I was sad to leave Salento, I easily could have spent a few more days enjoying the beautiful mountains, but it was worth it to squeeze in some island time on the tiny Isla de Providencia.
Getting to Providencia isn't easy, which is one of the things that makes it great (no crowds!). Since I was coming from Salento, I took an hour bus to Armenia, then flew to Bogota, and from there to the island of San Andreas. From San Andreas you can take a propeller plane about 20 minutes to Providencia, or a 3 hour boat ride. Everything I've heard indicates that that the boat ride is horrible and almost everyone barfs. So naturally I opted for the plane. I wasn't able to get on a flight the same say, so I spent one night in San Andreas, which is a very strange place. It's surrounded by beautiful clear blue waters, but is full of duty free stores, traffic, and generally ugly buildings. I visited one beach there during my free afternoon, it was pretty nice, but also quite crowded. I also had a really really salty fish and a juice I didn't like. Boo!
Providencia: actually not that close to mainland Colombia
Our plane to the island
Providencia isn't like anywhere else I've ever been, it's super small, friendly, and everyone knows everyone- if you want to go somewhere or do something, someone will take you on the back of their scooter or on their boat. I stayed at the lovely Posada Enilda, run by a brother and sister who made my stay really wonderful (also it was amazing to have my own room after sharing dorms for a couple of weeks)
The most common way to get around the island is by moto. Given my recent accident, I wasn't itching to drive a motorcycle again, especially since nobody on the island seems to own a helmet. So, I opted to rent a regular old bicycle, and quickly realized I was the ONLY adult on the whole island using this mode of transportation :) I can see why- biking around the island is not easy!
The first day I went almost the whole way around to get the lay of the land, and there were a ton of hills. SoulCycle did not prepare me for this! I've always had trouble just laying on a beach and relaxing, so getting some exercise on the bike with beach pitstops was perfect.
On Sundays, locals head to Manzanillo beach and gather around Roland's Bar to hang out drinking and socializing. I biked on down to check it out, and enjoyed a pina colada right from the coconut and some fresh fish with some people I recognized from my hotel. The island is so small that I pretty quickly met or at least recognized all the tourists. There was an incredibly friendly Canadian girl at our hotel who was like the social chair of the island, she got a bunch of us in the hotel hanging out together.
Roland's Bar
The following day, still not feeling capable of just kicking back on a beach, I decided to tackle hiking "The Peak" for a view of the island. The hike isn't all that difficult, unless you take a wrong turn, like I did. At one point I was going straight uphill, pulling myself up using little tree trunks for support. I definitely did think to myself "Hmmm, nobody mentioned this part of the hike" - but there seemed to be a bit of a trail carved out, so I kept going. Until it was really clear that it went up no further, then I went DOWN, which was just as hard. Luckily, some guys were doing construction on the real trail, so they showed me the right way, and I managed to reach the top without incident.
Views from The Peak
Then, finally, it was time to eat some lobster, and lay on the beach!
Lunch at Miss Elma restaurant
Sunset views from my hammock on Southwest Beach
For dinner, I went with the Canadian and her friend to a restaurant simply called The Caribbean Place where I tried some local black crab. I thought maybe just their shells are black, but the meat is as well. It wasn't my favorite, but I was also just getting kind of sick of seafood by that point (clearly, I am not cut out for island life).
My last day in Providencia, I finally got around to doing some snorkeling. One of the highlights of the island is Cayo Cangrejo (Crab Cay). It costs 40,000 COP ($14) to have someone take you there and back on a boat, and it's easy to organize. One of the owners of my hotel just drove me down and asked a guy, and that was that.
The family on the right had the most annoying kids ever, one of them was crying at all times.
Such clear water!
The waters there are so beautiful, it was nice to just sit on the dock and enjoy the view, but the snorkeling was also awesome, I saw tons of sweet fish. Sorry if you want a picture of said sweet fish, I don't have an underwater camera!
After a couple hours getting nice and sunburned, I went back to the main island,then got a ride over to Santa Catalina, another even smaller island that you walk across a short bridge to reach. There's a small beach there where some people let me borrow their snorkel to see MORE SWEET FISH.
My last night I enjoyed dinner at a place called Cafe Studio that is really known for their pie, so obviously I ate a giant slice of cappuccino pie on my own. Happy Valentine's day to me!
I was super sad to leave Providencia today, I could have easily spent a few more nights there, but I'm nearing the end of my time in Colombia, so had to get to Bogota; I have two nights here, then off to Argentina!