SEVENSEAS Marine Conservation & Travel December 2015 Issue 7 | Page 40

The trip to Bahia Malaga begins by landing at the international airport in the city of Cali, a bustling city of salsa dancing and sugar cane, surrounded by the steep green peaks of the Cordillera Occidental and Cordillera Central (two of the three northernmost branches of the Andes). From Cali you can travel over land to reach Buenaventura, Colombia’s most important port city and one of only two places on the entire Pacific Coast where a roach reaches the sea. The three-hour trip climbs up the Cordillera Occidental and then plunges down into the coastal rainforest, crossing over bridges and through tunnels recently built to support the heavy port traffic. Arriving in Buenaventura the shantytowns spread down into the mangroves on both sides of the road before it crosses over the bridge to the small island that is the economic, administrative, and transportation hub of the city. Here you find the Muelle Turisico (tourist wharf), the launch spot for boats serving the communities north and south of the city as well as the offshore islands, Gorgona and Malpelo. As the boats hurdle out through the bay, passengers enter the remote and rather wild expanses that make up the majority of the coastal Colombian Pacific, accessible only by boat and in many places still largely governed by centuries old traditions, where the predominantly Afro-Colombian communities live off fishing, agriculture, logging – and increasingly tourism.

After an hour bouncing over waves, past steep seaside cliffs and empty beaches exposed only at low tide, passengers arrive in Juanchaco, portal to the communities and natural wonders of Bahia Malaga. This tectonic estuary, characterized by a mix of jungle-clad cliffs, lowland mangroves, and wide mud flats, is part of a complex of protected areas that includes terrestrial conservation zones created by the local communities and the national marine protected area established by the national parks in 2010. Due to its mix of freshwater,

Bahia Malaga, Colombia

View from the docks in La Plata

The beach in Juanchaco, from the Tourist Wharf

Sunset in Ladrilleros

By Karly Marie Miller

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