Lesser-spotted Colombia: Bahía Solano

Very often when travelling the old adage, ‘It’s not the destination, it’s the journey getting there’, holds true. For our recent trip to Bahía Solano, on Colombia’s secluded Pacific coast, this was partially the case. The route we took to get there was certainly interesting, yet the destination was also pretty impressive.

Bahía Solano.

Considering it is cut off from most of the country in terms of the road network, there are just two standard ways of getting to Bahía Solano – by sea or by air. Well, there is the option of trekking through dense tropical jungle, but due to some commitments over the next few months, we’re not willing to take a gamble on our life just yet. We’re not ruling out doing it at some stage, though.

We decided to take the more relaxed, slower route by sea, departing from the delightfully dirty city of Buenaventura (see last week’s ‘Buenaventura’s dirty delights’ http://bit.ly/11ksFmP). 

Depending on the time of year, a fast boat is available which would have you in Bahía Solano in about ten hours. This, however, was not an option at this time. In any case, the thoughts of a couple of days steadily sailing on the ocean was more appealing than a rough speed boat ride – if you’re travelling around Colombia’s Pacific coast, it’s best not to be in a rush.

Stocking up.

We certainly weren’t and just as well. Our planned sail time of a Saturday afternoon was put back to a dawn departure on Sunday morning as our ‘luxury cruiser’ – an all-purpose small cargo ship (as you know, our standards on luxury are low) – seemed to take on more stuff than Noah’s Ark. Alas, the crates and crates of beer on board were not for passenger consumption.

Dolphins!

The delayed departure was far from an inconvenience – we slept on the docked boat that night as well as getting fed, so the $150,000 COP cost (about $80 US) for the initial 36-hour trip became even more reasonable.* 

When we did get moving, it took about 24 hours to reach our first destination – the little village of Nuquí. The boat ride was comfortable, although it seems many Colombians don’t have the best of sea-legs – thankfully sea sickness was not a problem for us. 

On the way, as a pleasant distraction, we were regularly accompanied by dolphins. This is also the part of Colombia’s Pacific to see humpback whales; however, the season to see them is between July and November.

We docked in Nuquí for a few hours, enough time for us to have a walk around the village, splash in the ocean and grab a refreshing beer. 

Indeed, with the dramatic tide movements around these parts the boat couldn’t move until evening time as it was on dry land for much of the day.

Shipwrecked.

The trip from Nuquí to Bahía Solano took about ten hours, arriving at our destination before dawn on Tuesday. 

So while it may seem like a bit of an unnecessary long, marathon journey considering you can take a speed boat that gets you there more quickly from Buenaventura, we found it enjoyable. People may use the Spanish expression ‘vale la pena’ (‘worth the pain/effort’ or worthwhile) as regards the trip, but this is a bit erroneous as far as we’re concerned as there is no pain – it’s pleasant.

Even if you do find the boat ride uncomfortable because of sea sickness or whatever, you’ll soon forget all that when you get to Bahía Solano. 

It's an ideal place to ‘get away from it all’. Relax and unwind, away from the big city madness or work or whatever. Sea, sand and sun practically all to yourself. OK, if you were being critical you might say the beaches aren’t the most pristine in the world, but when there’s no one else around to disturb you, who cares?

Secluded.

We went to Bahía Solano with one chief aim – to chill out. And on that score it certainly didn’t disappoint. 

The town itself is sleepy, a population made up of the indigenous Embera, Afro-Colombians and Spanish-Colombians, with a good scattering of this latter group being Paisas (people originally from Medellín and its surrounds – if there’s money to be made, you’ll generally find a Paisa close by). 

It has everything you’ll need – plenty of little restaurants, quiet bars, grocery stores, internet cafes, ATM, etc. As much of the food stuff has to be transported in by sea from Buenaventura – outside of the plentiful and delicious fish that is – things are generally a little bit more expensive than you’ll find in the bigger Colombian cities, but not by that much.

Refreshing.

In terms of what to do outside of relaxing on the beach, there are plenty of gentle treks you can take around the town, exploring the tropical flora and fauna. While you may not feel too inclined to go trekking in the intense heat, many of these little walks are refreshingly interrupted with waterfalls – the clear, cool fresh water good enough to drink.

Something perhaps a little less refreshing, but worth a try all the same is ‘biche’ or 'viche', the local brew of the Embera. This clear, moonshine-style spirit, is derived from the palm tree and it certainly packs a punch. 

It reminded us, in appearance, taste and strength, of poitín – the Irish ‘tipple’ typically distilled from potatoes. You can purchase a 200 ml bottle of biche for the giveaway price of $6,000 COP (just over $3 US) from the indigenous themselves – a nice way to support them while getting something in return.

Biche time.

About an hour's drive away from Bahía is the neighbouring village of El Valle. This is worth at least a day visit. It appears a little bit more rustic than Bahía (not that the latter is cosmopolitan or anything like it – everything is relative!) with better waves for surfing if that’s your thing, and a bigger beach.

Now, the more pig-headed amongst us may subscribe to the notion that ‘the only things that go with the flow are dead fish.’ Yes, there is some truth to that, but in Bahía Solano and surrounds the tides are in control.  They tend to decide your movements – be it from when to walk along the beach to when you want to leave by sea. 

So when in Bahía Solano, there’s no other option but to just go with the flow. A refreshingly good feeling that can be, too.

Incoming.

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* ‘Renacer del Pacifico’ runs boats with spaces for passengers from Buenaventura to Bahía Solano, usually departing on Saturdays and Tuesdays each week. The journey generally shouldn’t take longer than 36 hours (in fact our return journey from Bahía Solano only took 22 hours) and the standard price for a ticket is $150,000 COP with meals and – usually – a bed included.
The office/point of departure is located at: km 4, El Pinal, Buenaventura. Mob: +57-320-726-07-82 / +57-315-402-15-61.

One budget accommodation option in Bahía Solano is ‘Hotel Bahía Solano’ ($20,000 COP a room per night – you may have to bargain for this price, though). E-mail: hotelbahiasolano@gmail.com for more information.

Buenaventura's dirty delights

It shouldn’t come as a major surprise to regular readers that we’re not averse to squalid settings every now and again. It’s just as well, of course, for as beautiful as Colombia is in a natural sense, many — but not all it must be said — of its urban dwellings make European rubbish tips seem idyllic. 

Last year we had the pleasure of checking out two such ‘dirty towns’, Turbo (see 'Turbo Living' http://bit.ly/SVtkWW) and Maicao (see 'Dirty Old Town' http://bit.ly/VG94Ho). You could also throw a large portion of Bogotá – our home, on and off, for the last 15 months – onto this list.*

Adding a bit of colour to the natural environment.

It’s not that we enjoy the dirt or take some sort of perverted satisfaction from seeing it strewn about the place, far from it. But scrape back a bit of the material waste and in most of these places — less so, perhaps, in the sprawling metropolis of Bogotá — you’ll find extremely friendly, laid-back people (laid-back to the point that collecting rubbish is seen as a waste of time — ‘Sure won’t Mother Nature break it down after a while?’) with what appears to be a generally healthy attitude to life.

So sticking to type, this is pretty much what we found in Colombia’s Pacific coast city of Buenaventura. 

Now, it was for reasons of transport that we had to pass through the place, our final destination being Bahía Solano, a tranquil little coastal town further north, reachable only — unless, that is, you fancy a wild trek through inhospitable jungle (next time) — by boat or plane (we took the former option, hence the stop in Buenaventura).

In fairness, and as is the case with Turbo and Maicao, the fact that most of the respected travel books on Colombia suggest giving the city a wide berth or if you have to stay for some reason then just make it brief, we were always tempted to check it out on its own merits. Not just using it as a transport hub that is.

Indeed, it does still see a fair number of visitors. And mirroring Colombia as a whole this number is increasing all the time, although many of these are just passing through, visiting some of the beaches that are short speedboat rides away (our destination of Bahía Solano, on the other hand, is a much longer trip – more on that in the coming weeks). 

The fact that it is also the most important port city on the country’s Pacific coast means that it gets plenty of sailors coming and going, too. So foreign faces are not uncommon.

Well, at least there's a positive outlook as regards the rubbish.

It is, though, home to a large number of Afro-Colombians, so the whiter your skin, the more you stand out. This can be both a good and bad thing. Good in so far as people like to talk with you, from a single-male perspective that can be very positive. Bad in the sense that, as happens in many places across the globe, some people here equate white skin with lots of money. If only they knew. 

 

Thankfully, such negative attention wasn’t very prevalent during our short stay there. In fact, our previous view that Afro-Colombians are the least friendly of the ethnic groups that live in the country was pleasantly altered. They can still be, however, a little disobliging when it comes to bus journeys. We all have our flaws.

It has been said that the city is the capital of arguably one of Colombia’s strongest underground exports — prostitutes.** From what we witnessed, it’s hard to disagree (wait a second, is that why the women were so friendly?). There were many of them ‘playing the game’ in any case. Throw in the fact that one of the semi-respectable hotels we stayed in seemed to double up as a brothel and you begin to see the importance of the industry to the place. 

Mentioning hotels, we must give a plug to ‘Hospedaje Bahia Mar’. At the equivalent of about US$8 a night, it’s one of the best value-for-money spots we’ve stayed at in Colombia. And sticking with the sex-tourism theme, it’s the only hotel/hostel we’ve been in that has a porn channel free to watch on your bedroom TV. How thoughtful.

What’s more, the first guy we befriended, a very helpful lad at that, seemed to be some sort of a pimp. Each to their own and all that. 

On a broader scale, this is the place where many of these ladies of the night learn their trade before hitting for the traditionally economically stronger Latin American countries. Chances are if you meet a Colombian prostitute in the likes of Brazil or Chile, she more than likely hails from Buenaventura or its surrounds.

The seaside park is relatively nice.

Outside of all that, in terms of what to do in the city itself, well there’s not an awful lot. Granted, our stay was limited to the centre, the part nearest the sea/port (the city is divided into two parts, joined by a bridge).

But from what we saw in passing of the outer part of the city, much of it resembles a shanty town and didn’t look that appealing. At least in the centre there’s a seaside park and accompanying views of the ocean. 

If you can find a half-clean park bench to sit on it’s a relatively nice place to read a book and watch boats sail in and out in the muggy afternoon heat. 

There’s also Zona Franca, the city’s duty-free zone in a sense, where you can do some bargain hunting for all sorts of goods if that’s your thing. For us, the cheap eats and drinks that can be found in the place were very satisfying, along, of course, with the aforementioned friendly locals.

As for the dirt, sure no place is perfect.

* For more on Bogotá's rubbish, see 'Petrograd - Colombia's new capital?' http://bit.ly/U4ViiJ & 'Small steps to a cleaner, greener Bogotá?' http://bit.ly/WFOPsW

** For related articles on prostitutes in Colombia, see "Bienvenidos a Medellin - 'Bangkok Light'" http://bit.ly/N83NbB & 'What a mother hooker!' http://bit.ly/XEAefP