Isla Burica

Interesting fact about Isla Burica, a small island inhabited only by black iguanas and a few buzzards - it is a well-known transfer point for cocaine leaving Panama (from Colombia) and entering into Costa Rica.

 

David, a local who lives across from the island, described nights where a large twin engine catamaran coming from the east would slide behind the island and wait for smaller boats to arrive from the west. A few minutes later, the smaller boats would disperse, and the large boat would remain. Three days later the police would tow the boat to the mainland, the engines and gear intact, except the floorboards had been torn up and nothing lay beneath them.

 

David developed a few more hunches when on one occasion, the boats were discovered by Coast Guard helicopters. He watched as these small boats dumped dozens of black bags into the ocean, which floated onto his front beach. Later, local fishermen came to pick them up. One of the fishermen had only a wheelbarrow, and when the helicopter landed next to him, they nabbed him pushing 220 kilos of cocaine up the hillside into town.

 

Black bags full of cocaine occasionally wash up on the far side of the island, along with a ton of Panamanian and Costa Rican trash. In a peculiar phenomenon, the tide moves in opposite directions into the island, waves heading east on the east side of the island collide with waves heading west on the west side of the island, creating sort of a trash funnel.

 

Strange place that Isla Burica, strange uninhabited place.

Done