What is there to see in Bocachica?
Two things, and they're both worth the boat: the Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica, and the village of Bocachica itself. It's the southern end of Tierra Bomba island, about 25 minutes by boat from Cartagena, and it's where we live. This is an honest account of what you'll find, because a lot of what's written about it isn't.
Fuerte de San Fernando de Bocachica
A Spanish colonial fortress sitting right on the water at the Bocachica channel, which is the southern mouth of Cartagena bay. That's the whole point of it: the channel is narrow, so whoever held these walls decided what got into the bay, and the fort was built to make that decision expensive for anyone arriving uninvited. It's a horseshoe of stone with the sea on three sides, and unlike the forts in the city you'll often have long stretches of it to yourself.
Go in the morning. There's little shade and the stone holds heat, so by two in the afternoon it stops being a pleasant hour of history and becomes an endurance event.
Bring cash in small notes. Accounts of the entrance fee vary from nothing at all to around 25,000 to 40,000 COP depending on who's at the gate that day, so budget for the higher number and be pleased if nobody asks. There's no card machine and, on this island, no signal to run one.
The village
You can go into Bocachica, and it will blow your mind, but go with your eyes open. This is a village with no running water and no paved roads. It also has more soul than anywhere you'll walk in the Walled City, which is a sentence we mean literally rather than as a compliment to fill space.
What it isn't: chic restaurants and cocktail bars. Do not go looking for a lunch spot with a view and a natural wine list. This is island life, lived by people who live it, and the interesting part is exactly that it hasn't been arranged for visitors.
So: walk, buy something from someone, ask before you photograph anybody, and take your rubbish back out with you. The waste that arrives on this island tends to stay on it.
Going with someone who actually lives here
We run a Bocachica village tour, and there's also a cooking and culture version if you'd rather learn to make something than look at it. Both are led with people from the village. We'd push you towards one of these over wandering in alone, not because the village is unwelcoming but because half of what's interesting about it is invisible without someone to explain it. The other half is that money spent through a guide from Bocachica reaches Bocachica.
If you'd rather cover ground, we also run an island moto-tour and mountain biking, which is how most people here get around anyway.
Getting to Bocachica from Cartagena
Our boat leaves Muelle de la Bodeguita at 10am, 11:30am and 5pm, and the crossing takes 25 minutes. Boats leave us at 4pm and 5:30pm. There's no bridge to Tierra Bomba and you can't drive here. It's a boat, or a five-minute helicopter if that's the kind of week you're having.
There is a public transport route between 7am and 5pm, which is cheaper, more complicated and a genuine adventure. It's in our FAQs if you want the detail.
If the tide is very high or the sea is rough, we land at the dock in the village instead, about a mile from us, and you'll ride pillion on a motorbike taxi from there. People tend to remember that bit fondly afterwards.
Where we fit into this
We're an 11-room hotel and beach club at the Bocachica end of Tierra Bomba, on the southern shore facing the open ocean. Most people come for the day, eat lunch, swim, and go back on the 4pm or 5:30pm boat. If you want the fort and the village and a swim without watching the clock, stay the night instead. The island is very different once the day boats have gone.
A couple of practical things either way. There's no phone signal here, so tell people at home you'll be on WhatsApp when you can. Bring a towel, that's our official policy whatever else you may have read. And bring cash for the village.
See you on the boat.