We flew from Cartagena to San Andrés Island, shaped like a sea horse, which is around 800 Kms north west of Colombia, directly east of Nicaragua and directly south (by a very long way!) of the Cayman Islands, in the Caribbean Sea. So now you can picture where we are. The island is only 27 square kms in size and is covered in coconut palms and white sandy beaches – the water is so warm and clear, it’s an absolute dream to swim and snorkel there. Oh and it’s a Duty Free island so there’s no end of cheap damage you can do to your liver.
The English originally colonised the island back in the 17th Century and brought enslaved black people with them from Jamaica, so the population there now is about 25% black “Raizals’ (Caribbean and English mixture, who mostly speak English and a sort of Creole/Pidgin Spanish) and the rest are Spanish-speaking Colombians. We saw some of the darkest skin we have ever seen – truly coal-black, with very white teeth. The music is an interesting mixture of Colombian and Caribbean and this is played at only one of two levels of volumes – either (a) full volume or (b) off. Especially on public buses!
We arrived late at night and sorting out after a lengthy cock-up at the airport with our non-existent airport pick-up, we finally got to our apartment in the main town of San Andrés island, which was actually pretty dire and not particularly clean. Although the cockroaches were friendly enough. To cut a long story short, through no fault of our own we actually had to change apartments twice in the first few days, but as each one got progressively better, we were not too phased by this, especially as we are possibly the quickest packers in the world! We thought we might cook, hence the apartment, but, well….it was just too hot and ingredients too few and meals too cheap to do that, so we didn’t bother, but it was great to have the space of an apartment and do our own breakfasts and lunches at least. And the 2nd and 3rd apartments had arctic air conditioning for which we were so grateful.
Although the intensity of the heat and humidity were not NEARLY as bad as in Cartagena, it was still averaging about 29 degrees each day, and not a lot of variation in temperature at night, but it was lovely to have the freedom to wander around in your togs or just very light clothing the whole time. On the second day we decided to try and get to a place called La Piscina Natural at West Bay, on the west coast of the island, where the snorkelling is meant to be at its best. Hopped on the local bus which had the correct destination sign on the front marked “El Cove” and watched the world go by, with music blaring full bore from the stereo. Part way through the trip the bus driver stopped and turned the sign over to a completely different destination and then failed to turn right towards where we needed to go. So….we decided that we were so far from where we needed to be we might as well just stay on the bus and ended up going right round the entire island for less than one NZ Dollar! Then we went snorkelling at the local beach instead, which was just fine and dandy.
It was my birthday while we were there so Steve had secretly arranged for a couple of things for me to do on the big day. The first was something I’ve always wanted to try, which was one of those pedicures where you put your feet into warm water where there are lots of tiny fish who nibble away at your feet and supposedly get rid of any dead skin. Sorry, have I put you off your breakfast? Honestly it was hilarious, because it was so tickly and it really just feels like the fish are kissing your feet. In the absence of a husband who won’t do that for me, I settled for the fish. Next it was a massage in a beach hut, which was also fabulous.
We went on a half day trip out to three of the outer islands called Haines Cay (pronounced ‘kee”), Acuario and Johnny Cay island, where there is a huge coral reef. The pictures you see of the idyllic island with no people on it are not QUITE what reality had in store, in that there were so many boats arriving on the first one that you could hardly see any sand for people! But it’s a big area and very shallow, so there’s plenty of space for everyone to snorkel or just loll around in the almost bath-temperature water. The last island we visited, Johnny Cay, is very small and only 1.5kms from San Andrés island, so it was a bit more developed but plenty of places to go to be on your own. After our second lot of snorkelling, we had cocktails on the beach out of coconut shells – a Coco Loco, the local speciality, and a Pina Colada for me.
That night we went to the gorgeous seafood restaurant down at the San Andrés port called La Regatta, which was also a night to remember. An absolutely idyllic birthday!
On our last day we finally did what we had meant to do initially, which was to get the correct bus to West Bay and were so glad we did because it was the best snorkelling of all and the water although incredibly deep was absolutely crystal clear and the most perfect colour of aqua-marine. Sadly I don’t have any photos of it because we purposely left our cameras and phones back at the apartment, rather than leaving them unattended on a beach. Tons of colourful fish that ate out of your hand, and lots of interesting people-watching activities going on too.
The whole San Andrés trip was such a relaxing time for us and we felt quite sad to be leaving and going back to the mainland again but really, it was just the right amount of time for hot sandy beaches and cold water showers. Bizarrely, there is no hot water provided in apartments anywhere around San Andres island, as it’s supposedly too expensive to hook up and run. Apart from the first shower in the morning, it wasn’t that hard to deal with, because the weather’s so hot there anyway, but we were looking forward to at least a warm-ish shower back in Cartagena.
We can hardly believe we’re nearly at the end of our three months and all that is left is one more sweaty night in Cartagena, then a very long day of flying, via Bogota, down to Santiago, in Chile, then it’s back to New Zealand. I have to say we are actually both looking forward to getting to a cooler climate and also to getting back home again now. Catch you soon!
2 Frosty Tops Do South America 