The tiny Colombian island of San Andrés lies within the Caribbean sea off of the coast of Honduras, northwest of the Colombian mainland. San Andrés is a popular vacation destination for Colombian mainlanders to escape to during holidays and weekends as the airfare is cheap, less than $100 each direction from the capital city, Bogotá. I visited mid-week for three nights for a good deal on accommodation; it ended up being a smart decision as the island was mostly empty of tourists.
The AirBnb that I was at was about 100 meters from the shoreline and offered a scooter rental that was ideal for exploring the island. It only takes about an hour to circumnavigate the circumference of San Andrés and really, you don’t want or need a car for that. A popular alternative is to rent buggys – sort of two-row, suped-up, open-air golf carts and we saw many vacationers travelling around as two pairs of couples in this fashion.
I was working while there and the internet was certifiably terrible, some of the worst and least-reliable of anywhere I have travelled. Restaurants and cafes don’t have accessible wifi for their patrons and even that which was provided in our accommodation was abysmal; nevertheless I was able to get through the week though a few video conferences were necessarily abbreviated. A small price to pay for being able to reconn this Caribbean island for three nights.
Though I was expecting a fancy destination, San Andrés wasn’t. It is quite Rastafarian, casual and laid-back with nothing approaching excess, splendor or elegance — all of that is a good thing. Plenty of beach bars that really are beach shacks constructed of driftwood and hand painted signs advertising coconuts for sale. Most of them were seemingly vacant — the proprietor decided he had better things to do with his time? The food was just okay, expensive. While part of the island’s charm is the simplicity that eschews need for anything more, some neighborhoods, buildings and areas of the island have been neglected of upkeep for decades — giving a somewhat dingy appearance that is easy to appreciate as ‘quaint’ instead.
The locals seemed much more distinctly Caribbean than Colombian and had I arrived without context would not have been able to determine where in the world I had landed, if not Jamaica. Also they were respectfully ambivalent and agnostic to the tourists and foreigners who wandered around in funny scooters or buggys — largely unconcerned and disregarding their presence; this was also appreciated — not once was I approached or solicited something for sale, or asked for money and it is the first time while in Colombia I felt invisible, a welcomed camouflage as a white gringo. I love destinations where I can exist, ignored.
My favorite memories of San Andrés involve eating a perfectly seared, thick, tuna steak and drinking a copious number of Piña coladas on a white sand beach overlooking an idyllic, sapphire sea. The island is so small that there’s nothing left to return to San Andrés for other than these things — and I must say that the unpretentious nature of the environment doubles the appeal of an eventual return. Next time, however, I think I’ll do it when I don’t have to work.
