A whale-watching trip to Colombia's Chocó region (photos & videos)

I've been living in Medellín full-time for a year and a half now, so I figured it was time to take a break from working on my book, and go watch some whales off the West coast of Colombia, in the Chocó region.

Between July and November, humpback whales come from Antartica to the warm waters off Colombia's Pacific coast to mate and give birth (not all in the same year – humback whales have an 11-month gestation period.)

We took a private jet from Olaya Herrera Airport, in the middle of Medellín.

Okay, so it wasn't a private jet. This plane had a capacity of eighteen passengers and three crew.

You know you're not in the USA when you can see not only into the cockpit, but straight through the front windshield of the plane.

We arrived safely (yet, in Colombian style – six hours late) at the Bahía Solano airport. The flight took about 30 minutes.

Our accommodations included free airport transportation. First we took this vehicle.

We took that Tuk Tuk for about 10 minutes to this boat, which took us to the hotel in about 40 minutes. It was raining, and the boat had a hole in it that was spraying water in my face, so we got pretty wet. (I later learned there were actually three holes in this boat).

The next day, we arrived in an indigenous village, which serves as a gateway to a waterfall we would visit.

The hotel supplied these knee-high boots for trudging through the mud in the jungle. (That's my Pistol Lake shirt, which is great for outdoor stuff. They sponsor my podcast)

There was a Colombian Army camp stationed on the beach. They escorted us into the jungle "for security." They told us there's no FARC in this area, but it still wasn't clear what they were protecting us against.

We approached the waterfall.

I bathed in the waterfall.

It was so beautiful, it makes you cry.

All of the beaches are covered in these crabs. They hide in holes and don't seem to want to make new friends.

We saw some dolphins jumping. I know the shaky video is annoying. I was actually annoyed the captain didn't slow down for a second, but then again, we were chasing dolphins.

We did manage to see lots of whales. No jumping out of the water, no slapping the water, but we saw plenty of humps and tails.

THE END