TCC Territory #16. May 26-31, 2026
Not so keen on this one. The waters off the coast are beautiful shades of blue (I do not filter my photos), and I did have one lovely hour of snorkeling. I hear the diving is lovely off the southern parts of San Andrés and around Providencia. For me though, the cons of visiting outweighed the pros. I should note that my personal experiences are limited to San Andrés as I did not visit Providencia. I should also note that the islands are still recovering from 2020’s Hurricane Iota, which damaged San Andrés and completely decimated Providencia (95% of all houses on that tiny island were completely destroyed).
First, a very brief history of the islands.
This pair of small Caribbean islands is located 125 miles to the east of Nicaragua and now belong to Colombia. Pre-1400s, the Miskitu peoples visited during their marine travels but did not settle. The 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries brought first Dutch settlers, and then English settlers along with enslaved people from Jamaica. The Spanish attempted to take the islands from the English but failed, in part due to attacks on their ships by pirates. The infamous pirate Sir Henry Morgan made San Andrés his headquarters, and legend has it some of his bounty remains hidden in a nearby underwater cave.
Between the 18th century and today, the islands changed hands between England, Spain, and then New Granada before finally becoming part of today’s Colombia. Attempts were made by the USA and Panama to make the islands part of Panama, but the islands’ residents rejected the proposal. Nicaragua attempted to claim the islands in 2001 to no avail.
Today’s residents are the native descendants of the English and Jamaican peoples, as well as transplanted mainland Colombians. The official language is Spanish, though the main language of the native descendants is a unique English-African (Zwa)-Spanish Creole spoken as part of their “Raizal” culture. English is also spoken by some islanders, but one should know basic Spanish if one plans to visit.
Now for my personal trip report.
This is Colombia’s Caribbean island, therefore one will see mainly residents and vacationing Colombians. During my five days, I saw only two other gringos, a fellow USA woman and a solo female Australian.
I chose to stay in the quieter middle part of San Andres along the eastern coast and not far from San Luis. My lodgings were in an apartment complex within the kind and cheerful owner’s small and secure compound. Though Google and AirBnB ratings praise this apartment, the kitchen was filthy with ants everywhere, only one of the room’s air conditioners worked, and everything felt grimy. The grimy feel was likely due to the hot and humid climate. The owner was so pleasant and cheerful though, always offering me coconut water, bananas, and figs straight from the compound’s trees and gardens, inviting me to his Raizal reggae concerts in which he is the lead singer, and just generally being a magnetic and sweet soul that I never complained to him or changed my lodging.
There is an excellent and inexpensive bus system that goes around the one main loop road of San Andrés, and I used it to explore the island. The main city occupies the northern section, and it is congested and loud, cramped with tall buildings and crowded with motorcyclists filling the roads. Motorcycles are the main method of transportation, and they move in huge clumps with no attention to lanes. There are no museums or things to do in that area except buy overpriced food at restaurants or street vendors.
There is one main dock where all the tourist boats leave for the same off-shore destinations, The Sea of Seven Colors and some nearby tiny islands/beaches. I took a tour which promised to visit several specific locations and offer snorkeling with tons of marine life. In realty, the boat took us to two sandbars in the midst of truly beautiful waters, and anchored us in the midst of dozens of other tour boats. There were a hundred+ people crammed into small areas with vendors on smaller boats selling alcohol. I saw vendors dump products directly into the ocean. There was little marine life, just bleached coral with a few fish. There were no bathrooms on the boats and no bathroom at the dock where everyone left, so you can guess where people were relieving themselves. A fellow passenger and I spent our snorkeling time picking up trash from the waters.
Maybe officials limit these offshore snorkeling excursions to a small area so most of the nearby waters can remain untouched? If so, then that’s great. The advertising for my tour should have stated this, though.
I did have a lovely experience snorkeling in the water by West View, a touristy area on the west side of the island just a couple miles from my lodging. The island was less than a mile wide in the area I was staying, so I walked to West View one morning and arrived right as the park opened. There is no beach here. You climb down steep ladders and enter the water and straight into a Times Square crowd of a huge variety of fish. It was lovely. Some people choose to just swim and not snorkel, and there are diving boards and one slide. No reservations needed, but arriving right when it opens is necessary if you want to avoid crowds. I snorkeled and swam with delight for an hour, and then the crowds appeared. That was my cue to bid the fish adieu. I drank coconut water from a freshly cut coconut before leaving. On the way back to my lodging, I stopped by a restaurant and spoke with a native islander while I had lunch. She told me she wanted to leave San Andrés because she feared for her two boys. That there was a lot of violence on the island, and that the violence was mainly perpetrated by young men. She thought the situation was getting worse, and she was trying to save up and leave. According to Internet resources, San Andrés is experiencing a dramatic increase in violence and homicides, but that is mainly associated with the illegal drug trade. I never personally felt unsafe, though I am always careful to never “give papaya” (Colombian phrase for displaying wealth and/or making yourself an easy target).
I spent my other mornings walking along various beaches. All of them had trash – trash is everywhere on San Andrés. I did see a few small stretches of sand that seemed clean. Even so, my host advised me to never go barefoot anywhere, including in the ocean, as there is always a high risk of stepping on broken glass.
There are a couple of small museums on the island that I did not visit due to their lukewarm reviews.
As far as the people go – except for my sweet host, the lady I spoke with during that one lunch, and one nice fellow I encountered on a walk, every single other person I encountered was taciturn and rude. No one was even a tiny bit friendly. There were constant attempts to severely overcharge me for food items – I expect a little gringo tax, but there are limits. I always attempted Spanish and never expected English, for what it’s worth. I have read of similar experiences online from other visitors, and not just gringos. This is not a Colombian thing, as I write this from Bogotá where everyone I’ve met is warm and friendly. It’s a San Andrés thing.
I had originally planned for seven days here, but the heat, humidity, and overall grimy and unfriendly atmosphere were getting to me, so I decided to cut my time short and fly to Bogotá early. I considered going first to Providencia where I know I would find far fewer people and far better beaches, but I was ready for a cooler climate. I was able to reschedule my flight at no charge and book a lovely Bogotá hotel on credit card rewards points, so off I went on May 31 instead of the originally planned June 2.
