Full Day Rosary Islands and Playa Blanca Baru with Lunch

I don't like leaving negative reviews, but I think we need to clarify what this tour actually entails. Smooth pick up from Cartagena, one hour bus ride. Once we arrived at Playa Baru, it became clear that the tour of the Rosario islands would only be for 90 minutes and the rest of the day would be spent on mainland Baru. This was disappointing, as from the website it appeared that the day would be spent on the Rosario islands. Another boat arrived to take us to the islands, at which point they explained that we would have to choose 1 of 2 paid activities- either an aquarium or snorkeling. We didn't have a choice to not pay or to stay on the boat which is not at all explained on the website. I don't agree with keeping dolphins in captivity, so I chose the snorkeling. The captain explained he would provide us with the snorkelling gear, including a mask and a snorkel. Once we had paid an extra 50,000 COP he handed us a mask, and asked us to get out of the boat. He refused to give us a snorkel, and said that because of hygiene reasons they no longer provide them. He was very evasive when I questioned why he had told us he was going to give us snorkels. Another of the crew mates led us into a coral area, where he began to feed the fish with bread. I was disturbed at this, as we shouldn't be feeding wild fish anyway but especially not bread. The entire tour felt very unsustainable and commercial and not at all focusing on the animals welfare. Again, on the boat, the captain gave out a lot of false information, such as that Shakira owned a Rosario island. Just felt a bit weird that he was saying random things that weren't true. When we arrived back at Baru, we were asked what we wanted to eat for lunch, and we ordered. We waited around an hour for lunch, until a very kind lady from our group told us that we needed to ask again about the food because if they could get away without providing us with the included lunch that we had paid for, then they would. Lunch came shortly after we asked, and it was delcious. The last 2 hours we spent on the beach, which although wasn't the experience we had in mind it was beautiful. All in all, I think some transparency is needed about the timings of the day, the need to pay for an extra activity but most of all to care more about the wildlife of the Rosario islands and the animals who inhabit it.

The place is nice but quite crowded. The activity is loaded with extras for which you have no alternative, for example: in the VIP experience you are taken to a place with a hammock and a locker to leave your things before payment. If you don't want to pay for it, you have nowhere to leave things. The turtle walking activity is basically taking 3 photos (of poor quality by the way), it was worth it to be able to dive and see the seabed but nothing else. Yes, it is worth visiting the site, but I would suggest looking at more comprehensive plan alternatives (the price will end up being similar).

While I enjoyed the experience none of the guides spoke English. This wasn’t that big of a problem because they were still able to communicate with me and help me feel welcomed. I did have weird encounters with the ppl selling things on the island. They were very aggressive and also pushy. One person selling me something knocked over my drink and didn’t pay to replace it or try to make it right and I didn’t like that because the drink was full so I had to buy another one. The tour guides were good though about making sure I understood what we were doing and going. I enjoyed the boat ride as well.