Treegana Hostal, Hostel in Trigana

Treegana Hostal, Hostel in Trigana. This place is like our little baby that we are trying to build and expend, at the same time as making prettier; with the goal to create tourism that would be eco-friendly. We are not so much attracted by the bad tourism practised by beaches in general. Trigana is still very much unknown to the public, and only alive during holiday season (December/January, Easter week, June, and the 18 3-days-weekends that Colombia has), the rest of the time it is pretty quiet and empty…so it is not easy to live from a business the whole year round there (high frequency of tourists only 30% of the year). To know more about Trigana, have a look though “suggested destinations” and then “Choco Caribeno”. Our hostel is located in a gorgeous green patch, bordered by the Sardi River, 20min walk away from the beach. It is the last house in caserio of Sardi, on the other side of the river, at the entry of Sasardi natural reserve, the one from El Bembe (having 2 natural reserves right by the side of our house ensures us to always see plenty of wildlife). The wildlife is coming for our fruit trees: lemons, zapotes, guanabana, mangoes, 7 flavours fruit, arazo, borojo, plantain bananas (the ones you eat cooked up, green or ripped but cooked), murapo bananas ( small sweet bananas), giant avocados…and maybe you will be here when all the fruits are ready. We also built an ecogarden in June 2019 there. In the casario of Sardi we have lots of little grocery shops, and we have to keep in mind that if we buy from them, we contribute to help them and their families live better, as they have really low incomes. Note: nearly all the families living in Sardi are religious, so they don’t sell alcohol or tobacco, you have to buy that by the beach or in our hostel… Behind the kitchen, we have a petanque/molki area lit by night, a darts game, and numerous games to keep you entertained (parkes, chess, dominos, uno, tarot, playing cards…). The main house has 4 bedrooms, with beds from 2 to 5 persons counting 120cm wide beds for 2 people, very common in Colombia. There is a communal bathroom with a shower, a sink to do your laundry, toilets with water and try toilets, an outside shower (handy when we get back from the beach). We just built another structure behind the kitchen with another bathroom and one room reserved for the person working there. We also built a tree-house 7m high up in a tree, it is just above the river, and there always are iguanas and toucans in that tree, sometimes some aras also come for the fruits. The tree-house has its own private bathroom with a shower inside a tree trunk, and dry toilets for ecological and practical reasons. The bedroom has a 140cm wide bed, and a terrace with a hammock, a table and chairs. There is also a communal kitchen/bar with a freezer, a fridge, and water filters; and an outside kitchen (for those who booked with freezer), situated next to the ‘frog wood oven’ for those who want to cook their own meals. You can use this oven to make bread, pizzas, cakes, lasagnes, or whatever you feel like; it also has a grill for BBQs on the side. We have 3 solar panels (3x 200W) and a charger (4 batteries of 75A) because we only have 8hrs of electricity a day in Trigana (from 3 to 11pm during the week, and from 4pm to midnight on weekends). Fridges, freezers and TVs are all plugged to it, there are also a few other access point free to use so you can have electricity during the day even out of the restricted hours).

Right next to that, we have 2 natural pools, that means they are constantly filled by water diverted from the river, and when overfull the water runs back to the river…it is renewed water all the time, we don’t need to add any chemicals. The 1st one is 70cm deep; at the moment it is used as an aquarium to our fish (talipias), maybe it will become a children’s pool in the future or just during the busy season. The 2nd pool is 1.20m deep; this one is emptied and cleaned out with a karcher every 3 weeks, to avoid the side to turn green (despite the bottom or side being a bit green sometimes, the water always stays clear). If you keep walking along the river into the Sasardi reserve, you will reach several waterfalls and pools only 25min away. In the future, we would like to set up a small tree-climbing activity a bit higher on our land, with just 5 or 6 pulleys. We would also like to organize some kind of escape game in which you go looking for a treasure in the jungle passing by interesting sites. We also bought 8 helmets, a dozen of safety jackets, and 8 air chambers to go tubing on Rio Kuti and Tanela (starting at Balboa therms, through the Indian reserve along the river). There is also a TV in the common dining area, as well as WIFI internet.

The prices are 30000 pesos per person per night in the house trying not to mix the groups in the 4 bedrooms, the bathroom is shared in all rooms. In the tree house it’s 60000 pesos per person per night with a maximum capacity of 2 people. In the camping area (covered with dedicated bathroom) at the top of the pitch, in tent for 3 maximum with a small foam each and a sheet, it’s 20000 pesos per person per night if you don’t have a tent and 10000 pesos per person per night if you bring your own tent. In hammock it’s 15000 pesos per person per night with our hammocks and 10000 pesos per person per night with your hammock. Breakfast is at 10000 pesos per person, lunch or dinner is at 15000 pesos per person.

This establishment has a RNT (National Registry of Tourism) number 73601.