Trigana and San Francisco

Located by the Caribbean Sea, close to the border between Columbia and Panama, the bay of Trigana is also an entry door to the virgin forest of Darien, so dense that it still is an almost impassable natural border separating the 2 Americas. It is still impossible to join Alaska to Patagonia only because of that area, surely also a will from the USA, but it is better for everyone…and especially nature! Small fishing and farming villages, no roads, tracks only, no cars, donkeys, horses, bikes, no cows, zebus, no bus, boats…. The jungle, filled with wildlife, screaming monkeys, capuchins, sloths, ants, untouchable small coloured frogs, big poisonous snakes, caimans, koatis, toucans, parrots, other birds of all colours…the jungle comes from the mountain and unrolls to the sea. Crystalline waters filled with colourful fish despite the absence of coral, slowly eating up the beach, taking down pine trees, moving around dead trees with psychedelic shapes…and welcoming numerous green turtles swimming in the bay, rich in seagrass they like.

This little paradise is only accessible after a 1h20 boat trip from Turbo, or 40min from Necocli. Here black and metis people live alongside in the villages, the Indians in the forest, and some white people spread willingly a bit everywhere. For the boat, between December and April, dry season, waters can be quite agitated (less agitated than from Trigana to Capurgana, where we exit the golf and enter open sea); you should also favour Necocli over Turbo as a starting point, the ride being parallel to the waves is much more pleasant, on top of being only half the distance, so half the time.

Trigana, still mosty unknown despite its potential, is where our hearts fell for in Columbia. To start with, we left France to come live here; but the desire to have a child was stronger, so we moved closer to Medellin. But we built a hostel there, the Treegana Hostal, with natural pools, cabins and tree houses, outside oven to prepare bread, pizzas, lasagnas and cakes for our guests. At the moment we have electricity 8hrs a day, from 3 to 11pm o’clock during the week, and from 4pm to midnight on weekends.

Trigana is a good mix of sea / jungle, or salt water / fresh water. Here we can go for a walk in the jungle to go for a swim and observe the varied wildlife, especially in the natural reserves of Sasardi and El Bembe, close by our hostel. We can also go fishing by boat with the locals; there are lots of nice fish to catch in the sea. We can go snorkelling and possibly spear fishing along the rocky coast and observe the sub-marine wildlife. But we can as well simply lay there and enjoy the perfect setting, alone in the world, with no notion of time, disconnect and get back to who we are…

In San Francisco, 40min walk south of Trigana along the sea side; we can go for a walk in the forest of the giants or go for a swim under waterfalls and natural pools, while observing the wildlife. We can also go have a look at the “Domo”: Myriam, Rodriguo and their kids built their own paper house around a metallic structure of geodesic shape. They try to be self-sufficient, producing equipment, energy, crafts, clothes… They welcome
whoever wants to come for a visit, take the time to have a chat and get to know more about their visitors. We also bump into people building their houses in the middle of nowhere, they come looking for peace and quiet, the forest, nature, the freedom to put your time into activities looked down upon in the modern world…make your own chocolate or liquors, live in harmony with nature, take the time…Far away from the consumer society and its infernal pace. In 2019, a road was built to get to Titumate, this small village is now linked to the network of tracks between Titumate, Balboa, Gilgal, Santa Maria de Darien and Unguia. This network of tracks is not linked to the rest of Columbia, mainly because of the huge Rio Atrato which has no bridges to cross it. There are old 4 wheel drives, trucks and a few more motorbikes, but also horses and carts.