Qualla: Isla Gorgona https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:12 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/hero-small.webp Qualla: Isla Gorgona https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona Isla Gorgona: Introduction https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona/ Photo credit Mateo.gable, CC BY-SA 3.0. They called one of the cells La Botella. The Bottle. It was less than sixty centimeters wide, with a single hole in the floor that served as a toilet, and prisoners were forced to stand in it for days at a time. Food was dropped in from above. The Bottle was one of several torture rooms at the maximum-security prison on Isla Gorgona, a Pacific island thirty-five kilometers off Colombia's Pacific coast. The prison held up to two thousand men in a facility designed for fifteen hundred. It closed in 1984. Within a year, the rainforest began swallowing it back. Today you can tour the ruins with a guide who asks you to watch your feet, because the island has eighteen species of snakes.

Read more: Isla Gorgona on Qualla

Image: Mateo.gable | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/d282-isla-gorgona-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Isla Gorgona: Liberator's Gift https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona/ Photo credit User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Spanish conquistadors stopped here off and on between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, using Gorgona as a waypoint and occasional supply station. The island's modern history, though, begins with a gift. After independence, Simon Bolivar deeded Isla Gorgona to an English so...

Read more: Isla Gorgona on Qualla

Image: User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/d282-isla-gorgona-liberators-gift.mp3 0:06 2 full Isla Gorgona: The Prison Years https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona/ Photo credit User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. From 1960 to 1984, Isla Gorgona was Colombia's answer to Alcatraz. Men sentenced here had no realistic hope of escape. The mainland sat thirty-five kilometers across shark-rich Pacific water. The surrounding rainforest was dense, trackless, and filled with venomous snakes. The co...

Read more: Isla Gorgona on Qualla

Image: User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/d282-isla-gorgona-the-prison-years.mp3 0:06 3 full Isla Gorgona: What the Forest Hides https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona/ Photo credit User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. The tropical forest covers most of the island now. It shelters forty-six species of reptiles, eighteen of them snakes. Bats, sloths, monkeys, and tortoises live in the canopy. The island's rules reflect what walks underfoot: visitors are not allowed outside the hotel and dive sho...

Read more: Isla Gorgona on Qualla

Image: User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/d282-isla-gorgona-what-the-forest-hides.mp3 0:06 4 full Isla Gorgona: Beneath the Surface https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona/ Photo credit User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. The reason travelers endure the boat trip now is not the ruins or the forest. It is the water. Around Gorgona, sea turtles glide through coral heads. Whitetip reef sharks patrol the reef edges. Whale sharks pass through in season. The underwater visibility and biodiversity have m...

Read more: Isla Gorgona on Qualla

Image: User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/d282-isla-gorgona-beneath-the-surface.mp3 0:06 5 full Isla Gorgona: Getting There, If You Must https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona/ Photo credit User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. There are no flights. The only way to Gorgona is by boat from one of three mainland ports. From Buenaventura, cargo ships and dive boats run irregularly, with the cheapest passage, aboard the overloaded cargo vessels of Bodega Lizcano or the M/N Discovery, costing 80,000 to 90,00...

Read more: Isla Gorgona on Qualla

Image: User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/d282-isla-gorgona-getting-there-if-you-must.mp3 0:06 6 full Isla Gorgona: The Rules https://qualla.com/isla-gorgona/ Photo credit User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage, Public domain. Vaccinations for yellow fever, tetanus, and hepatitis B are recommended before arrival. The island's climate is warm and wet year-round. Humidity wraps you the moment you step off the boat. Inside the restricted zones, visitors can wander freely only within El Poblado, the small ...

Read more: Isla Gorgona on Qualla

Image: User: (WT-shared) CONOCER at wts wikivoyage | Public domain

]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/d/2/8/2/isla-gorgona-wk/d282-isla-gorgona-the-rules.mp3 0:06 7 full