A piece of me - a blog about my experience in Colombia.: Providencia

Providencia is just amazing!!! I can't find the words to describe how beautiful it is, the ocean is just crystal clear, around the island you find corals which makes the water turquoise, the white sand beaches are quiet, and there are no big hotels anywhere to be seen. It feels like the island is living its own life, which is true. The locals speak their own language, creol, which is a mix of Spanish, English and French. We thought that we understood some words here and there but to understand what they were talking about was still too hard.

The most popular area where to stay is Fresh water Bay; there you have a super market, "many" restaurants (more os less the only ones..), you are close to the main beaches and you can book everything from there (trips, snorkelling gear and tours, scuba diving tours etc). This area is also known for it's crab migration, there are thousands and thousands of big crabs moving up from the beach. I have never seen so big and so many crabs in my life! We stayed at a new hostel which had opened only a month ago, The Blue Almond Hostel (bluealmondhostel.com), which we thought was perfect. It's located in Fresh water Bay, the room was quite big and cozy with a small loft, you had a swimming pool, air conditioning and a small dock from where to enter the ocean.

You don't really need to plan ahead what you want to do, it's really a "mañana-mañana" atmosphere on the island. It's so easy just to walk to a beach and forget about everything and you don't even realise the day is passing by. I liked best the beach in South west Bay, it was so quiet and relaxed. This beach is also a bit covered from the ocean so there are no big waves and wasn't really windy (the time we were there).

It's relatively easy to go around the island. You can rent a scooter or a golf cart, hitchhike or wait for a "collectivo" to pass (you never know if there is one coming or not). We rented a scooter for 60 000 COP (25 EUR) for 24h. It was so much fun!! I have never really driven a scooter, only tried a few times like 10 years go.. Well, we managed to make a scene only once when we (or I) almost drove the scooter up-side-down because of using too much gas and breaking with the front wheel at the same time.. We laughed a lot because there were so many people coming to the rescue of the two lost blondes :)

During our few days we had we tried to do as much as possible, even though I feel like I missed out on a lot of things, well, I can always do them the next time.. Santa Catalina is a small island where we went snorkelling. The walk there is really beautiful because you walk next to the crystal blue water and you can also see how the locals live. The beach was quite small, I still think we didn't find the real beach, "Morgan's head", only a small version of it, but it's okay we were still very happy. Betty even got to hold a lobster, which we probably had for dinner later that night.. We also drove to the "best beach" according to all tourist guides, Manzanillo Bay, it was fun to go there because there is a must-see bar called Roland's place or something, he is a typical local who really doesn't worry about tomorrow. This beach was more windy and here were also more waves so it was a bit harder to just float around in the water.

On our last day I went to the Peak, it's a hike up to the highest point of the island. Betty wanted to stay and relax so I did this hike alone, with a guide so I wouldn't get lost. The hike up to the peak takes more or less one hour, it's quite tough since you walk uphill all the time. The view from the peak is breathtaking and beautiful! It's just one of those views you can't catch on picture, even though I tried my best.. From the Peak you can see all the island, and all the corals. My guide told me that during a clear day without the fog you can see San Andres and even the coastline of Nicaragua! Walking up I took my chance and asked a lot because he is a local and he knows best about the island. Some of the facts he told me was that there is a lot of boa snakes in the woods, I really wanted to see one but without any luck.. There was also a lot of orchids growing in the wild, it's funny to see since back home this flower is one of the more expensive ones and here they just grow in the wild. He also told me that during this time it's forbidden to catch any crabs from the streets, if you do it you get a fine of 120 000 COP (45-50 EUR).

I could just post all my pictures but to relate to some of the stories, I have selected a few ones to more precisely describe our adventures.