Exploring the Mangroves of La Boquilla Outside Cartagena

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On the northern outskirts of Cartagena you’ll find the community of La Boquilla.

The Afro-Colombian community is located along a narrow strip of land between the Caribbean and brackish swamps or ciénagas.

The swamps are home to mangroves, unique aquatic trees, that create a rich ecosystem.

During our visit to Cartagena in the summer of 2024, my friend Brian and I did a tour through the mangroves of Cartagena in La Boquilla.

We enjoyed it, and it was a nice slice of nature just outside the city. We got to learn a bit about the ecosystem, about the history of the community, take in some pretty views, and see some birds.

Read on to learn more about our Cartagena mangrove tour in La Boquilla outside Cartagena and how to do a mangrove tour in Cartagena yourself.

Cartagena Mangrove Tour in La Boquilla

In the 11 years I lived in Cartagena, from 2011-2022, I occasionally went to the beach in La Boquilla, which is actually probably one of the better beaches of Cartagena on the mainland since it usually doesn’t get as crowded as the main ones in Bocagrande.

However, I had never done a Cartagena mangrove tour in La Boquilla.

It was on my list of things to do when we made our return visit in 2024, both because I wanted to write about it for the site and because it looked interesting.

I wasn’t disappointed.

While I would not characterize it as a must do, it’s a good, slightly off the beaten path thing to do in Cartagena.

It’s also a neat way to experience a bit of nature and see some wildlife not far from the city. Plus, you get to see a little of the other side of Cartagena and Colombia and learn a bit about the history of the community.

I recommend it to people interested in birding and fishing especially.

Brian and I just did the standard short tour, that was about 90 minutes on a canoe through the mangroves, but there are a variety of different tour packages that include lunch, fishing, crabbing, cooking, or even music and dance performances.

I communicated and arranged our tour directly with Ecotours Boquilla, but you can find a few other options for booking online here:

• Mangrove Tour and Fishing via GetYourGuide
• Mangrove Tour and Fishing via Viator
• Mangroves and Fishing with Lunch Included via GetYourGuide
• Mangroves and Fishing with Lunch Included via Viator
• Mangroves, Fishing, and Crabbing with Lunch via GetYourGuide
• Mangroves, Fishing, and Crabbing with Lunch via Viator
• Mangrove Tour and Mud Volcano with Lunch (use code ExploreColombia20 for 20% off)

You can also see mangroves in Barú, and there is a neat private tour that visits the town of Barú, the mangroves, and the Rosario Islands that makes a good alternative to a mangrove tour in La Boquilla (and the Rosario Islands are a must see while in Cartagena, so it can be a good way to do this if your time is limited).

I’ll share a bit more about our experience below, but first I want to write a bit about the importance of the mangrove ecosystem and about the community of La Boquilla and why both are worth a visit.

The Mangrove Ecosystem

Mangroves, or manglares in Spanish, are pretty unique looking plants.

In fact, they are pretty unique biologically too.

They are specially adapted to thrive in the salty, low oxygen soil of the coast.

Most of the mangroves in Cartagena are from a species that has long, branching roots that grow up above the water, allowing them to stay stable when tides rise and also absorb oxygen from the air.

The ecosystem is important for the surrounding area and even the planet too.

The roots serve as safe havens for many fish, especially young ones.

Of course, no place is truly entirely safe, and the presence of so many fish attracts many species of fishing birds.

Seeing the birds was probably the highlight of our tour, and why I’d especially recommend this to bird and wildlife enthusiasts.

The mangroves also help prevent erosion along the coast.

They capture and help the build up of sediment with nutrients for the swamp while at the same time absorbing harmful chemicals and serving as sort of a natural filtration system for the ocean.

I found it particularly interesting when our guide explained that the ecosystem is largely self sustaining. Dead mangroves and leaves provide nutrients for new ones.

There were once many more mangroves in Cartagena.

In fact, the Avenida Venezuela that separates the Walled City from Getsemaní was once a mangrove swamp that was later filled in, and mangroves historically grew all along the shores of the channels and inlets along the northern border of the city, most of which have been cut down.

You can learn more about the mangrove and its importance in this Smithsonian article.

La Boquilla

La Boquilla is a good microcosm of the development and contrasts of Cartagena.

There may have been a community here as early as the 1700s, likely made up almost entirely of free blacks, perhaps even some runaway slaves.

Regardless of when exactly the community was first settled, it developed as an Afro-Colombian coastal fisherman community. The people depended historically (and largely still do) on the mangrove as a fishing ground itself and also as a source of the rich fishing just off shore in the Caribbean.

The inevitable march and growth of development and tourism, not to mention, the degradation of ecosystem, has changed and threatened the community.

High rise condos and hotels now stand alongside the community and threaten to displace it, while fishing gets harder every year.

I find activities like mangrove tours interesting as a way to bridge some of these challenges. It provides jobs for locals in tourism, while also promoting an element of conservation, indirectly protecting other traditional jobs like fishing.

Our Experience Doing the Cartagena Mangrove Tour in La Boquilla

Brian and I hopped a cab to La Boquilla early in the morning to go and do our tour.

La Boquilla is only about 15-20 minutes away from Cartagena’s Walled City.

As I mentioned, I booked directly with Ecotours La Boquilla, who I found to be a bit slow to respond on Whatsapp at times, but were easy enough to communicate with if you speak Spanish.

We had debated doing the crabbing tour where you get to set the traps and even learn how to cook the crabs for lunch, which did sound like it would be fun, but ultimately settled on the standard canoe tour through the mangroves.

The mangrove tours in La Boquilla leave from all the way at the very end of the community, where the “road” runs out on the beach.

Our taxi had some trouble finding it (and as I later found out, I left my phone in the taxi trying to help him find it but luckily had it returned to me by the next passenger), but we eventually got there.

We met our guide and climbed aboard our canoe.

As we pushed off and headed out, we immediately began to see lots of birds, with our guide pointing out different species.

We then entered into the mangroves, passing through the narrow natural tunnels they create.

It’s hard not to feel a bit in awe of nature in these kinds of places, and even feel a bit like you’re striking out on an adventure.

As we passed through the tunnels, we saw tiny little crabs crawling on the roots and branches of the mangroves and sometimes caught a glimpse of birds through the trees.

We made a stop where our guide explained and showed us examples of the three mangrove species that grow in this area.

He also explained how the ecosystem works. What struck me the most is how interconnected it all is.

He explained the life cycle of the mangroves and how the decomposing dead ones were important sources of nutrients for younger ones.

In what I thought was a nice touch, he explained how the seeds of the main mangrove species work, and gave us each one to throw in the water.

We then continued through the mangrove tunnels, going around twists, bends, and curves.

It’s a neat, sort of eerie place.

We passed by a small dock and island known as the Isla del Pescador (Fisherman’s Island) that is included on some tours and we could have paid extra to check out, but decided not to this time.

We eventually emerged into a large area of open water in the Ciénaga de Juan Polo.

Here, the water is only about shin deep, so we could get out and walk, wriggling our toes in the soft mud of the swamp bed.

A few fishermen were out collecting caracoles, or sea snails, and we got to pick up a few.

A couple herons looked on, perhaps hoping for a bigger catch.

Other birds we saw along the way during our mangrove tour in La Boquilla included the Martín Pescador, with its neat orange and black colors, a cormorant, piqueros, or boobies, a lot of white herons, and even a few gray herons.

After hanging out a bit in the ciénaga, we climbed back aboard the canoe, and headed through some more swamp.

We did pass several other canoes full of fellow tourists, so while this still is off Cartagena’s most beaten path, it’s definitely growing.

After passing through one more short tunnel, we arrived back in the little bay where we began.

In another nice touch, we had a tasty and refreshing coconut awaiting each of us after arriving back to the dock.

Our Cartagena mangrove tour in La Boquilla lasted about 90 minutes, and was an enjoyable experience.

I’d definitely recommend it to people interested in seeing birds, or people who want to do something a bit more nature oriented and don’t want to devote a multi day trip to go to a place like Minca or Tayrona further up the coast.

I also think doing the fishing experience would be really neat if it sounds interesting to you.

It looks like most include fishing with a net, and the crabbing ones also include setting up and checking the traps. It’d be a neat way to learn a bit more about the history and culture of the community too.

Brian and I took advantage of being out here to walk back up the beach, stopping for a few beers and a tasty fish lunch along the way before heading back to town.

I would definitely recommend El Pescador de mi Tierra, which had a very tasty and reasonably priced lunch complete with fish soup and the traditional fried fish plate plus very reasonably priced beers for the beach.

I’m sure there’s plenty of great other spots, just be sure to confirm prices.

Want to do a Boquilla Mangrove Tour in Cartagena yourself?

As I mentioned before, I arranged this mangrove tour by reaching out to Ecotours Boquilla directly and we paid with cash.

If you want to book online and pay with a card ahead of time, there are a number of third parties that sell mangrove tours in La Boquilla (some work with Ecotours, some may work with other providers).

If you use GetYourGuide, you can click here to book the standard tour of the mangroves with fishing, click here to book the tour that includes lunch, or click here to book the tour that includes crabbing and lunch.

If you prefer Viator, they also have a standard mangrove tour with fishing, you can click here to book a mangrove tour with fishing and included lunch, or you can click here to book the tour that includes crabbing and lunch.

For what it’s worth, our guide did not speak English.

If you don’t speak much Spanish, or you’d just like a bit of an easier, more premium and convenient option, my travel agency partner offers these Cartagena mangrove tours too. They provide a bilingual guide plus include transportation to and from the tour.

You can book the mangrove tour here or book a mangrove tour followed by a performance by a traditional African drum group, which is a great way to learn more about the town’s culture. They also offer combining the mangroves with the mud volcano, a nice way to get the most out a day. You can do a private mangrove and mud volcano tour or a shared mangrove and mud volcano tour.

You can get 20% off any and all their tours when you use the code ExploreColombia20 when booking at those links. See their full catalog of Cartagena tours.

Regardless of which way you book your La Boquilla Cartagena mangrove tour, I hope you found this guide useful, but more importantly, you enjoy it!

I hope you see lots of birds, catch some fish or crabs if you try your hand at it, and get to appreciate nature at work.

If you do go, I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments. I’ll leave you with a few additional photos.

Cheers and Happy Exploring!