Kiss Me! What a pretty flower!

Pos: here
Loc: Isla Gorgona
Acc: tent

Tomorrow’s estimated landing:
50-60 km up the coast

Good sleep in my own four bug-free walls. Just a little hot at the beginning. But three fresh water showers a day is no problem here…

Prison entrance of Isla Gorgona

I did a visit to the historical prison on the island, which was really impressive. My guide told me it was closed just in 1984, after it hosted up to 2000 prisoners. It was overgrown by jungle in many places very soon after, just a few buildings were kept for today’s display. If this area came out of the earlier periods of the last or even earlier centuries, I’d believe it better what I saw, but closed 1984, almost recently…I’d rather never be a prisoner in Colombia!

Inside the prison area...

This was the oven hole for baking the bread

The dining room...in the background the washing sinks

The washing sinks...somehow like spring fountains when they had been working

The toilets...not much privacy...

This top walk was for the guards walking up and down watching everone

Some sleeping rooms. the boardwalk for the guards on top of the aisle

The same sleeping rooms in another building, not well-kept any more...the jungle takes it soon!

The single lock cells, they said they were mostly occupied by way more than one person

Later in the morning, a local guide (park rule, no walking alone…) put me in gum boots (park rule, because of the snakes…) and took me into the jungle. I believe the boots did well against the huge ants crawling around everywhere, but we saw not a single snake nor any other animals worth mentioning besides a few geckos and a frog. The path was rather a well-maintained walking highway than a narrow overgrown jungle path, with maintenance-free plastic bridges over the streams, easy to negotiate. It was nice, but I have seen already more interesting nature walks, maybe I am too spoilt. …but thanks anyway, especially for the freshly cut coconut! We were walking back along the coast, climbing over rocks and walking on gravel beaches on low tide. I was eventually happy to get out of those overheated gum boots…

My jungle walk guide Moses cuts a fresh coconut for me

A colorful lizzard

No flowers, just red fresh leaves

The easy to maintain plastic bridges over the streams

Huge fat ants - they bite!

My hiking equipment - snake proof gum boots. They were HOT!

Isla Gorgona shore on low tide

I watched a few monkeys who probably lived better close to the hotel with food scraps somewhere…quite naughty beasts!

These monkeys looked quite agressive, probably used to be fed by humans

Die Affen rasen durch den Wald...der eine macht den anderen kalt...wer hat die Kokosnuss geklaut?

My bodyguard crew had changed unexpectedly already last night, the old boat was needed in Tumaco, and a new boat and crew was sent from Buenaventura. They stayed the night out moored on the buoy in darkness, while my old crew had probably an exciting maximum three hours ride back to Tumaco in darkness.

Carlos and Juan of my new coast guard crew in the freshwater spring hotel pool

Two of the guys came off the boat this morning, and it turned out they were way more communicative than my old crew. We popped into the continuously fresh-water fed hotel pool, and practised Spanish and English conversation on both sides. Just their boat looked much smaller than the other one…not sure how we will lift and store my kayak at night and sleep on it with five persons. Surprise…

Self made gym equipment at the police station at Isla Gorgona! Well used!

The "gym" - including mirror and training bench. I was camping on top on the patio

I was also surprised to find an internet station here, fed by satellite. All modern devices in the most remote places!

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