Minca

• Country: Colombia
• Location: Isla Grande
• Date: 08/08/24
• Duration: 4 Days
• Company: Solo
• Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

An island located off the coast of Cartagena, and contrary to what the name might suggest, the island is small. About 30mins to walk from one side to the other. As you walk round the island, small crabs scuttle back into their burrows in the sand and lizards rustle in the undergrowth. Walking around the local town, the locals sit outside sipping beer from plastic clubs and playing music on unnecessarily oversized sound systems, giving you a nod as you pass. The sea is really warm, probably hotter than some of the baths I’ve had, and the sea is a clear blue. It is undoubtably a beautiful island, but there are only 2 public beaches left, if you can call them beaches. More like slithers of sand where you just have enough room to lay down your towel at high tide. All the other beaches are privately owned by fancy hotels, hosting exclusive parties with private yachts. For somewhere with that is in a national park and you have to pay an entrance fee there’s a lot of boat activity and you can’t really swim properly in the because of this. Although this is a beautiful area the juxtaposition between the luxury lifestyle of the tourists in comparison to that of the locals was something that confused me and the fact the locals can’t properly access the beach of their own island is something I thought was a shame, so a bit of a mixed emotions about my experience here.