Wikipedia
Capurganá is a tourist destination of the municipality of Acandí on the northwestern coast of the Gulf of Urabá in the Colombian department of Choco and adjacent to the border between Colombia and Panama. This region of Colombia was inhabited by the Cuna Indians and the name Capurgana translates to the "land of chili" in their language. The Cuna inhabited until the early twentieth century when they were displaced by mostly mulatto settlers from Cartagena. The natives migrated to the archipelago of San Blas (Region Kuna Yala) in the neighboring country of Panama. The Cuna maintain a semiautonomous region where they exercise a degree of self governance.
Capurganá remained unnoticed on the map until the 1970s when Mrs. Narcisa Navas helped to build a small airstrip. Mrs. Narcisa and the pilot Jorge Mario Uribe took the first tourists to Capurganá in a small plane Cessna. The work of Ms. Narcisa and like minded people such as Don Justiniano Murillo, Brothers Jorge and Blas Pertuz, Mr. Lino Buendia, Mr. Abel Pacheco and many others who provided the land for its construction should be remembered. Today the airport in Capurganá ( IATA Code: CPB) is named in tribute to this admirable woman.
Initially families from neighbouring Antioquia state arrived to build small summer houses. The Mora, Uribe, Arango and Isaza families and especially the charismatic Samuel Isaacs, a relative of the famous Colombian writer Don Jorge Isaacs.
It was Mr. José María Palacio with his son Hector and his wife Gloria who in 1975 organized the first hotel, small log cabins and an iraca palm roof ( Carludovica palmata). After the cabins (now the renewed Tacarcuna Lodge) were established, similar hotels followed such as the Almar and Calypso. Tourist infrastructure had grown to more than 20 hotels, inns and hostels by 1990. The small town gradually became a favorite destination for the emerging Colombian eco-tourists.