Isla Gorgona

Gorgona is about nine kilometres long, mountainous and covered in rainforest, sitting about 28 kilometres off the Pacific coast. From 1959 to 1984 it held a maximum security prison, chosen because the surrounding water is shark-inhabited and the island is full of venomous snakes - escape was considered impossible - and the ruins of the prison stand in the forest, being taken back by it. Pizarro named it for the Gorgons after his men were bitten by snakes here in 1527. It became a national park in 1984. The reef around it is among the best-developed on the Colombian Pacific, humpbacks calve offshore from July, and the island holds endemic lizards and a large snake population. Access requires a permit and booking.

History

The first people on the island were possibly linked to the Tumaco-La Tolita culture, and the Guna hold a tradition that they were its first settlers; remains go back to around AD 1300. Diego de Almagro landed in 1524 and called it San Felipe, and in 1527 Francisco Pizarro, on his second expedition to Peru, waited here seven months with thirteen men and named it Gorgona after losing many of them to snakebite. The pirate Bartholomew Sharp held it for a little over a month in 1679, Woodes Rogers and William Dampier sheltered here in 1709, and in the 1820s Simón Bolívar gave it to Federico D'Croz; from 1959 it was a high-security prison, known as Colombia's Alcatraz, until 1984, when it became a national park (Wikipedia, Gorgona Island - Colombia).

Highlights

• A prison closed in 1984 - its ruins being taken back by forest.
• Rainforest and endemic species - including a serious snake population.
• Reef diving - among the best on the Colombian Pacific.
• Humpbacks offshore - calving from July.

When to go

July to October for whales; diving is year round. Several days.

Good to know

Permits and accommodation must be booked in advance through the park - you cannot arrive independently. Boat crossings are long and rough. Venomous snakes are genuinely present and rules about footwear and paths are enforced. Rain is heavy.

Nearby

Guapi is on the mainland; Bahia Malaga is north.

Key facts