Ever dreamt of visiting a place covered with white sandy beaches, a blue sea, and full of nature and wildlife? At the village Capurgana, your dreams can come true!
A little bit of Capurgana’s history
This region was inhabited by the Kuna Indians, for whom it was the “land of chili” or Capurganá in their language. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Kuna were displaced by black-mulatto communities arriving from the cities of Cartagena de Indias and the department of Córdoba.
The indigenous people migrated to the archipelago of San Blas (Comarca Kuna Yala) in the neighboring country of Panama, another paradise of the Caribbean Sea.
On December 12, 1999, Capurganá was the victim of a guerrilla attack that temporarily paralyzed tourist activities. Today it is re-emerging as one of Colombia’s post-conflict, community-based tourism destinations.
Where is Capurgana located?
Capurgana is at the northwestern pacific coast of Colombia, in the small village of Acandí (Chocó), boarding the Republic of Panama, in the Gulf of Urabá. Although located in the Pacific region of Colombia, it belongs to the Colombian Caribbean with no contact with the Pacific Ocean.
The Gulf of Urabá is the southernmost area of the Caribbean Sea located in Colombia. It is contained within the Gulf of Darien, between Cape Caribana and Cape Tiburon on the border of Colombia and Panama. The towns of Turbo, Necoclí, and Acandí are located on their shores.
At Capurgana you can enjoy a tropical and very humid climate with temperatures between 23° and 35 ° C° (73° and 95° F°), and a high humidity between 85 and 98%.
How to get to Capurgana?
In the past, it was necessary to wait for the vacation season to visit Capurgana. Today there are flights and boats available all year round, and visitors are received from the interior of the country and from around the world. Even so, it is a destination little explored by international tourists.
Traveling to Capurgana might be challenging so take note of the following options.
Air Connection
Sara Colmenares holds a Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in Ecology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and a Master’s degree in Botany from the same institution. Her doctoral research focused on palm ecology in the Atlantic Forest, supported by the Rufford Foundation conservation grant.
A published researcher in the Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology and a member of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), Sara has presented her work at international conferences across Latin America and beyond. She was awarded the COLCIENCIAS “Virginia Gutiérrez de Pineda” fellowship, one of Colombia’s most competitive academic distinctions for young researchers.
Sara founded the Sula nature tourism brand in 2018, applying her scientific expertise to develop birding and wildlife experiences across Colombia’s six natural regions. Her fieldwork took her from the cloud forests of the Andes to the Amazon basin, the Pacific coast, and the plains of the Orinoquía. She combined deep ecological knowledge with firsthand experience to create content that is both scientifically accurate and practically useful for nature travelers.
She holds a B.Sc. in Biology from the National University of Colombia, where she also taught plant ecophysiology. She speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and English.