Sapzurro Colombia is one of those small, off the beaten path
Colombian towns. Literally.
You used to be able to fly into the neighboring
town of Capurgana, but now the airport is shut down and its overgrown runway is
being used to graze the only hard working thing in Colombia - donkeys...but that’s’
a whole other story. So, the only way to get there is by boat or by foot.
Most of the southeast coast of Colombia is very
mountainous with rocky shores. With the Darian mountains as your
backdrop, this part of Colombia has a more northern feel, for me anyway.
Some of the bays are small with narrow entrances, so coming into them during
the windy season when the seas are big can be a bit hectic. We have had
our full of uncomfortable sailing so we try to select our cruising for optimal
comfort. In August, the sea state is down a bit from the normal 3-4
meters during the windy season, so we thought it would be a good time to
explore this area.
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| Stern tied to tree |
Most folks anchor just inside of the bay to port
where you use the Mediterranean Mooring technique, meaning you anchor as usual
then tie a stern line to shore, in this case, to a palm tree. This allows your bow to comfortably accept the
one to three foot swells that gently make their way into the anchorage. You are welcome to just anchor and swing about
but my guess is that you will get a bit peeved with the occasional bracing of
things. Luckily, Cathy and I had gotten
a great deal on a big spool of one inch Samson Braid (we paid about $0.15 a foot
from a shady guy, and no, we won’t tell you more on that one!) It has come in quite handy, and we used about
half of it to tie to the palm tree that was 250 feet from the stern.
As we came ashore, an older lady comes over. It is embarrassing that even after all this
time our Spanish is still on the Kindergarten level. But what we do get out of the conversation
is which is the best tree to tie to and we think she also wants clothes. With
Joana squared away, we gather
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| Lush jungle backdrop |
some old t-shirts and shorts to give to the lady
and dingy them in. She sort of gives us a funny look says “is that it?” We say “uh, yeah” and hand over the small bag
of clothes. We are a bit turned off,
thinking one can never give enough.
Grumbling, we head back to the boat. We sit back surrounded by beautiful lush
green mountains
with a cocktail in hand and enjoyed the evening sounds
of howler monkeys, parrots, and local Colombian music.
The morning brought that great deep earth smell a
sailor misses at times.
Most of the local town docks along the coast are
just dilapidated wood or bamboo but Sapzurro has a nice concrete peer, with the
Colombian navy there to greet you with a smiling face and a “Buenos dias”. As
we found out you, must take a fifteen minute launcha ride to Capurgana to stamp
your passport. There are no port
captains this far south so you are only able to clear yourself in and wait to
clear the boat in Cartagena. If the sea state is up, the trip to
Capurgana can be quite an entertaining ride.
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| Niko meets pig |
As for Sapzurro, there are cute little paved streets,
lots of restaurants and a few bars. Most of the bars and restaurants are the
locals’ houses, but don't be put off by this, as you will find some of the best
food and drink this way.
With
wild chickens and pigs running freely (Niko found out which ones not to mess
with) Sapzurro has all the charms of a great South American beach town.
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| Going to La Miel |
We asked one of the Colombian military where the trial
is to La Miel, which is on the Panama side.
He was happy to be able to
practice his English as he lead us to the trail head, telling us how much he
loved Niko. We made our way up the
mountain, ok, “hill”. Even if it was just
a hill, we were spent.
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| Passport Check |
There were two palm huts at the top, one Colombian
and the other Panamanian. What a site! AK47’s leaning up against the bamboo and a
guard reading a People magazine. We walk
up, hand over our passports, and with ease we are on our way down the mountain
to Panama. What we find is a great beach and a duty free
store. Our bags were a bit heavier on the hike back with a lot of clanking to
be heard. The guards didn't even bother with us this time around. My guess is the 35 minute resting period last
time due to the “mountain” gave us enough time to be remembered.
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| Rest time at the top |
On our way back, the evening showers decided to grace us. As
we were enjoying the cool down we failed to realize that the trail had now become
a river. I swear I saw a family of
working ants rafting down the hill on a large leaf. It became the most challenging slip and slide
ever.
Muddy and
exhausted, we decided our next trip to La Miel would be by dingy.
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| Birthday hike |
The next
morning was my birthday so we planned a day of non-stop adventure.
We started with a hike along
the coast to the next bay. The views were absolutely beautiful overlooking the
ocean. With jagged rocks below and
few spots where there seemed to be no path at all, the trail is for sure not
for the weak of heart. We trudged along,
sometimes having to white-knuckle a thin rope tied to some questionable roots. We were feeling proud that we made it down
with no incident, when out of the woods up trots at least a 76 year old
little Colombian man, scampering up the ledge without even a grab to the rope. With that, we humbly dusted ourselves off and kept
on trucking. As we continued, we found
out there were quite a few folks living way out here…maybe due to the
beautiful views, and prime drug running territory. It’s okay - they say the FARC (aka bad
people) haven’t been here since 1995, but we admit it’s hard not to think about
if there is still FARC watching you.
We make our way back, stopping at the local waterfall,
a beautiful spot to shower off after a long hike. As we walk back to town, we pass by the back
of the old lady’s house who we met when we first got here. We could hear a laundry machine going and lots
of clean cloths hanging. Cath turns to me and at the same moment we both
realize that the lady had been asking if we had any clothes that needed washing. We weren't sure but we were feeling a bit
sheepish.
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| Beer Time! |
We thought it best to make our way to town and
relax with a cold beer outside a little blue house. The owner had given us lawn chairs with the
legs cut. Now sporting the low
rider style, we cracked our Aguilas and enjoyed the local happenings on the
dock. The trading boats were in, so time
for the locals to shop. After a while,
we decided to go to the local restaurant for a birthday dinner. We discovered that a bottle of wine must be a
new thing for them since Cath had to demonstrate how to use a corkscrew. Don’t
let that deter you from eating out as we had the best fried red snapper ever.
The next morning, coffee was accompanied by delightful
jungle sounds and yes, as we feared, the local laundry lady was waving at us
from the beach. Even if we could we
would have been too ashamed to tell her our story, so we swallowed our pride
and paid our 1900 pesos (equivalent to $ 1.90). We headed back to Joana to
finish our coffee and listened to the laundry lady shuffle her basket together
and truck down the path with purpose, yelling “venga, venga” to her son who was stumbling at her heels
trying ever so hard to keep her pace.
And as for our second hand clothes? Well,
they are clean and ready for the next in need.
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Beach time
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Keeping the beach under control
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Launcha to Capurgana
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Checking out the surf
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Jungle hike (in flip flops)
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Hiking in the rain
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Love duty-free
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More wildlife
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On some occasions, it is impossible for the broken part to
be removed. No worries – Joana is a very
large steel boat and can handle other boats rafting up to us. Usually we wait for a day without much wind
and a calm anchorage and then invite the other boat to come alongside and tie
to us. With the other sailors looking on
in awe, Maria goes about welding on their boat, whether it be on the deck or
aloft in the rigging. 
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