Islas de la Coralina

Thursday, January 14, 2016
Barú, Bolívar, Colombia
Tuesday morning we got up early and travelled four hours by car West along the Caribbean coastline. The highway was in great condition, occasionally our driver had to stop to pay tolls and once was questioned briefly at a police checkpoint. Upon arrival at the city of Cartegna, we had no idea where to meet our boat transfer to the island. Luckily at our last place we had met a guide from this area and after a few phone calls, he appeared at the docks and assisted us on our way. An hour long boat transfer and we arrived at our private island, Isla Coralina Boutique Hotel. After a brief introduction by the manager explaining the do's and don'ts, (don't go in the water after 5:30 or the sea urchins start moving at night and will sting you) we quickly settled into beach chairs on the coral edge of the water. We are now on our third night here and just saw our dinner come from the passing fisherman, live lobsters (it was so good last night we all agreed to eat them again tonight). The food has been excellent, fresh fish prepared multiple ways, pasta, salads and of course a variety of fruity drinks. These past days have been filled with sunning, snorkeling and swimming off our dock. The first day we jumped in to snorkel we saw a 4 foot long dark colored sea snake with big white dots. Thankfully it stayed on the sea floor and went on its way. Today we finally decided to scuba dive, doing a two tank dive. We had two dive masters for the four of us, making it easy to feel comfortable under water. We've never seen the expansive ocean floor covered in so much thick coral of all colors, shapes and sizes, as far as the eyes could see, and we swam along walls and through tunnels of it. Both dives had us swimming past a variety of colorful fish and crustaceans all around us. It is hard to fathom swimming over brain coral the size of a Volkswagen beetle but we saw many this size. At this moment we are sitting on our balcony overlooking the Caribbean Sea, resting after spending the whole day hiking and beaching inside the park and enjoying a cold beer. We have one more night on this island before we boat back to Cartagena. The sun is setting and my beer is getting warm so it's time to end this blog while sending warm vibes to all of you feeling the cold.

It is now Friday morning . This afternoon we head back to the mainland and will spend our last two days exploring the Colonial walled city of Cartegna. We've been happy with all of our stops in Colombia and would happily return here.

Comments

jpstarshine
2016-01-15

✌️
What more can I say? Sounds heavenly. Thanks for sharing.

2025-02-07

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