[Visited: October 2022]
- Oh yes, the streets of the old town of Cartagena are pretty, but also overcrowded and too touristy. Ever since my first visit to the north Colombian city, I have found it to be the least interesting Colombian place. When my niece joins me, we decide to explore a mangrove forest a little north of the city. We charter a car to drop us off. To our surprise, when the driver gets into the backstreets of La Boquilla, he confesses he has never been here. He looks appalled by what he sees: unpaved streets, rubbish, dilapidated houses and poor people. He knows I have travelled a lot, and asks me if I have ever seen such poor people. Unfortunately, yes, absolutely - and worse. We get off at the northern end of the fishing village. A local turns up immediately and tries to sell us a mangrove tour, flashing his ID in our face. I see my niece has learned to travel: she sends him away in a friendly manner, because she first wants to talk to someone in an agency around the corner.
- There, we soon arrange a tour into the mangrove area. Our boatman takes us to a small canoe, and punts us across the water. He is born here, and is happy to share all his knowledge about the area. He explains about the three different types of mangroves, white, black and red, and tells us that most birds have gone out for the day. It is clear we have not arrived at the best time to see them. We still see quite a few different birds: egrets, herons, and several others we have never seen before. Our guide points out small crabs climbing the slender mangrove stems. Mangroves live at the border between saline and fresh water, and survive at low and high tides. They also have a four times higher propensity to process carbon than other trees and are seen as a factor that could help fight climate change. Unfortunately, coastal areas are often developed, and mangroves suffer as a result. The one we are punting through is actually one of the biggest of the world.
- After gliding through the quiet and shallow waters of the mangrove forest, our guide steers our canoe into a system of tunnels. The Tunnel of Friendship, Luck and Love - the last one being the longest. We stop regularly to see oysters and crabs, and some beautiful birds in the maze of branches of the mangroves. We then enter a large lake, the Lake of Juan Polo. Our guide tells us the story of the fisherman who was found dead here in his small canoe, after getting a heart attack. His name lives on in the lake. We see several crab traps that our guide fishes out of the water to show. Back on the mainland, we walk to the beach where we have a freshly squeezed juice. The skyline of Cartagena is visible in the distance, and it makes us realize the fragility of the ecosystem here, all its tiny creatures, and the all-important mangroves. We can only hope they will be able to stave off the effects of the nearby sprawling city. The beach turns out to be used as a road, and when we take one of the buses heading to Cartagena, we start by driving south on it. After some twists and turns in La Boquilla, we are back in the bustle of Cartagena before we know it.
