Sapzurro

Sapzurro is a horseshoe bay with perhaps a few hundred residents, no cars, no road and no connection to anywhere except by boat or on foot. The walk over the ridge from Capurgana takes around an hour and a half through forest with a viewpoint at the top looking over both bays. From the village a further path climbs to the border marker and drops into La Miel, a beach village on the Panamanian side - people cross for the day with a passport check at a small post, which is the only place where you can walk between the two countries in this way. The bay is calm and good for snorkelling. Electricity runs on a generator with limited hours in some accommodations.

History

Sapzurro was founded in 1889 by the Afro-Colombian settlers Gumercindo Medrano and Juana Caraballo, who came from the Barú peninsula, followed by Feliciano Berrío and Caridad Casiano, Juan de Dios Meza and Bonifacia Bravo and later Eliseo Zúñiga, Mariano Pereira and Asención Pertúz, most of them from Bocachica, whose families make up the community today. The name comes from the language of the Guna and means deep bay (Wikipedia, Sapzurro).

What's there

• A horseshoe bay with no road - boat or foot access only.
• A ridge walk from Capurgana - about an hour and a half.
• A walkable border crossing - to La Miel on the Panama side.
• Generator power - with limited hours in places.

When to go

December to April. A full day or overnight.

Good to know

Everything must be carried in - there is no road. Power and water are limited. Crossing to La Miel requires a passport and the post keeps its own hours.

Nearby

Capurgana is over the ridge; La Miel is over the border.

Key facts