We’ve been on the Pacific Coast of Colombia for about 2 weeks now, spending 1.5 of those weeks at Playa Huina. We booked a room at a hostel on the beach not really knowing much about the area, but wanted a relaxing place as our homebase while we explored the surroundings. We were expecting some kind of moderately touristy resort vibe at Huina and it turned out to be totally the opposite! Huina is a small fishing village tucked into a little bay that also has a couple of hostels and hotels that usually only fill up during the whale season starting in July. The entire village is probably around 200 people total along a 300 yard stretch of beach. And the houses are only 1, 2, or 3 deep from the shore. We were 2 of no more than 10 total tourists in the village. It was very cool to be there for so long and get to know it a bit.
The beach is also filled with super friendly cats and dogs! We made lots of friends during our stay 🙂
We spent our time in Huina with a healthy mixture of activity and relaxation. Our hostel had plenty of hammocks to relax in and the we enjoyed walking the beach. The village was lively and we often saw people coming in with their big fish hauls of the day, mostly tuna.
Also, as it was a fishing village, we ate fish every-single-day to the point where I thought I couldn’t possibly have another bite of fish. We walked to the end of the beach one day and there was a lady with a small stand selling hot dogs. I could have wept! It was the most satisfying hot dog I’ve ever eaten in my life. And you couldn’t beat the view!
Huina is on the north side of a peninsula and one day a guide (and 5 dogs) took us on a hike over to a beach on the other side of the peninsula called Playa del Deseos. It was beautiful! We did a moderate 1 hour hike over a big hill and landed on a super secluded, wild beach. We explored the beach as well as some surrounding caves and guzzled water out of massive coconuts. Loved it. Notice our guides massive machete. Never go into the jungle without a machete.
Alex’s 50th birthday also fell in the middle of our time here and he wanted to spend the day doing something he’s been talking about doing for a long time – deep sea fishing! So deep sea fishing is what we did. We were picked up bright and early to start the day at 6:30am. It was a cloudy, rainy morning and the ocean was ROUGH. Our captain told us to get comfortable as we were driving out to the open sea, about a 2 hour ride. Way deeper than I was expecting! So I white knuckled the boat as we slapped through the white caps thinking to myself that this was going to be a long day and I was glad I took an anti-nausea pill. I thought Alex captured my tension nicely in the photo below.
Lucky for me, once we got to our fishing spot the waves calmed down a bit and the sun started peaking out. The two fishermen on the boat started breaking out the gear and we started trolling! To troll, we casted out 3 lines and putzed along in the boat waiting for something to latch on. And it wasn’t long before something did. A line started reeling out and the two guys pounced on it, shoved it into Alex’s hands, and strapped a harness around his waist. And the battle began! As I watched Alex wrestle with this thing, I knew I was content being the photographer for the day. This fish was powerful! As it came closer to the surface one of the guys hooked it onto the boat, a beautiful dorado fish (also known as mahi mahi). We put the lines back in and over the course of a few hours, Alex reeled in 2 more. Damn those things put up a fight! Jumping out of the water, ripping the line out as Alex tried to reel it back in. Very cool to watch and as you can see from the photos, Alex was loving it!
After catching the 3 dorados over the span of several hours, the captain switched gear and wanted to try to catch some tuna. To do this, they switched to spinning rods and fished cast & reel style. To find the tuna, the captain looked for schools of dolphins – where dolphins are, tuna are. I have no idea how he found them, but all of a sudden we were following a school of hundreds of dolphins. It was absolutely amazing! They were flying through the water, jumping into the air. It was so beautiful and unexpected, the absolute highlight of the trip for me. And, of course, Alex cast out and reeled in 3 fat tunas!
Everyone was satisfied – 3 dorados and 3 tuna – time to head back in! We cracked a couple of beers and enjoyed a much calmer rides back to Huina. We rolled back into shore around 5pm (long day on the water!) to a welcoming committee on the beach fascinated with our catches. We kept one of each fish and brought them back to our hostel where the host filleted and cooked them for us. Alex even had a bit of tuna sashimi style. The freshest fish I have ever had!
It was a super successful day on the water. And at the end of the night, our hostel hosts surprised Alex with a cake and a round of happy birthday! Full success 🙂
Wandering Between Meals 
Wow such an amazing fishing trip for his birthday! and fresh fish for dinner…yum yum! Looks like a very quaint and quiet village.