Colombia's southern Caribbean coast, south of Cartagena, is rarely visited by foreigners. Small, uncomplicated, budding resort towns with names like Arboletes, Monitos, Puerto Escondido, San Antero, Covenas, Isla Fuerte, San Bernardo, Rincon del Mar, Berrugas and Tolu are beautiful seaside villages and will eventually become touristic jewels. But for now, travelers seem to prefer the beaches on Colombia's north Caribbean coast - Parque Tayrona, Palomino - places that have become a bit too popular and are already suffering from over-tourism.
Colombia's southern Caribbean offers everything a beach bum needs: tropical sun, sandy beaches, inexpensive lodgings, restaurants serving sea food, safe environments and easy transportation. One could spend weeks slowly visiting them all and still not want to leave.
The dock of Monitos
Monitos
It's a small, remote fishing village in the department of Cordoba. To get there catch a bus in Monteria (a 2.5 hour trip) or Lorica (1 hour trip). The bus leaves you at the central plaza in town a block up from the beach. Just down the street there's a long wooden dock going out several hundred yards into the sea. It sways and vibrates beneath the pounding surf. While there's not a lot in town to do, it offers everything you need. Most of all vast expanse of beaches and inexpensive lodgings.
There are a couple of seedy hotels right in town. But skip these. Instead, go to the seaside restaurant on the beach called "Asi es Colombia" and ask for Sra. Cecelia Durango. She owns the restaurant and knows of various cabins right on the beach owned by the locals who rent them out by the night, week or month. If there is not a Colombian holiday going on there are plenty of inexpensive options to choose from.
The Sra. Cecelia arranged for me to meet one of the village shop owners after lunch to show me some apartments. They are nice beach houses usually divided into several rooms. I paid $8 (30,000 COP) a night for a room. Each room faces the ocean, has its own bathroom and terrace with hammock. Some have common kitchens. At night the cool sea breeze comes in the open doors from the ocean and the sound of crashing waves is the only sound to be heard. And walking up the beach north there are many cabins on the beach. Most of them are closed during the off season but a few remain open all year.
There's a supermarket on Monito's main square along with a wi-fi access store, shops and plenty of restaurants offering fresh seafood, lunches and dinners, for $5 a plate. At night there are a couple dozen street food vendors stationed around the plaza selling fried plantains, chicken, sausages and meat on a stick.
You can come into town in the evening, relax by the beach at night, have a few beers and walk back down the beach at night to your cabin. Monitos is safe, they assured me. Here you can leave your doors open at night and walk the beach without worry. Everyone walks or drives their motor bikes back and forth on the beach, to and from town, at all hours of the night. A nice change after the wary explorations of Cartagena's beaches.
Boat to the island and Playa San Diego at Isla Fuerte
Isla Fuerte
Just north of Monitos is Isla Fuerte a small coral island, formed from coral detritus, located 11 km from the mainland. To get there, one can take a bus back towards Lorica and get off at the village of Paso Nuevo. Down at the harbor motor boats leave every hour to the island - a 45 minute trip is $5 round trip (15,000 COP). Morning transits see calm seas but bigger swells ensue in the afternoon. The last boats returning from the island to the mainland depart at 3 p.m.
This small island, 1.5 miles in length, is a relatively unknown gem. At the port town of Puerto Limon there are a number of restaurants and bars trying to get you to make reservations for lunch as soon as you get out of the boat. But feel free to explore the island. There are over a dozen hotels, cabins and hostels along the island's southern shoreline with an abundance of thatched hut restaurants right on the beaches serving fresh fish, grilled lobster, cerveza and offering chairs, tables, hammocks and shade.
Isla Fuerte has a population of 2,000 people and forms an island chain along with the more visited islands of the San Bernardo Archipelago and Rosario Islands. But because Isla Fuerte is the farthest island to the south and accessed from a less visited area of Colombia, it sees much less tourism. And that's its charm.
You can hike all around the island in just 6 hours. The topography is composed of tropical dry forest and mangroves. The island has 80 species of birds and numerous sloths. The beaches are a Caribbean delight. At Playa San Diego, one of the coves onthe island, the beach has white sand and crystal blue waters.
The reefs surrounding the island are great for diving. Experts consider Isla Fuerte to be one of the best dive sites in the Carribean. A reef three times the size of the island is located just 10 miles off shore. There are diving centers on the island, like the Isla Fuerte Ecolodge and Diving Center, that will supply you with the necessary infrastructure.
Arboletes
Bathing in the mud volcanoes in Arboletes adjacent the Caribbean sea
Arboletes is a small, seaside village of 22,000 people on Colombia’s southern Caribbean coast. It lies north of Turbo.
The village is a Colombian tourist destination for its beaches but more so for the mud volcano just outside of town called Volcan de Lodo Arboletes. It's an ecological park where tourists can float in a crater of warm mud 50 meters in diameter.
Arboletes is also known for its sandy beaches around the town and its wide selection of tourist accomodations. Located in the province of Antioquia the village was founded in 1920. Arboletes means ‘land of trees’.
Beaches at Covenas
Covenas
Covenas is a resort town on the Gulf of Morrosquillo. It is located in the department of Sucre and was established in 1570 as a port for slave traders. When slave trading became illegal, Covenas became a meat trading port. And in 1971, with the discovery of oil in the area, it became an oil port and terminal for an pipeline from the oil fields of Venezuela.
Covenas has been a Colombian tourist town since the 1960s. The town's sandy beaches and infrastructure offers ample services and amenities for mainly Colombian tourists. Here there are plenty of hotels, high rise apartment buildings, bars, clubs and restaurants.
a bicycle taxi on the streets of Tolu
Tolu
Tolu is a sleepy little tourist town 3 hours south of Cartagena on the Caribbean Gulf of Morrosquillo. Also catering to Colombian tourists, on the weekends Tolu is a bustling boom-boom town with music blaring from every bar, restaurant and bicycle taxi ambling along the malecon boardwalk – jut the way the Colombian tourists like it. Everyone travels in bicycle rickshaws or what they call bicitaxis, outfitted with boom boxes and accommodating anywhere from 3-10 people. It’s a nice place to unwind in a town with everything you need.
San Antereo
San Antero is a seaside fishing village just south of Tolu with nearby mangroves. San Antero, the village, is far from the beach so don't stay there. Go stay on the beach at Playa Blanca where there are lots of hotels, cottages and cabins. There are restaurants on the beach and lots of deserted beaches to explore. Walk north you will come to a mangrove grove. There is a path through the manglares permitting you to explore the coast further.
Puerto Escondido
Puerto Escondido
Just north of Arboletes - a fishing village in a hidden cove with a long, wooden dock stretching several hundred yards out to sea.
is a small fishing village on the Caribbean coast, just a 2-3 hour trip south of Cartagena. Take a bus to San Onofre. From there it's just a short 25 minute taxi or moto from San Onofre. It has clear waters, white sand, great food and sees a few international tourists coming from Cartagena and looking for a more isolated beach.
Rincon del Mar is a delightful little Caribbean fishing village just a 2-3 hour trip south of Cartagena – 100 km. (62 miles). A quiet, authentic village, it is located right on the ocean. The town has white sand beaches and crystal clear waters. Rincon is a little town composed Afro-Colombians, mostly of fishermen and families who work with the tourists. Children run through the streets while men play dominos and an occasional tourist walks along the water’s edge.
White sandy beaches stretch in both directions as far as the eye can see and walking the beach here is safe. Hike along the beach to the south it will take you past some houses belonging mostly to people from Medellin. Pass these and it’s nothing but deserted beach. Walk over the bridge in town towards the north and one can walk for hours along the deserted beaches.
From here one can hire a boat to take you to the San Bernardo islands, Islas Mucura, Islote de Santa Cruz - the most densely populated island in the world, and Isla Titipan.
Berrugas
A little beach no one ever heard about, an even smaller fishing village, is just 20 minutes south of Rincon del Mar. Get one of the boys in town with a motor taxi to take you back up the dirt road towards San Onofre but then it turns right and heads down to the little fishing village of Berrugas. This fishing village is much smaller than Rincon. But there is an economical hotel, bar and restaurant right on the beach in the town’s little harbor. The harbor has a sandy beach. If Rincon is crowded one can always avoid the weekend crowds by coming to Berrugas.
For more information on Colombia's most southern Caribbean beaches near the Darien Pass - see the following article:
Jon McInnes is a journalist who has been traveling to Colombia since 1972. He travels to Colombia and other parts of South America yearly and writes for newspapers, food, wine and travel publications. He currently lives between Colombia and Detroit. You can also follow him on facebook and contact him via email at: jonmcinnesjon@gmail.com
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