Nuquí - Paradise re-visited (August 5 - August 7)

It´s very early in the morning when the alarm rings, or better said late at night. But the reason for getting up so early (at 4 am) is so worth it. After four years I finally return to my piece of paradise, the Colombian Pacific coast. It´s a short flight from Medellín´s inner city airport with spectacular views of the Cordillera Occidental which rises sharply almost immediately after take-off.  The western slopes and everything beyond is covered by thick clouds. Only moments before the landing does the dark green coastal plain of Nuquí appear. It´s tipping with rain and it doesn´t look like it´s going to ease off soon. Visibility next to zero. It´s about 45 minutes on the boat before I reach one of my favourite places on earth – El Cantil Eco Lodge. 

I´m soaking wet and don´t mind at all. I´m shown to my bungalow, “Delfín” and curl up in the hammock right away. 

View from hammock

When I´m offered breakfast, a very pleasant surprise is waiting for me in the shape of Doña Blanca, part of the owner family whom I´ve known since my first stay in 2011. We pass the next hours talking while having a long stroll at the endless beach. It has finally stopped raining. And very slowly the rain makes room for sun. Soon it feels like a steam bath.

 

After lunch (El Cantil is praised by the Lonely Planet and National Geographic as one of the best places to eat in Colombia and I do not object) I wander down to the beach and have a soak in the luke-warm waters of the Golfo de Tribugá. 

At 3pm, Pozo, the administrator whom I´ve also known for 5 years, takes us to see the whales. After a while of scanning the ocean we finally see a whale and then it jumps. There is no sight like a huge whale shooting out of the water and making a spin before hitting the surface in a gigantic splash!  And we are lucky enough to see it more than once. What a sighting! 

We return happy and thrilled by the show we have just witnessed. After the shower and just before dinner the sky turns an incredible shade of orange. Spectacular.

 

Dinner is again out of this world and the evening is spent chatting with Blanca and some other guests. When everybody heads for their bungalows I follow suit and have a rest in the hammock. The sounds of the ocean and the jungle just behind the cabin quickly send me to sleep and when I wake up I decide to go to bed. I got up early after all! I sleep well despite waking up two or three times. The sounds of nature are better than any sleeping pill! It has started to pour with rain again, which only adds to the other sounds.

In the morning it is still raining cats and dogs and I decide to give the walk to the nearby village of Termales a miss and rather read in the hammock after breakfast. Which is precisely what I do after seeing off Blanca, who is returning to Medellín. It keeps raining all morning, sometimes hard and sometimes only a light drizzle. Right after (yet another delicious) lunch it finally stops (well, pauses) and I have a stroll at the beach until it´s time for another whale-watching trip. 

This time it´s raining so hard that I decide with a heave heart to leave my cameras in the cabin. It takes a long while before we spot the first whales in the very rough sea and the rain (which eventually eases off) but from then on it´s amazing. We see no jumps from up close but we see loads and loads of humpbacks of all sizes from very, very close, hear them blow. See the tails and their heads and eyes. It´s absolutely mind-blowing! And I´ve got no camera on me… Thrilled we arrive back at the lodge and get ready for dinner, which is followed by many conversations. A German couple accompanies me into the jungle right next to the lodge where they had discovered that some rotting plants were glowing in the dark. Once you switch off your flashlight you are surrounded by eerie fluorescent shapes. The rest of the evening I spend reading in the hammock until it´s time to go to bed. In the morning I pack my few things, have breakfast and then it´s time to leave. Why oh why didn´t I book more nights?!?!? I´m never prepared to leave El Cantil… Despite the rain… But the rain stops once we are on board and it´s a smooth ride to Nuquí. After the rustic check-in (incl. being publicly weighed together with your carry-on) I´ve got time to wander around the village and buy a few souvenirs, then we board the Czechoslovakian aircraft. 

The flight is calm and  this time I can see all the way to Medellín. The approach is absolutely stunning but, so I´ve been told, not for the faint-hearted. In addition to high mountains wherever you look and a sprawling metropolis with towering skyscrapers it also gets quite bumpy. But we land without any problem (that I know of) and a few moments later I´m in the cab that takes me to the hotel.