I haven't seen any data on here about the "other coast" in Colombia and I recently hit up a couple of beach towns on the Pacific coast, so here's a travel report about my experiences there, I hit up the following places: Buenaventura, Juanchaco, Ladrilleros, Bahia Solano and El Valle.
Overview: As many of you know, Colombia is the only country in South America which has coasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans but most travellers only go to the Atlantic coast to enjoy the Caribbean beaches up there. There are good reasons for this as the Pacific coast is very undeveloped in comparison to the Atlantic coast, there isn't a lot of tourism related infrastructure there, its quite poor and it isn't as easily accessible as the other coast. That being said, I had a decent time there and will likely return in the future to partake in some of the tourist activities that the coast is known for, mostly whale watching and sport fishing.
The People: The Pacific coast and especially in the small towns I visited is the heart of Afro-Colombia, I don't know a lot about the history but basically Colombia had slavery and a lot of the black people ended up on the Pacific coast, some of these towns were founded by escaped slaves who settled among native tribes. You'll also see a few Natives running around but these towns are basically all black. The people are really nice and many of them live off the land, fishing by hand in small kayak or pirogue style boats, planting gardens and raising chickens and pigs. They also hunt small animals too and apparently the roasted armadillo is pretty good, although I didn't try it.
Game/girls: The small towns aren't good for picking up the local women, like any small town in the world, everyone knows everyone so the local ladies aren't too keen on hooking up with random gringo travellers, especially with their machete wielding fathers, brothers and cousins being around. There is however an influx of local girls who come back home from the cities during the Christmas holidays and they may be down but I didn't sense it. There's a few Colombian tourists around but it seemed to be mostly couples, I only saw gringas in El Valle and they didn't look too good. Your best bet would be to pick up a girl in Cali, Buenaventura or Medellin to take to the small coastal towns.
Food/drink: Being on the coast, seafood is very common here as you can imagine and I loved it, there's so many options, especially in Bueanventura, I highly recommend eating the "cazeula de camarones" its similar to a stew full of shrimp. In the small towns, you can meet fishermen who bring in their daily catch and buy from them, I ate a lot of yellow fin tuna and mahi-mahi there. As in most other parts of Colombia, the standard drinks are rum, arguadiente and beer but on the Pacific coast they brew this strong alcohol from sugar cane called viche or biche, be careful with this stuff, its cheap but will get you hammered, its basically moon shine.
Reefer situation: You can get quality bud in Buenventura, but I forgot to before I left to Ladrilleros, I managed to score some out there but the quality was poor. You can also get it in Bahia Solano and El Valle, be careful who you ask though, the guys at the hostel in El Valle can help you out, myself, I brought some with me from Medellin without any problems.
Different areas: The pacific coast of Colombia is very long and there's small towns scattered all along it, I hit up two different areas, which I'll refer to as the Lower Coast and Upper coast (although both are kind of in the middle).
Lower Coast: This is the area down by Cali, which you'll likely pass through to get to the coast, you'll then arrive in the city of Buenaventura, from there you catch a boat (called a lancha) to Juanchaco and from there a tractor pulling a wagon onto Ladrilleros.
Getting there: I took a bus from Cali to Buenaventura, it takes about 2.5-4 hours, depending on road conditions, which can vary, the cost is 23,000 Pesos for the "express bus", you can find the Buenaventura bound buses on the second floor of the Cali bus terminal. The cost of the lancha to Juanchaco is 55,000 pesos for a return ticket (don't lose it!), they leave everyday from about 8am until 4pm, it take about 1-1.5 hours depending on the water, which can be rough. The cost of the wagon ride was cheap, about 5000 pesos and takes about half an hour.
Buenaventura: This city is probably the biggest shit hole I've ever been to, its dirty, dangerous and all around fucked up, but I kind of liked it! I arrived here on New Years Eve after partying hard at the feria de Cali, I was looking to relax and chill in Ladrilleros, but I missed the damn boat and ended up staying in Buenaventura. I went out after midnight but it wasn't really popping off, as many of you are aware, NYE is mostly a family night in Colombia. This is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in Colombia and arriving there by bus, you'll see why: there's massive shanty towns all around it and the city doesn't really look normal until you get to the centre, which is still very rough. If its day time, you can safely walk about ten minutes from the bus station to the "zona rosa" area, which is near the port, just ask locals where it is and they'll point you in the right direction. I ended up staying at Hotel Delfines, at 65,000 pesos per night it was a decent deal, the rooms were clean, somewhat comfortable and had AC and WI-FI. The location is perfect and its literally right next to the best bars and clubs in town, I forget most of the names but one was called the Salamadar and another called the Lemon Tree (which is a metal/rock bar). The restaurant I ate at the most is right across from the hotel and is called Lenos y mariscos, great seafood there, there's also an upscale asian fusion place two doors down.
There's also a decent park close to the hotel on the water where families hang out during the day and night, there's about a dozen small make shift bars with plastic tables and chairs to drink at, nothing too classy. Basically you want to stay in the zona rosa and not leave, its about one kilometre long and goes up a hill (past the hotel) that's where all the clubs are, at the other, flat part of the strip are a bunch of pubs and bars to check out. Buenaventura is an important port city and lots of navy and cargo ships pass through there so being a foreigner isn't a big deal, I ran into a couple of Filipino sailors there and saw a couple of groups of Euro looking dudes too. Basically its a typical dirty old port town: lots of drugs, whores and bars to frequent but nothing really too classy.
One thing I will say about Buenaventura though is that there's quite a few cute black girls running around there as the city is about 85% Afro-Colombian, but I wouldn't recommend coming here to game the local women, plenty of hot black ladies in Cali, which is a much nicer, bigger and overall, safer city.
Here's a video I found of Buenaventura, basically the only one I found that depicts the city in a positive light, most of the other ones are about how the city is full of drugs, hookers and violence:
Juanchaco/Ladrilleros: So from Buenaventura you hop on the boat and it takes you out around to the head of the Bay of Malaga to a dirty little fishing town called Juanchaco. You could stay there as there's beaches, hotels, and discos but it isn't very nice, there's garbage all over the roads and most of the buildings are run down. I suggest hopping on one the the wagons that gets towed by a tractor for the 30 minute ride to Ladrilleros, which is quite a bit nicer.
There's a few options for hotels, some are shit but there's a few nice ones, such as the one we checked into, but I forget the name of it. It was overall pretty expensive, I was there with a RVF member and his girl from Cali and we each paid 90,000 per night which included two meals but to my surprise, I didn't get my own room, we all stayed in the same one, there was a queen size bed and a bunk bed. The place was nice though and the rooms were their own self contained cabin style places, decent pool outside and of course the ocean was right beside us, a 2 minute walk down some stairs.
The beach was ok, we only went to the one by our hotel and it was in a nice small little cove, decent sized waves there that may be surfable although I didn't see anyone surfing there. The major downside is that a lot of garbage washes up on the beach with the tides, not something the locals can really prevent but it sucks all the same. In Ladrilleros, there isn't a lot to do or see, there's some nature treks in the jungle and we did a river tour to a decent water fall where you can swim and jump off rocks. We didn't really stay long enough to get a good idea of what the area had to offer, I'm sure there's some good things to do there and nice places to see, especially if you hire a boat and go out in the water to some secluded places. But overall, the place wasn't overly impressive.
Here's a video that will give you a good idea of what Juanchaco/Ladrilleros is like, you'll also see the lancha boat, tractor wagon, beaches and activities offered there:
After two days of chilling there, relaxing and not doing much, we left to go back to Buenaventura. Portofmanteau and his girl went directly back to Cali but I opted to stay in Buenaventura for one more night to check it out, it was a Friday and I hit up a couple of clubs, it was a pretty good time but the clubs aren't great.
Cargo ship to Bahia Solano: One transport option to go from Buenaventura to Bahia Solano is to take a 25 hour cargo ship, there’s beds and they feed you for 150,000, it sounds like a brutal journey but I wanted to do it. The office is a taxi ride away to another port, its super fucking rough up there too, I got to the office but the guy informed me that the next boat wasn’t leaving for three days, it only leaves on Tuesdays. So I left Buenaventura and planned on returning to the boat but my plans changed as I met this cute chick on the bus to Cali and ended up banging her for a week before she had to return home, after that I went back to Medellin with another forum member then flew to Bahia Solano.
Upper coast, Bahia Solano: I booked a flight at a travel agency in Medellin a day before the flight left so paid a lot for it: 520,000 pesos, you should be able to get a return flight for 350-400,000 though if you book in advance, I flew with ADA. The flight left from the Medellin city airport (not the one out in Rio Negro) and was only 45 minutes, its a nice flight and the topography of the Choco region of Colombia is really cool looking as you fly in, very lush, dense jungle as far as the eye can see. As the name suggests, Bahia Solano is a bay and you arrive in the main city, although the entire municipality is called Bahia Solano and as I found out, there’s better places to see there than the main city. The town itself is a lot cleaner and better organized than Juanchaco/Ladrilleros, its also one of the most heavily fortified towns I’ve ever been to, police everywhere and a big military base. There have been problems with guerilla attacks in the past in some of these towns but with the strong military presence, safety is no longer much of an issue there.
I stayed at this hotel: http://hotelbahiayubarta.com/ , at 65,000 it was a good price, the place is new-ish, very clean, good WI-FI (in the lobby only), has a decent pool and the rooms are big with good AC. The down side to the town is that the bay isn’t much of a beach, I don’t think it would be good for swimming at all and the closest one is about a half an hour walk away. I did hit up a waterfall there and it wasn’t very impressive, other than that, I only stayed there to go fishing, which was expensive overall for the poor quality and I didn’t catch much (other times of the year are better). Honestly at that point I was getting pissed off and a bit bummed out by what I had saw of the Pacific coast up to that point, my final destination was a small town called El Valle, which is about a 40 minute taxi ride away from Bahia Solano and usually costs about 15, 000 pesos to get there.
El Valle: I didn’t know much about this place other than that there’s a hostel there called The Hump Back Turtle which is owned by a young American guy. I arrived at the hostel in the early afternoon and was welcomed by Tyler the owner and it turned out that this place was one of the best hostels I ever stayed at and the guy is a fucking legend, probably one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met. I stayed there for three days and it was great, I wish I could have stayed longer, finally I found a place on the Pacific coast that I really liked, you can check out the hostel’s website here.. Again, El Valle is a small fishing town like the other ones I stayed in, its about 95% Afro-Colombian and a 15 minute walk from the hostel, which is located right on the beach. The beach itself is great, very long and very undeveloped, there’s a couple of hotels there but you can barely see them from the beach as they’re surrounded by palm trees and other vegetation. The beach is basically pristine and extends for probably close to two kms from the hostel up to the town, no garbage on it at all and the waves are pretty good. There wasn’t a lot of surfers there except two French guys who had been staying at the hostel and surfing everyday for two months! Tyler also introduced some local kids to surfing (he rents boards from the hostel as well) and some of those kids are pretty good too, but overall, if you’re into surfing, this could be a decent place as you’ll basically have the beach all to yourself.
Tyler The Owner: As I mentioned this guy was super cool and one of the most chill, interesting guys I ever met. He’s from the USA but left ten years ago at the age of twenty to travel and hasn’t been back since, after a four year stint in South Africa, he ended up in Colombia back in 2006 and discovered El Valle back in 08 or 09’ when no tourists went there as there was some recent guerilla activity there. So he bought a nice piece of land on the beach and with some friends built the hostel and by doing so has brought quite a bit of tourist money to the town and employs a few locals. The locals are very appreciative of this and when we went out partying to the local disco on a Saturday night, the guy was basically a mini-celebrity there, lots of people, young and old were coming up to him to buy him drinks and have a chat.
Things to do in El Valle: There’s actually quite a few things to do there besides chilling on the beach and it can all be organized by Tyler, I went fishing there and it was really fun (and a lot cheaper than Bahia Solano), there’s also jungle hiking tours, indigenous village tours, surfing, whale watching, turtle sanctuary and/or chilling in the town. The hostel has a kitchen and you can also eat at little restaurants (in people’s houses) in the town, the locals are super nice and since there’s not a lot of tourists passing though, they are quite appreciative of the tourists that do come. Safety isn’t too much of an issue, although you’ll see lots of people walking around with machetes, it may be a good idea to walk home with a friend or in a group if you party in the town at night.
Best time to go: Depending on what you're looking to do, different times of the year are better than others, during my time on the coast (early and mid-January) there wasn't any rain, it was dry and sunny, perfect weather for me, but at other times of the year it can be quite wet there and rain for days, or weeks on end. The best time of the year for sport fishing is in May and June while the best time of the year to see tons of hump back whales and turtles in June to September.
Here's a video of The Humpback Turtle hostel that'll give you an idea of what to expect, there's other hotel options along the beach too, some private cabanas in the 150,000-200,000 peso range:
Summary: Overall I had a pretty good time on the Pacific coast and was glad to see this relatively undiscovered part of Colombia. I wouldn't recommend going to Juanchaco/Ladrilleros unless you're already in Cali and want to chill at the beach for a couple of days to get away from the city, its close enough and fairly cheap (except hotels). I would definitely recommend checking out Bahia Solano and especially El Valle for at least five days, I wish that I had stayed longer. I plan on returning to El Valle in the summer (probably August) to do more fishing and whale watching, I've also got my eye on a piece of land out there but we'll see what happens with that.
Bonus data sheet: Just before arriving in Buenaventura, there's another small Afro-Colombian town called San Cipriano that a lot of Caleno people will recommend going to. I spent a couple of days there two years ago and dropped a data sheet on it, my experience there wasn't great, I'd recommend heading to Juanchaco/Ladrilleros instead: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-11...n+cipriano
Also, there's another Afro-Colombian city that I wanted to check out but for logistical reasons I couldn't, but plan to do so next time I come back. Its called Quibdo and its the biggest city in the Choco department of Colombia, I'll be sure to drop a data sheet or update this one after I visit there.
Overview: As many of you know, Colombia is the only country in South America which has coasts on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans but most travellers only go to the Atlantic coast to enjoy the Caribbean beaches up there. There are good reasons for this as the Pacific coast is very undeveloped in comparison to the Atlantic coast, there isn't a lot of tourism related infrastructure there, its quite poor and it isn't as easily accessible as the other coast. That being said, I had a decent time there and will likely return in the future to partake in some of the tourist activities that the coast is known for, mostly whale watching and sport fishing.
The People: The Pacific coast and especially in the small towns I visited is the heart of Afro-Colombia, I don't know a lot about the history but basically Colombia had slavery and a lot of the black people ended up on the Pacific coast, some of these towns were founded by escaped slaves who settled among native tribes. You'll also see a few Natives running around but these towns are basically all black. The people are really nice and many of them live off the land, fishing by hand in small kayak or pirogue style boats, planting gardens and raising chickens and pigs. They also hunt small animals too and apparently the roasted armadillo is pretty good, although I didn't try it.
Game/girls: The small towns aren't good for picking up the local women, like any small town in the world, everyone knows everyone so the local ladies aren't too keen on hooking up with random gringo travellers, especially with their machete wielding fathers, brothers and cousins being around. There is however an influx of local girls who come back home from the cities during the Christmas holidays and they may be down but I didn't sense it. There's a few Colombian tourists around but it seemed to be mostly couples, I only saw gringas in El Valle and they didn't look too good. Your best bet would be to pick up a girl in Cali, Buenaventura or Medellin to take to the small coastal towns.
Food/drink: Being on the coast, seafood is very common here as you can imagine and I loved it, there's so many options, especially in Bueanventura, I highly recommend eating the "cazeula de camarones" its similar to a stew full of shrimp. In the small towns, you can meet fishermen who bring in their daily catch and buy from them, I ate a lot of yellow fin tuna and mahi-mahi there. As in most other parts of Colombia, the standard drinks are rum, arguadiente and beer but on the Pacific coast they brew this strong alcohol from sugar cane called viche or biche, be careful with this stuff, its cheap but will get you hammered, its basically moon shine.
Reefer situation: You can get quality bud in Buenventura, but I forgot to before I left to Ladrilleros, I managed to score some out there but the quality was poor. You can also get it in Bahia Solano and El Valle, be careful who you ask though, the guys at the hostel in El Valle can help you out, myself, I brought some with me from Medellin without any problems.
Different areas: The pacific coast of Colombia is very long and there's small towns scattered all along it, I hit up two different areas, which I'll refer to as the Lower Coast and Upper coast (although both are kind of in the middle).
Lower Coast: This is the area down by Cali, which you'll likely pass through to get to the coast, you'll then arrive in the city of Buenaventura, from there you catch a boat (called a lancha) to Juanchaco and from there a tractor pulling a wagon onto Ladrilleros.
Getting there: I took a bus from Cali to Buenaventura, it takes about 2.5-4 hours, depending on road conditions, which can vary, the cost is 23,000 Pesos for the "express bus", you can find the Buenaventura bound buses on the second floor of the Cali bus terminal. The cost of the lancha to Juanchaco is 55,000 pesos for a return ticket (don't lose it!), they leave everyday from about 8am until 4pm, it take about 1-1.5 hours depending on the water, which can be rough. The cost of the wagon ride was cheap, about 5000 pesos and takes about half an hour.
Buenaventura: This city is probably the biggest shit hole I've ever been to, its dirty, dangerous and all around fucked up, but I kind of liked it! I arrived here on New Years Eve after partying hard at the feria de Cali, I was looking to relax and chill in Ladrilleros, but I missed the damn boat and ended up staying in Buenaventura. I went out after midnight but it wasn't really popping off, as many of you are aware, NYE is mostly a family night in Colombia. This is considered to be one of the most dangerous cities in Colombia and arriving there by bus, you'll see why: there's massive shanty towns all around it and the city doesn't really look normal until you get to the centre, which is still very rough. If its day time, you can safely walk about ten minutes from the bus station to the "zona rosa" area, which is near the port, just ask locals where it is and they'll point you in the right direction. I ended up staying at Hotel Delfines, at 65,000 pesos per night it was a decent deal, the rooms were clean, somewhat comfortable and had AC and WI-FI. The location is perfect and its literally right next to the best bars and clubs in town, I forget most of the names but one was called the Salamadar and another called the Lemon Tree (which is a metal/rock bar). The restaurant I ate at the most is right across from the hotel and is called Lenos y mariscos, great seafood there, there's also an upscale asian fusion place two doors down.
There's also a decent park close to the hotel on the water where families hang out during the day and night, there's about a dozen small make shift bars with plastic tables and chairs to drink at, nothing too classy. Basically you want to stay in the zona rosa and not leave, its about one kilometre long and goes up a hill (past the hotel) that's where all the clubs are, at the other, flat part of the strip are a bunch of pubs and bars to check out. Buenaventura is an important port city and lots of navy and cargo ships pass through there so being a foreigner isn't a big deal, I ran into a couple of Filipino sailors there and saw a couple of groups of Euro looking dudes too. Basically its a typical dirty old port town: lots of drugs, whores and bars to frequent but nothing really too classy.
One thing I will say about Buenaventura though is that there's quite a few cute black girls running around there as the city is about 85% Afro-Colombian, but I wouldn't recommend coming here to game the local women, plenty of hot black ladies in Cali, which is a much nicer, bigger and overall, safer city.
Here's a video I found of Buenaventura, basically the only one I found that depicts the city in a positive light, most of the other ones are about how the city is full of drugs, hookers and violence:
Juanchaco/Ladrilleros: So from Buenaventura you hop on the boat and it takes you out around to the head of the Bay of Malaga to a dirty little fishing town called Juanchaco. You could stay there as there's beaches, hotels, and discos but it isn't very nice, there's garbage all over the roads and most of the buildings are run down. I suggest hopping on one the the wagons that gets towed by a tractor for the 30 minute ride to Ladrilleros, which is quite a bit nicer.
There's a few options for hotels, some are shit but there's a few nice ones, such as the one we checked into, but I forget the name of it. It was overall pretty expensive, I was there with a RVF member and his girl from Cali and we each paid 90,000 per night which included two meals but to my surprise, I didn't get my own room, we all stayed in the same one, there was a queen size bed and a bunk bed. The place was nice though and the rooms were their own self contained cabin style places, decent pool outside and of course the ocean was right beside us, a 2 minute walk down some stairs.
The beach was ok, we only went to the one by our hotel and it was in a nice small little cove, decent sized waves there that may be surfable although I didn't see anyone surfing there. The major downside is that a lot of garbage washes up on the beach with the tides, not something the locals can really prevent but it sucks all the same. In Ladrilleros, there isn't a lot to do or see, there's some nature treks in the jungle and we did a river tour to a decent water fall where you can swim and jump off rocks. We didn't really stay long enough to get a good idea of what the area had to offer, I'm sure there's some good things to do there and nice places to see, especially if you hire a boat and go out in the water to some secluded places. But overall, the place wasn't overly impressive.
Here's a video that will give you a good idea of what Juanchaco/Ladrilleros is like, you'll also see the lancha boat, tractor wagon, beaches and activities offered there:
After two days of chilling there, relaxing and not doing much, we left to go back to Buenaventura. Portofmanteau and his girl went directly back to Cali but I opted to stay in Buenaventura for one more night to check it out, it was a Friday and I hit up a couple of clubs, it was a pretty good time but the clubs aren't great.
Cargo ship to Bahia Solano: One transport option to go from Buenaventura to Bahia Solano is to take a 25 hour cargo ship, there’s beds and they feed you for 150,000, it sounds like a brutal journey but I wanted to do it. The office is a taxi ride away to another port, its super fucking rough up there too, I got to the office but the guy informed me that the next boat wasn’t leaving for three days, it only leaves on Tuesdays. So I left Buenaventura and planned on returning to the boat but my plans changed as I met this cute chick on the bus to Cali and ended up banging her for a week before she had to return home, after that I went back to Medellin with another forum member then flew to Bahia Solano.
Upper coast, Bahia Solano: I booked a flight at a travel agency in Medellin a day before the flight left so paid a lot for it: 520,000 pesos, you should be able to get a return flight for 350-400,000 though if you book in advance, I flew with ADA. The flight left from the Medellin city airport (not the one out in Rio Negro) and was only 45 minutes, its a nice flight and the topography of the Choco region of Colombia is really cool looking as you fly in, very lush, dense jungle as far as the eye can see. As the name suggests, Bahia Solano is a bay and you arrive in the main city, although the entire municipality is called Bahia Solano and as I found out, there’s better places to see there than the main city. The town itself is a lot cleaner and better organized than Juanchaco/Ladrilleros, its also one of the most heavily fortified towns I’ve ever been to, police everywhere and a big military base. There have been problems with guerilla attacks in the past in some of these towns but with the strong military presence, safety is no longer much of an issue there.
I stayed at this hotel: http://hotelbahiayubarta.com/ , at 65,000 it was a good price, the place is new-ish, very clean, good WI-FI (in the lobby only), has a decent pool and the rooms are big with good AC. The down side to the town is that the bay isn’t much of a beach, I don’t think it would be good for swimming at all and the closest one is about a half an hour walk away. I did hit up a waterfall there and it wasn’t very impressive, other than that, I only stayed there to go fishing, which was expensive overall for the poor quality and I didn’t catch much (other times of the year are better). Honestly at that point I was getting pissed off and a bit bummed out by what I had saw of the Pacific coast up to that point, my final destination was a small town called El Valle, which is about a 40 minute taxi ride away from Bahia Solano and usually costs about 15, 000 pesos to get there.
El Valle: I didn’t know much about this place other than that there’s a hostel there called The Hump Back Turtle which is owned by a young American guy. I arrived at the hostel in the early afternoon and was welcomed by Tyler the owner and it turned out that this place was one of the best hostels I ever stayed at and the guy is a fucking legend, probably one of the coolest dudes I’ve ever met. I stayed there for three days and it was great, I wish I could have stayed longer, finally I found a place on the Pacific coast that I really liked, you can check out the hostel’s website here.. Again, El Valle is a small fishing town like the other ones I stayed in, its about 95% Afro-Colombian and a 15 minute walk from the hostel, which is located right on the beach. The beach itself is great, very long and very undeveloped, there’s a couple of hotels there but you can barely see them from the beach as they’re surrounded by palm trees and other vegetation. The beach is basically pristine and extends for probably close to two kms from the hostel up to the town, no garbage on it at all and the waves are pretty good. There wasn’t a lot of surfers there except two French guys who had been staying at the hostel and surfing everyday for two months! Tyler also introduced some local kids to surfing (he rents boards from the hostel as well) and some of those kids are pretty good too, but overall, if you’re into surfing, this could be a decent place as you’ll basically have the beach all to yourself.
Tyler The Owner: As I mentioned this guy was super cool and one of the most chill, interesting guys I ever met. He’s from the USA but left ten years ago at the age of twenty to travel and hasn’t been back since, after a four year stint in South Africa, he ended up in Colombia back in 2006 and discovered El Valle back in 08 or 09’ when no tourists went there as there was some recent guerilla activity there. So he bought a nice piece of land on the beach and with some friends built the hostel and by doing so has brought quite a bit of tourist money to the town and employs a few locals. The locals are very appreciative of this and when we went out partying to the local disco on a Saturday night, the guy was basically a mini-celebrity there, lots of people, young and old were coming up to him to buy him drinks and have a chat.
Things to do in El Valle: There’s actually quite a few things to do there besides chilling on the beach and it can all be organized by Tyler, I went fishing there and it was really fun (and a lot cheaper than Bahia Solano), there’s also jungle hiking tours, indigenous village tours, surfing, whale watching, turtle sanctuary and/or chilling in the town. The hostel has a kitchen and you can also eat at little restaurants (in people’s houses) in the town, the locals are super nice and since there’s not a lot of tourists passing though, they are quite appreciative of the tourists that do come. Safety isn’t too much of an issue, although you’ll see lots of people walking around with machetes, it may be a good idea to walk home with a friend or in a group if you party in the town at night.
Best time to go: Depending on what you're looking to do, different times of the year are better than others, during my time on the coast (early and mid-January) there wasn't any rain, it was dry and sunny, perfect weather for me, but at other times of the year it can be quite wet there and rain for days, or weeks on end. The best time of the year for sport fishing is in May and June while the best time of the year to see tons of hump back whales and turtles in June to September.
Here's a video of The Humpback Turtle hostel that'll give you an idea of what to expect, there's other hotel options along the beach too, some private cabanas in the 150,000-200,000 peso range:
Summary: Overall I had a pretty good time on the Pacific coast and was glad to see this relatively undiscovered part of Colombia. I wouldn't recommend going to Juanchaco/Ladrilleros unless you're already in Cali and want to chill at the beach for a couple of days to get away from the city, its close enough and fairly cheap (except hotels). I would definitely recommend checking out Bahia Solano and especially El Valle for at least five days, I wish that I had stayed longer. I plan on returning to El Valle in the summer (probably August) to do more fishing and whale watching, I've also got my eye on a piece of land out there but we'll see what happens with that.
Bonus data sheet: Just before arriving in Buenaventura, there's another small Afro-Colombian town called San Cipriano that a lot of Caleno people will recommend going to. I spent a couple of days there two years ago and dropped a data sheet on it, my experience there wasn't great, I'd recommend heading to Juanchaco/Ladrilleros instead: http://www.rooshvforum.network/thread-11...n+cipriano
Also, there's another Afro-Colombian city that I wanted to check out but for logistical reasons I couldn't, but plan to do so next time I come back. Its called Quibdo and its the biggest city in the Choco department of Colombia, I'll be sure to drop a data sheet or update this one after I visit there.
