Tribuga opens onto Colombia's Pacific coast between the Utria National Natural Park to the north and Cabo Corrientes to the south. The municipality of Nuqui, home to about 7,000 people, sits at the gulf's center and serves as the primary gateway -- reachable by sea from the port of Buenaventura or by air to the local airport. The waters are warm, averaging 28 degrees Celsius, and the surrounding climate is classified as humid tropical forest. Rainfall is heavy, easing only slightly in January and February. Embera indigenous communities live in the river basins of the Valle, Nuqui, Jurubida, and Pangui, practicing ways of life shaped by centuries of intimacy with this coastline.

Core samples from the southern gulf reveal that dominant populations of Rhizophora mangroves have held their ground here for approximately 4,500 years -- an almost unimaginable continuity in a region battered by Pacific storms and tectonic shifts. In the northern reaches, Pelliciera rhizophorae mangroves have persisted for roughly 2,600 years in some areas, though other northern patches represent more recent colonization. These ancient mangrove forests are part of the Esmeraldes-Pacific Colombia mangrove ecoregion, stretching from the gulf south to Mompiche Bay in Ecuador. The wildlife they shelter is extraordinary: jaguars, pumas, bush dogs, and harpy eagles share the land with 270 bird species, while the waters host humpback whales calving from August to October and sea turtles nesting on beaches from August through November.

The proposed Puerto de Tribuga would have been Colombia's Pacific gateway to Asia. Planners noted the advantages: an access channel just 2.5 kilometers long that could be dredged to 20 meters depth, no sediment problems, and a route from Medellin via Quibdo far shorter than the existing road to Buenaventura. The blueprints called for 3,600 meters of docks covering 300 hectares, with a 75-kilometer railway from Quibdo to transport materials. By 2014, the ICCO Group had expressed informal commitment to begin construction. But opposition crystallized. Community divers documented ghost fishing gear entangling the reefs. Conservation International Colombia supported reef-monitoring programs. The 2020 documentary Expedicion Tribuga brought international attention to what would be lost.

The tide turned decisively when UNESCO declared the Gulf of Tribuga a biosphere reserve, effectively ending the port plans. For the Afro-Colombian communities who had staked their future on sustainable ecotourism rather than industrial shipping, it was vindication. The gulf's diving season, best from March through August, draws visitors to rocky seabeds, small coral formations, and schools of fish whose diversity and color reward the long journey to this remote coast. Loggerhead and hawksbill sea turtles still nest on the beaches of San Pichi, Blanca, and Guachalito. Humpback whales still choose these waters to bear their young. The port that would have destroyed 550 hectares of ocean and rainforest remains on paper -- and the hope is that it stays there.