stations according to destinations or bus routes, but according to the different bus companies that are stationed there. The tour companies, in turn, do not write down the destinations of their buses. The official procedure to find your bus is therefore to ask every terminal employee you see for information. There is pushing, shouting, laughing and crying - and after asking an average of eight times, you are sitting in your bus, whose interior smells like a mixture of arepas, chips and urine and which has the interior temperature of a Finnish sauna - the probability that it is the right bus is about 80%.

Admittedly, travelling by bus from Cartagena in the north to the northwest coast of Colombia to Santiago de Tolú was, in retrospect, not the wisest decision - there are ships that can make the journey in just 2 hours and probably generate less risk of heart attack - but in the end, the bus trip was an experience you have to have.

Santiago de Tolú is a fishing village that is now quite well known among Colombians, but has not yet reached international tourism. Tolú offers an indescribable holiday feeling thanks to its beach promenade and the salsa and cumbia vibes that flow from the bars and discos. However, people mainly travel to Tolú to visit the nearby islands of the San Bernardo archipelago in the Caribbean Sea.

The islands could not be more different. Isla Palma", for example, is a small island managed by a single hotel and can only be visited with a day admission. The white sandy beach seriously rivals the Maldives, the colours of the sea mix light blue, turquoise and dark blue to create a backdrop that otherwise only exists in a picture book. The island was apparently a favourite travel destination of Pablo Escobar, who is probably not entirely unaccountable for the unnatural species occurrence of numerous animals on the small island. On Palma, you can swim with wild boars as you would in the Bahamas, take a walk on the beach with monkeys, view flamingos at point-blank range and learn how to handle water turtles and jellyfish. Until recently, there was a dolphin pool with shows, but fortunately the operation has since been discontinued. The enjoyment of the animals subsides a little when you learn that they were all imported and do not occur naturally on the island.

You get a completely different picture on "Islote". According to its inhabitants, the island is the most densely populated island in South America. Arriving by fishing boat, you get a curious welcome from the island guide: "First, let's pause for a moment to thank the good Lord for this beautiful day...(10 seconds pause)... Welcome to Islote, for only 10,000 pesos you can swim with a shark here!"

Apart from dubious tourist guides and a sad shark, the visit to Islote is well worth it. It is impressive to see how over 500 inhabitants get along with each other in the small space of a football field. The houses are lined up in precise efficiency, and next to a medical centre and a school, there is even room for a small marketplace. Furthermore, the island is peppered with stylish graffiti and murals.

Right next to Islote you will find the island "Tintipan". It is the largest island in the area, but out of respect for nature, almost no roads have been built. To get from the west of the island to the east, the boat is the only way. The landscape on Tintipan is correspondingly wild; besides huge forests of coconut palms, there are countless lonely beaches to explore. These are exactly the reasons why guests check into Wilbert's "Café Arena Beach" hostel. The "Café Arena Beach" is only accessible by boat and is located in the middle of the wilderness of Tintipan. Besides the lonely beaches, fish of all colours can be seen. At night, Wilbert offers tours with his fishing boat to a lagoon where luminous plankton can be viewed. Wilbert assures us that there are no crocodiles here. It is only on the return trip, after we have spent over an hour in the water, that I notice the plate-sized, glowing jellyfish that have shared the waters with us. Although they are apparently harmless, I probably wouldn't get into the water a second time.

Overnight stays are in "glamping" style, in small thatched huts equipped exclusively with a bed, a mosquito net and a lamp. The showers draw their water from a water tank that is rationed sparingly. With the simplest of means, Wilbert, who is responsible for the reception, catering and transport of the guests, conjures up freshly caught fish from the adjacent sea on the plates, accompanied by a "patacón" (fried patty made from plantains) that would have earned a Michelin star.

Wilbert himself sleeps in a hammock between two palm trees on the island, and when there are no guests, he takes his fishing boat out to sea and fills the ice chest with "mojarras" and other fish. By hand, he has carpentered an impressive infrastructure with reception, lounge and power supply out of the simple wooden hut that was the hostel until recently. He hardly understands the English slogan on his T-shirt, but it fits him perfectly: "Do it now, because someday will become never".

Fishing village with lots of cumbia and salsa - Santiago de Tolu is the ideal starting point for island hopping in the San Bernardo archipelago (Source: Alcadia de Santiago de Tolu).