Tierra Bomba is the island you can see from Cartagena's seafront, and we're on the far side of it, in Bocachica, facing the open sea. People arrive with an idea of what a Caribbean beach club is and we'd rather correct it before you get on the boat than after.
What the beach is actually like
Grey, not white. Our sand is volcanic, so it doesn't look like the postcard sand you'll find out in the Rosario Islands. It's natural and it's clean, and it leads onto a wide open ocean rather than a sheltered lagoon. The sea changes with her mood: some days flat, some days with a real swell on it. If white sand and glassy water are the whole point of your day, the Rosarios are a better call and we'll say so.
What you get instead is horizon. There is nothing between our beach and the open water, which is also why the boat ride out here is calmer than the infamous Rosario Islands crossing.
Hours, and what a day costs
We're open to day visitors from 11am to 6pm. Our restaurant runs from 10am to 11pm and everyone is welcome at dinner.
The day pass with boat transfers both ways starts at $40. That gets you in and gets you across; you then pay for whatever you eat and drink. A sun lounger is separate, from $5 to $30 depending on which one you want. Two flavours: poolside, which is near the music and the movement, or beach, which is quiet and removed from all of it. The bigger VIP sun beds and the beach cabañas take three people lying down, or work as a base for a group. If you're staying the night, your lounger is reserved for you every day of your stay and you pick it on the day you check in, so there's no towel-at-dawn business.
Bring your own towel. Our website and our confirmation email have said contradictory things about this in the past; the policy is that you bring one.
Getting here
By boat. There's no bridge, so a car will get you as far as the Muelle de la Bodeguita and no further. Our boat leaves the Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm and takes about 25 minutes. Coming back, boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. Reserve it: capacity is limited and the gap between boats is long.
In a high tide or a rough sea we dock in Bocachica village instead, about a mile away, and you ride pillion on a motorbike taxi for the last stretch. You can also come in your own boat; there's a dock about 200 metres from our gate. The 200 metres is a sandy track, which is the same reason we have to be honest that we aren't wheelchair accessible. The place wasn't built with that in mind and we're sorry about it.
Quiet day or loud day: pick your day of the week
Weekdays are quiet. Weekends are not. There's always music playing, and on Fridays, weekends and public holidays we fill up with people from the city, and our Saturday pool session runs 1 to 5. If you want the version of this island where you read a book and hear the sea, come Tuesday. If you want the other version, you already know which day to book.
What you can't do here (and what you can do instead)
You can't snorkel. The beachfront leads out to open ocean and although we have a house reef, it sits at six metres with choppy water above it, which is a bad combination with a snorkel. A one-hour scuba dive is the better answer and needs no previous experience. A discovery dive on the house reef is US $90, and if you want to keep going, PADI Scuba Diver is two days at US $320 and Open Water is four days at US $460.
Other things that fill an afternoon: mountain biking, a moto tour of the island, a walk into Bocachica village, and a back-of-house tour if you want to see how a B Corp actually handles its waste on an island with no mains water. Everything we run, with duration, price, and whether it needs pre-booking, is listed on our activities page.
Eating and drinking
We take the food seriously, which is not the standard island beach club position. Mostly local ingredients, and only meat that's sustainably raised and ethically treated. We were the first beach club in Cartagena to have a wine list, and yes, we sell rosé by the magnum. Cocktails are made with fresh juices. Groups of ten or more eat off a set group lunch menu at $45 USD per person.
You can't bring your own food or your own alcohol, though you can pre-order wine through the restaurant staff. And there's no phone signal on the island, so send us a WhatsApp rather than calling. We answer between 9am and 9pm.
See you on the boat.