Lounging Oceanside in Isla Grande, Colombia

Sunday, June 19, 2022

I woke up BRIGHT and early to go to the Medellín airport via Uber. I flew from Medellín to Cartagena and then took a taxi to Muelle de Bodeguita. I waited about and hour, half the time thinking I was being scammed, and then finally they told me what boat to get on and brought me to Secreto Hostel. I swear I could single handedly cut the people who work at the dock’s work in half if they just let me organize the departures.

It’s a bit annoying that you have to take an early boat to the hostel but can’t check in when you arrive, but I relaxed while waiting near the pool. I also made the mistake of not putting my beach clothes somewhere easier to access, but I didn’t have to wait too long to unpack so it was okay. 

Secreto Private Beach

Monday, June 20, 2022

The island has no roads, so I took the short hike to the pueblo in the middle. You’ll need to download maps.me to do this. There’s a restaurant there named Crepes Dulces Sueños, which a lady runs out of her house. I got two crepes (one savory and one sweet) and they were pretty good. I’ll be back tomorrow. 

There’s a bioluminescent bay here so I take the boat that the hostel provides for guests and go snorkeling. It was kind of cool; it felt like you were Rainbow Mario when you swam around with a trail of bluish lights behind you, but it’s not that bright so don’t get your hopes up too much.

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Today I went back to Crepes Dulces Sueños and then went swimming on Secreto’s private beach. Otherwise, I’ve mainly just been keeping to myself and reading my book. 

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

I went swimming again on the private beach before taking the boat back from the hostel. I also paid my bill, which was pretty expensive even though I haven’t bought a lot.

When I got back to town, I walked through the streets to Viajero Hostel, which was not easy with all my bags at this time of day. I like this hostel because each of the rooms open into a common space that’s outdoors and there’s plenty of bathrooms. There’s a small amount of air conditioned common space but for the most part it’s outdoors.

I went to a place for lunch called La Diva and got some mediocre pizza. Later, I met some people in my room and in the bar, and we decided to go out for dinner. We went to Getsemani and ended up at a place called El Cabildo Gastromar. I wouldn’t recommend it, but it did have live music at least. Lastly, we went salsa dancing at Cafe Havana which is pretty famous. It was a lot of fun because of the live music and dancers. I highly recommend going there while you are in town. 

Check Out My Guide to Isla Grande

My Google Maps Guides have all the important locations I mention in my blogs, and you can open them right in Google Maps to make it easy to plan your own trip!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *