San Andrés

After the amazing three days we spent on Providencia we enjoyed two more days in San Andrés. The same hostel from Providencia also had space for us in San Andrés so we decided to stay there since we had been so happy with the one in Providencia. We went back with the same catamaran but this time we knew what was coming and the waves were on "our side" so it wasn't that bad. The only thing I am still a bit confused with is that they showed some really violent movies on the boat even though half of the passengers were children.

San Andrés is a bigger island than Providencia, which means more people, more tourists and more hotels. It's not as plain and laid-back as Providencia but it still has a lot to offer. In the end you are on an island in the middle of the caribbean sea!! The owner of the hostel gave us a lot tips what to do but we decided just to take it easy. Early the next morning we went to the main beach in the north of the island. It was really pretty, I don't know why people told us it would be very crowded and not nice at all.. I can believe this is under normal circumstances, but beginning of June is low season for traveling. Anyways, the main beach is a typical caribbean beach; white sand, turquoise water, palm trees and some hotels. In other words, quite nice and what we were looking for. It was just really weird because there was quite many people who wanted to take pictures of us; some were polite enough to ask, some put their 6 year old son to ask and then there were the ones who just sat down between us. I still don't understand them, I got really mad at them and the only thing they answered was "it's okay, we are on holiday"… Yea, like that's good reason!!!

We stayed the entry day on the beach, apart from going to have lunch at Fisherman Place, a lunch place I read was popular to go to if you want to support local fisherman and have a good meal. The restaurant is on the other side of the beach which also was nice so we could walk along the beach to the restaurant. The food was really good, and not expensive at all. We wanted to try the local dish "rondon" but unfortunately they didn't have it. In the late afternoon we went to walk around the shopping streets to see if they had something nice to offer. It's quite difficult to find beach clothes in Bogotá so you have to take advantage of the situation once you are on a beach resort.

On our last day we went to a National Park called Johnny Cay, which was located on an island just 1,5 km outside the main beach. We thought it would be a deserted island with only beaches and palm trees, at least that's what you see when you stand on the main beach. I also read before in a guidebook that you have to "fight for your spot with iguanas" - that I don't agree with at all, it's more to fight for your spot with other tourists!! We went there early in the morning, around 9 am. We arrived and we got so disappointed; half of the island looked like they had planted palm trees there recently and in a specific order, and the other half of the island is covered with bars and tables. This is maybe a bit exaggerated but that's the first thing you see when you get there and the first opinion you get.. They told us the only place where we were allowed to go swimming was only a small part of the beach, maybe 50 - 100 meters. We decided to walk around the island to find a quiet spot, which we did, for like 30 minutes until people came and sat down half a meter from us. We went walking around the island to take some nice pictures and to enjoy the beautiful ocean. Once we got back to the main area we just wanted to go swimming, but we couldn't because there was just not enough space in the water. I don't know how they can allow it like this, it even looked a bit dangerous when a wave came and all the people were smashed together.. We were just exhausted from all the emotional stress (which you are not supposed to feel in a national park, and definitely not on a paradise island) so we decided to go back to the main island where we knew we could enjoy swimming and the beautiful beach. We tried to ask so many boats if they would take us back but nobody wanted to. It was impossible and just irritating how rude the "captains" were!! If we wouldn't have been able to communicate in Spanish I think they would all just have ignored us… Thankfully, we managed to find one boat that offered to take us back. The rest of the afternoon before heading back to Bogotá we enjoyed the quiet main beach, which I think was the perfect ending to this trip.