TRAVEL TO AN UNKNOWN TROPICAL PARADISE! SAN ANDRES (COLOMBIA)

Hello guys!

This is my first post in Steemit, so let´s get started :)

In this first Blog we will talk about San Andres.

San Andrés. Sound familiar? San Andreas? Wasn’t that a movie? ... No, it is not a movie and it is not at all related to GTA either! San Andres is instead the name of the most important island of Colombia. Don't know where it is? It is right here (the little red marker):

Despite its importance, San Andres is a tiny, very tiny place. With 28 km of perimeter, you can go through all the island in not more than an hour by car. The population of this place is little too. It has just 75 thousand inhabitants.

The main language of the island is Spanish, which is also the official language of Colombia. However, the specific culture and ethnics of the people of San Andres are different from the rest of the country. The 700 kilometers (aprox 430 miles) between the nearest coast of the country and this island don’t come alone. This island was controlled by England in the colonial age. The mix of populations, languages and cultures created some unique traits that you can see today specially in the way the people speak and their architecture. The typical houses of the island are like this:

Also, the language they use to communicate between them is not Spanish, nor English. It is instead a weird mixture of this two and some African languages contributions. This language is called Creole.

After this little introduction, let’s see what I did there and why I think it is an actual heaven in Earth.

So, the first thing you need to know when you travel to San Andres is how to get there. As you can see from the map, the island is far from the Colombian coast, so the only option is airplane.

There are plenty of daily flights to San Andres from the biggest cities in Colombia, including Bogotá, the capital, Medellin and Cali. There are also international flights from Panama City for example. In any case, getting here from Colombia shouldn’t be very expensive. The cost of a round trip from Bogotá shouldn’t be more than 70 USD. There is also a special Tourism Permission that you will have to buy at the departure airport and costs 33 USD. So, the total transportation cost to the island is about 100 USD per head. It is important for you to book your hotel previously as in the Tourism Permission you will be requested to fill some basic information about yourself and about the place where you are going to stay.

I went with my family this time. We went from Thursday in the night to Tuesday very early in the morning, so we spent 4 full day there plus the times of the flights. We took a flight from Bogotá which lasted a little more than two hours. The airplane departed at 7:20 so by 9:40 we were in Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (ADZ). The first thing we did upon arrival was taking a taxi to the hotel to rest for that day.

Here you can see a picture of me at Eldorado Intl Airport in Bogota:

And a pic of San Andres’ Airport:

We stayed at a hotel called “Mahalo House”. The front of the hotel looks like this:

The location of this Hotel is good, just a few minutes in car from the center of the city. You will though have to take a taxi each time you move from or to the hotel, as the distance walking from the city is not that short. But don't worry, there are two touristic places very near to it which are Rocky Cay and the Mangrove.

Having stayed at this hotel, I would recommend it for a single backpacker or a group of friends. If you are going with your family, I would suggest bigger and more recognized hotel Decameron Aquarium, or one of the other two Decameron placed at the island. The Pro of this place is that at a considerably low price, the experience is very good. For a 3-bed room and 5 nights we payed 426 USD, which is approximately 30 USD per person per night.

The first thing we did at the other day was going to the center of the city to have a better look at it. We went to the beach for some minutes and left because it started raining sometime after we arrived. We could take some good pictures though:

After that we went to San Luis beach, which is the most beautiful (and less crowded) beach in the island. Here you can see what I mean:

There is a tiny island next to that you can see from this beach and go just by walking. You can see it in the picture above. It is called Rocky Cay. The water between the beach and the cay is never deeper than 1.5 meters so even a child can go easily walking to the cay. Although the island is minuscule, with just 20 meters of diameter, is a really good spot to take a beautiful picture, so don’t forget to bring your waterproof camera or pHone to this place!

We stayed till 5 pm in this place. After that, in the night we went to a place that the owner of the hotel recommended to us to dine. It is called “La Regatta”. Regatta is a sailing race for those who are not related to the world of the sea. Take a look at the beautiful decorations of the Restaurant:

The dinner war excellent! Although it is definitely not a cheap place (Around 110 USD for three people), my expectations were totally fulfilled. I strongly recommend you to dine in this place, you won’t regret it. You have to make a reservation with one day of anticipation because if you arrive without one, most probably you won’t be able to find a seat.

The second day we went to other important places in San Andres: Johnny Cay and the Aquarium.

Jhonny Cay

I had never been in such a beautiful island. This is also a tiny island (400 meters of diameter) and I’m sure every rich person in the world would die for having a private house built here. It has a beautiful beach with white sand and turquoise water in one side, and some rocky ground where natural pools form on the other. The center of the island is covered by the shadows of the palms. It would be the perfect place for hanging a hammock, having a Pina Colada and resting all day.

![iM12.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmZ8rN43J3Hi98ZwYVaVnF6HT7y7q5ABbr5qP1pGZZ!

There are also some Friends that would make company to you there:

After this Little Paradise, we went to the Aquarium, which a little island with a formation of rocks underwater which makes the water calm enough so you can see all sort of little fishes and sea creatures. For this two places, you will also have to do a reservation which costs around 20 USD per person.

The third day we sent scuba diving! I had never done that before in my life so it was an amazing experience for me. Me and my parents made this experience with a business called Blue Life, which is located at a very famous hotel in San Andres, the sunrise Hotel. From 8:30 in the morning till 2 pm I went through a phase of basic knowledge, to a phase of practicing in the pool to the actual experience. It was amazing. Look at some of the coolest pictures I took.

(Sorry for the lines in the pics :p, the camera was a little broken)

The next half of the day and the fourth day we visited some other nice places around the island and went shopping. Here you can see a place called “West View” where you can jump from a trampoline to a natural pool and see some fishes if you bring a mask.

So, this is all for today, fellow steemers. I totally recommend you to go to this place. It is a little Paradise lost in the Caribbean Sea, an is totally worth living all the experiences it has to offer. I hope you guys liked this post. Please tell me in the comments what you liked and any questios you have! And if you want more of this please follow me :)

Bye guys, and good Steeming! :)