The boat trip with San Blas Adventure from Panama City through the San Blas Islands was absolutely out of this world. We had the best 4 days exploring the gorgeous islands, learning about the indigenous Kuna way of life, and making new friends from all over the world. The boat trip ended in a remote town on the Caribbean coast of Colombia called Capurgana.
After 4 days on a boat, sleeping in hammocks on beautiful white sand beaches, we boarded the last set of boats for the quick 10-minute ride to Capurgana. There, we schlepped our plastic wrapped heavy bags to the San Blas Adventures office, hoping that the 4 days of extreme waves and bumps didn’t damage our precious cargo.
The immigration office was a few steps away from the San Blas offices, so we lined up with our passports to get get stamped into Colombia. Saz and Adam had to pay an extra fee for being Canadian, but eventually we all made it through.
Joha handed out electric-colored Smirnoff Ice-like bottles to toast our arrival. The drinks were insanely fluorescent and surprisingly strong, and we were all feeling crazy energy and buzz right away…theorizing that they might have been laced with something a little stronger…….something that Colombia is perhaps famous for….
Capurgana is only accessible by boat or plane, so we decided to spend a few days exploring the area before leaving for Medellin.
Our friends from the boat trip were all staying at various accommodations in the town, but we made plans with the whole group to reconvene for dinner and a night out to celebrate our amazing adventure.
Adam, Saz, and I wandered into Capurgana looking for our hostel, got completely lost, until some friendly Colombian ladies helped us find our way. We had booked a sweet little accomodation called Hostal Portal Del Sol, with a beautiful big garden and hammocks to relax in. Apparently the local power plant had been damaged recently, so the entire town had been out of power for over a month. Luckily, our accom had a generator that they would run a few hours per day, so that we could charge up our devices.
As night fell, we got ready for the evening. The hostel was buzzing with our boat crew, everyone looking clean and happy. It was the perfect end to a wild, hilarious, and exhausting stretch of days in San Blas and Colombia. We were soon called over to The Dock, the dinner spot a couple buildings away, where they had set up this big long table outside just for our group. We snagged some seats near one end with our friends. The vibe was super fun, and we all just laughed about the crazy last few days, telling stories and jokes.
At some point, it was announced that Sergio was the winner of the San Blas Killers game – he’d apparently “killed” at least seven people – so JoHa gave him a traditional Kuna cloth as a prize. Then, a scuba instructor came by asking if anyone wanted to dive tomorrow, and when he told us it was only $40 USD per dive, we signed up and got his contact info.
After dinner, we all stood around the front of the restaurant chatting and ended up off to the side with Lindsay and Marisa because the music was blasting. We were dying laughing talking about the funny things that had happened on the trip. The music was so good we couldn’t help ourselves, so we joined the group dancing outside the restaurant and basically took over the dance floor! It had rained a bit so the ground was slick, and Adam did a ridiculous dance-off with a Colombian guy that had everyone dying laughing.
We danced for ages until Joha announced there was another party about a 10-minute walk away, so we followed her down these dark, winding paths. The new venue was way nicer than just the street outside the restaurant, but the music was honestly kind of a letdown. We danced a bit, but mostly ended up outside chatting with our friends from the trip.
We were tired and feeling ready to head home, so we turned our headlamps on and walked through the town about 20 minutes back to our room, and fell asleep instantly!
The next morning, our hostel host made us breakfast: scrambled eggs, papaya, fried plantains, sausages, cheese, and fresh juice. We just chilled around the hostel for a bit, and eventually got ready for our scuba dive. We met up at the dive shop with some of the boat crew, signed waivers, and sorted out our gear. The first dive was a bit chilly with rough visibility at first, but then it cleared up and we saw this massive grouper, lionfish, lobsters, and a beautiful coral wall. Adam ran low on air super fast and had to go up early with the instructor, which was a bummer because the last part was gorgeous.
Back at the dive shop, they served us fruit and snacks before the second dive. I had decided to skip the 2nd dive because I had barely eaten that day and was feeling rough, so it was just Adam, Saz, and two friends from the boat trip Alice, and Alec. That dive was even better, with massive crabs and a cool crack between rocks they had to squeeze through. The visibility wasn’t perfect, but the reef was more lively, and Adam somehow came back with only 15 BAR left!
That night we met up again for pizza at Tres Soles with Lindsay, Marisa, Rick, and Adam. Marisa and Lindsay were supposed to fly out that morning, but their flight had gotten cancelled at the last moment. We had cocktails and chatted with all of our friends, but most people were leaving early the next day so we were too tired for a night out.
We had a couple more days in Capurgana left, so we wanted to check out some of the local hikes. JoHa had recommended a nice trail that led to the neighbouring town, Sapzurro. Saz was feeling a bit sick, so Adam and I set off in the late afternoon to catch the golden hour light. The hike was short but sweet, with a huge view tower at the top with panoramic views of both Capurgana and Sapzurro. We hung out on the view tower wating for sunset, and spotted two beautifully bright and green toucans flying!
The lookout tower had absolutely insane 360 views of the coast, towns, and Darien Gap jungle far ahead in the distance.
We caught a sweet sunset and headed back the mountain, to check on Sazzie.
The next day was our last full day in Capurgana, so we got up early and got ready for a little morning hike, skipping breakfast at the hostel and heading straight into town. It wasn’t really much of a hike – more of a trail along the ocean – but it was nice. Both myself and Adam were feeling a bit off in the stomach department, and Saz was just tired, so we didn’t push to finish the whole trail. We found a cool spot by the ocean to just chill and fly the drone for a while and enjoy the coastal views.
On our way back, this motorcycle with a trailer stopped and the guy in the back was like, “Do you want a ride back to town?” At first, we said no, but he was so persistent – “Are you sure?? Are you sure??” – and since hitchhiking is such a novelty for us, plus everyone needed a bathroom, we said, “Okay!” and jumped in. The ride was wild – super bumpy and totally felt like we were way too heavy for that motorcycle trailer, especially since it was just rocky dirt roads and even crossed two streams.
The guy driving us was… kind of a jerk, honestly. He was from Medellin originally, and started going on about how “horrible” Capurgana was because they had a high percentage of Black people, and internally we were like ??? You’re super racist, this is super awkward, what are you talking about?? But ultimately we were on the back of this man’s bike in the middle of the jungle, so we kept our mouths shut until we got back into the town and politely thanked him for the ride.
Our friends Shirley and Dan (from the boat trip) had told us the semi-harrowing story of their journey via boat & bus to Medellin, which consisted of taking a speed boat where you got absolutely DRENCHED 2 hours to Necocli, then catching another 10 hour bus from Necoccli to Medellin. That didn’t sound too appealing, so we arranged to fly instead. It would be generous to call where we flew out of an “airport”, it was basically just a landing strip with a booth to check in.
Carlos, the hostel host, walked us to the “airport” so we wouldn’t get lost. Rocking up to a tiny airstrip carved out of the jungle really felt like a scene out of Narcos.
We weighed our bags and, surprise surprise, they were all way overweight (except Adam’s). We had to pay extra fees, but we were almost completely out of cash – like 116,000 COP when we owed 121,000 – but the guy was super chill and let it slide.
We thought we had got off easy, until this lady came over saying we also had to pay the airport tax – 15,000 each. There were no ATMs at all in the entire town, so we had to send Adam back off to town to exchange a $100 USD bill for pesos. Thank you, Adam, because it was so humid and sticky that none of us wanted to deal with that!
When the plane showed up, it was tiny – like a bus with wings! No seat numbers, just pick your spot. We managed to snag the front row right behind the pilots, and since it wasn’t a closed cockpit, we could see straight out the front windows.
The flight itself was absolutely stunning – gorgeous views of the Colombian coastline the whole way. Adam was suffering, though, because the lady behind him must have bathed in body spray – he was basically stuck in a chemical cloud the whole flight. We did hit some turbulence mid-way through, and honestly it was a little nerve-wracking in that tiny plane, but we made it safely.
We landed in Medellin just past noon, so we found a restaurant with good reviews called Mondongos in the area and Ubered there. Our Uber driver gave us some recommendations of what to do and what not to do, which included avoiding most neighbourhoods at night. He gave a slightly unsettling warning that the area were were heading to was “fine during the day, but avoid it at all costs at night”. The food was good, and the restaurant even had a luggage storage room to watch our stuff. After lunch, we went for a little walk in the neighbourhood of El Poblado, taking in the sights and sounds of Medellin.
It was a cool but slightly sketchy vibe. We got talked to a lot by random people, inviting us to their restaurant, or begging, and at one point a guy with a microphone and another with a boombox playing rap beats started following us and rapping at us in Spanish. It was a little overwhelming, especially after the recent news stories of tourist muggings/murders and all the warnings from other Colombians to not flaunt our wealth. There is apparently a saying in Colombia that is “no dar Papaya” or “don’t have papaya” aka, don’t flaunt your wealth if you don’t want to get robbed. Feels a little victim blamey type to have a saying like that, but it definitely had us on edge and a little stressed out.
As we were waiting for our Uber to pick us up, we ran into Shirley and Dan! Such a coincidence to run into them in a big city like Medellin, but they invited us to join them on their walking tour of Comuna 13 the next day, which we happily agreed to.
We were finally able to check into our Airbnb, so we dropped our bags and freshened up. Our Uber driver had recommended a restaurant collective called Mercado del Rio, so we headed there for dinner. It was a Monday night so the collective was fairly dead, but we still had some drinks at the bar before choosing our stall for dinner. To be honest, Colombian food had been completely underwhelming and extremely bland, so we were so grateful that this restaurant collective had some solid looking Asian options. Saz got a tom yum soup, and I got chicken curry and rice. FINALLY SOME FLAVOUR.
The next morning, we met up with Shirley and Dan for our Comuna 13 walking tour. Our guide, Alex, was born and raised in this district. He told us a little about the history of it being a hotbed for 4 different guerrilla gangs, and there was a lot of violence and death. Then there were some raids to try to kill the guerrillas, by para-military groups, but the groups were paid per guerrilla they killed, so they ended up dressing up a bunch of civilians as guerrillas, and then killing them for more money. It was a horribly brutal time.
Comuna 13 is built on a giant hill, and there aren’t car-roads, just stairs, and recently government installed escalators, which have completely changed the lives of those in this community for the better.
Alex then took us to watch a local breakdancing troupe perform, and they killed it! It was so fun to watch them dance, and they even pulled Saz up to the floor to twerk on her lol. Our next stop was a basketball court that Maluma (a Medellin local) shot one of his music videos in. We also learned the incredibly violent up history of the court – it apparently used to be an execution square. He said the guerrillas would kill as a warning to other citizens. If there was, for instance, a curfew that said no one can be out past 7pm; if someone was caught out past then, they would execute them to set an example. Alex said that the guerrillas would even sometimes gather 10 or so children, and put one in the middle, and tell another others that they had to shoot the child in the middle, and if he didn’t they would kill his family. Absolutely horrific. The local community converted it to a basketball court so that local children could enjoy it in the future, instead of think about it’s extremely violent past.
Nearby to the execution square, Alex introduced us to a staircase that was nicknamed ‘death alley’. Because the alley was so narrow, anybody walking along used to be executed by gunmen sitting in windows on either side, especially because bullets would ricochet down the thin alley. Alex was like ‘don’t worry. The last time someone was shot down here was 12 years ago’. HUH!? TWELVE? THAT SEEMS LIKE TOO RECENT OF HISTORY.
We got a chance to ride the newly installed escalators, admire the amazing graffiti and art on the walls, and visit a few galleries lining the alleys of Comuna 13. Although the neighbourhood has such a painful and tragic past, the entire community has come together to move past their violent past and reclaim the district into a beautiful cultural centre, filled with art, community, and music. We finished our walking tour at a bar with an amazing view of the city, and enjoyed some beers with Shirley and Dan. We decided to check out a restaurant they had found for lunch that had a “deal of the day” special, called Uno Mas Uno.
The food was really good, and we sat there chatting for the entire afternoon. As it was starting to get dark, we said our goodbyes and headed home.
Overall, we had all been feeling kind of off vibes-wise in this city. Every single Uber we took or Colombian person we interacted with told us some variety of ‘be careful’ and the “No Dar Papaya” saying. Although Medellin was a very green and aesthetic city, it was not very comforting that everyone was warning us so heavily. It was hard for us to fully enjoy it. Adam put it best when he coined: “Medellin… a gritty city with a big heart”.
We were ready to move on to our next destination (and final stop with Adam): Salento, Colombia!