COLOMBIA • BARU

Our last night was spent feasting and packing, for the following morning, we left for the port. We were gonna get on a boat out to a white sand island group I share the name Rosario with. I was all over the place with excitement.

Unfortunately that excitement died pretty hard as we were told that the waves were too strong that morning to travel by boat. We had to go by bus and I was agitated the whole ride over the idea that we had spent ‘so much’ money on a boat trip and all we got was a simple bumpy bus ride. I quickly saw how silly I was for wasting my energy over the $30 bus ride. Baru island of Isla del Rosario, played with my eyes. The white soft sand held our feet like pillows. The air was fresh and salty, and the jungle reached all its way to the beach, which created the base for all the beach houses. The entire coast line was covered of them. We arrived at 10 am and the bus guide said that by 4 pm, all the day trippers would leave, cause currently they were everywhere. He told us, the further down you go, the less people there are. So we started walking and after twenty minutes it was like we had walked into this little community of paradise seekers. Music (of course), tropical drinks and Brazilian bikinis. Crystal clear blue water, tree huts in bright Caribbean colours, and people happy to see you. This place is for very simple living, I could have stayed forever. We checked in two different bungalows during our stay, one about $20 US total for two people per night. The room had a large bed with pillows, sheets, a fan, a little chair, one lamp, and a little hanging lock on the door. The second place was the same, except it was decorated more, and had useless wifi, but it had the best vibe, which made it worth the extra $6. At first I was sceptic in regards to the door locks; scared for leaving our belongings alone. However, after spending a couple hours on the beach relaxing, I learnt there was no need to be worried. Everyone present seemed peaceful, we were all there for the same thing; enjoying life as close to the ocean as possible.
Hygiene was a little different that we’d been used to. Drinking water was only bottled and every tree house offered one shower of collected rain water per day per guest, so we spent all day in the sea and showered before dinner. To use the restroom you had to pour sea water down the toilet, and you also had to wash your hands in sea water, unless you were willing to use some of your drinking water. Sticky living, needless to say.

As the sun, set and again blew my mind, the night rolled on, and each tree house activated their electricity batteries. They all had the same rule - electricity was only on from 7 pm till 7 am. Little lights lit up all the houses and every 4th house was like a club on the beach. Everyone was out, drinking and dancing till morning. We danced the night away in the waves until we were too tired to stand, then went to bed with the fan blowing on full to keep the mosquitoes away. The only thing that topped falling asleep to the sound of the waves, was waking up to it.

All the huts served various types of breakfasts, there were vegan ones as well, however we had already dragged the little of food we had in the mainland with us, so we enjoyed our huge fruit salads w/ granola and almond milk, in the shade of the trees on the beach. The rest of the day was spent in the water and being lazy in the sun. I don’t know if its just me, but whenever I’m somewhere exotic, if spend my day laying on the beach, I would still feel like I’ve had such a productive day. Maybe its because I’m from the north, where you can only be lazy outside, 5 months every year. When we left Baru, I was actually worried. The boat ticket we had bought was supposed to include a return, but since there was no boat, there was no return either. They boat company had also said that the only time one could leave the island was at noon, we had a flight at 1pm. We heard rumours from other visitors that apparently there were private people who drove visitors back to the mainland, and just like that, we took the chance hoping that there might be someone driving in the morning of our departure. There was, and he charged us $4 to drive us half the journey in this motorcycle box thing that had two seats in the back, three wheels, a roof, no doors, and believe it or not, seat belts. We road this thing for about 40 minutes of which I was certain we’d tip over. But no, he dropped us off right in front of the bus which only charged another $4 to drive us all the way back to Cartagena where we reached our flight just in time. After arriving home, everyone kept complimenting my nice dark tan, that burn was totally worth it.