The Pacific Coast: Bahía Solano

This post is one of many enticing reads to be found on my own blog Dickie’s Diary, so if you feel so inclined, have a look round! http://rjk2107.wordpress.com/  

All 9 or so of the weeks that have been spent in Colombia so far, have taken place in the Department of Antioquia, of which Medellín is the capital. I’d started to feel slightly worn down by the city routine- besides the bungee jump I hadn’t left Medellín itself in 6 weeks so when the chance arose to spend a few days exploring, whale watching and snorkelling in the Pacific department of Chocó, it was an easy choice.

Unfortunately instead of travelling to the coast with a beautiful Paisa I was once again joined by Frank (I’m sure he felt the same) and his two German flatmates Laura and Kristin who were unlucky enough to have to put up with our terrible and probably slightly offensive German impressions for 5 days. Our flight came in the form of a 17 seater Harbin Y-12, we didn’t realise it at the time but it was a model that the Chinese government had decided to give to Colombia for free, which is always encouraging, and is used by such esteemed countries of aviation as Rwanda, the Republic of Congo and Indonesia. Fortunately we arrived without problem and were met by Estrella, the wife of Rodrigo who ran the hostel La Posada del Mar; there we stayed in nice but fairly simple accommodation, and more importantly were fed huge amounts of the local dish (fresh fish, coconut rice and fried banana) on a daily basis. The town itself wasn’t like the paradise that could be found surrounding it and since it was also pretty quiet, the evenings were usually spent reading, playing cards and eating obscene amounts of chocolate. Not exactly a crazy lifestyle but that wasn’t really what we had come for.

Rodrigo, evidently an important person in town, was the kind of man that is just meant to run a small business: enthusiastic, kind, hard working, incredibly knowledge about his area of expertise and someone who had the innate ability to make everything interesting. For example he managed to make the statement: “if you think humans are the most advanced species in the world, then you are wrong” sound both entirely reasonable and very cool. He was fairly tight lipped about some of the more troubling matters in Colombia but he briefly talked about the army’s role in their community (“they are a little-respected infrastructure”) and added that given Panama’s proximity to Bahía Solano- about 150km- drug operations were sadly an inevitability for some people. Personally though he was solely interested in tourism and nature.

The first morning was spent walking up through one of the costal river beds towards some waterfalls where we could swim about. Later on Frank, Rodrigo and I took a wander through the jungle, where we were informed that Chocó was the area with the highest concentration of insects in the world, which is possibly one of the worst records to hold if like myself and most normal human beings you don’t like bugs. It didn’t take long to notice the giant ants named “Congas”, frogs (one decided to urinate on my leg) and other strange creepy-crawlies. Rodrigo also spotted a poisonous snake with a yellow head and promptly tried to see if it would move, which unsurprisingly it did, but luckily in another direction. Most exciting was when we spotted a strange looking black feline which looked like it may have possibly had a sloth for a father- Rodrigo was hopping about with excitement since it was the first time he had seen one, which felt like an extra bonus for myself and Frank.

 Frank apparently experiencing his own James Rodriguez moment 

One of the huge grasshoppers terrorising us at dinner time 

Unfortunately there were some unbelievable tropical storms that swept over the town for much of our time there, once coinciding with our day of whale watching. We set out with huge optimism and a healthy dose of plucky brit-ness, ready to be amazed by the largest animal in the world whilst confronting some hazardous conditions. This didn’t last long. Within a few minutes the heavens really opened and soon our spirits had been battered to pieces by mother nature; excepting defeat for a few hours we waited for the storm to pass in an uninhabited beach house where we were treated to a “typical coastal sandwich” which consisted of peas, carrots, mayonnaise and cheese. It tasted as bad as it sounds, but it did enough to stem the growing Lord of the Flies feeling that Frank had accurately noted. When we did get out to sea however we were incredibly lucky, spotting a mother and a calf within 5 minutes. Soon after we found a solitary male who was evidently trying to woo the mother (unsuccessfully it seemed), he disappeared for a while and then all of a sudden, threw himself out the water showing us his whole body, before crashing down into the ocean again. It was a fleeting and surreal moment but incredible to witness. He actually followed us for a while, and emerged no more than 10 metres from the boat at one point, catching us all by surprise with some strange grunting/spouting noises. It was an incredible afternoon, capped off by a school of dolphins leaping out of the water as we returned home.

This isn’t my photo, but it looked a little something like this…

Somewhat unsurprisingly I didn’t manage to make it through the trip without a healthy dose of sunburn (which I am still nursing). Nothing quite shouts “Englishman on holiday” than strolling down the beach, red chested with a beer in hand whilst trying to find out the score between mine and Frank’s two respective football teams, Chelsea and Man City. All the same it had come at a reasonable cost: a day spent relaxing, swimming and playing volleyball with the locals. Our time in Bahía Solano slowly drew to a close as another epic storm swept in on Monday, limiting us to the hostel and not much further; it didn’t mask what had been a great trip however, and something that I would strongly recommend to anyone passing through Colombia.