San Basilio de Palenque is a village of about 3,500 people roughly 50 kilometres southeast of Cartagena, and it is the one day trip from the city that we suggest for its history rather than its scenery. It sits near the Canal del Dique, in the foothills of the Montes de María, within the municipality of Mahates. Most visitors go on a guided tour from Cartagena, and the tours listed on the major booking sites run about 3.5 to 5 hours.
We're across the water on Barú, on Bahía de Cholón, so a Palenque day needs a little planning. Here is what the village is, why people make the trip, and how we'd fit it around a stay with us.
What San Basilio de Palenque is
Palenque is often described as the first free African town in the Americas. In 1599 a group of around 30 people escaped slavery near Cartagena under the leadership of Benkos Biohó and took to the forest and swamps south of the city. Their settlement was barricaded with palisades, and the Spanish word for a palisade, palenque, became its name. The exact founding year is unknown; the date carved on the statue of Benkos Biohó in the main plaza is 1603.
The community held out against the colonial authorities for more than a century. Biohó himself was captured and hanged in 1621, but the settlement survived him, and in 1713 it won the right to its land. The village took the name San Basilio around the same time.
Why UNESCO recognises it
UNESCO proclaimed the cultural space of Palenque de San Basilio a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2005, and it was inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. The recognition is for living culture, not buildings. While other maroon communities in the region were destroyed or scattered, Palenque stayed together and kept:
- Palenquero: a creole language that residents still speak, with roots that scholars trace to Bantu languages.
- Its music and dance: traditions that the community has carried for four centuries.
- The kuagros: a social organisation of age groups that structures village life.
That is the reason to go. You are visiting a community, not a museum, and the day is as good as the person who walks you through it.
How long the day takes, and how to book it
Plan on a half day at minimum. The tours we've seen listed from Cartagena run from about 3.5 hours to 5 hours, with group and private options on the larger booking sites. The road distance is around 50 kilometres each way, so a fair share of that time is in the car.
Our view: book a private or small-group tour with a guide who can introduce you in the village. A self-guided visit by taxi is possible, but you'll miss most of what the language, the plaza and the music mean without someone to explain them.
Fitting Palenque around a stay with us
We'd put Palenque on a city day, not an island day. Our boat takes 30 minutes to an hour from Cartagena, and it has limited capacity, so we ask you to reserve your crossing in advance. Spending a morning on the boat and then most of a day on the road leaves little time for the reason you came to Barú.
Two ways that work well:
- Before you come to us: spend a night or two in Cartagena, do Palenque from the city, then take our boat across.
- On your way out: if your flight is in the evening, remember that the airport is about an hour door-to-door from Casas Altas by road and we ask you to leave three hours before departure. Palenque on the last day rarely fits; we'd rather you didn't rush it.
If you're unsure how to sequence it, write to us before you arrive and we'll help you plan the crossings.
Back on the island
Once you're back on Barú, the pace changes completely. Ancalá Waterfront, our restaurant on the mangroves, is open daily from 11am to 4pm, both to residents and to visitors who arrive by boat or by car. Chef Pedro Mosqueda cooks a premium BBQ menu there. Our houses, including Villa Pinto, were designed by Simón Vélez and Gustavo Pinto in guadua bamboo, and six rooms across three houses is the whole of it. A long, quiet lunch after a day on the mainland is how we'd recommend ending it.