Mad Dogs and Englishmen...
07 March 2011 | Isla de Providencia, Colombia
Sunny, Air Temp 88F, Water temp 80F, Wind NE@12-14
Walking bridge between Providencia & Catalina islands
...go out in the noon-day sun. Well, two days have somehow stretched to four, and we are still here. But its time to move on and we'll be off tomorrow. We have re-provisioned as best you can here and seen the sights. In an island four miles long and two miles wide, you can see a lot in a short time. Yesterday we rented a sort of 4-wheel off (and on) road thing for four of us and a scooter for two and went touring. We were with Bruce and Nancy from Seabird and with Pieter and Tina from Job (Holland). We took turns on the scooter and took the day to drive round the island and see the sights. It doesn't really take all day, but we stretched it out with lunch on South-West Beach where we had a huge lunch of a seafood medley, freshly caught, as we watched them landing the fish just before lunch. Then touring the rest of the island. There is a road that circles the island, and a few that run off it, and we checked them all out.
There are a few small hotels (Postadas) with a half dozen rooms scattered around the island, but few signs of visitors. Most visitors are divers drawn by the pristeen (and uncrowded) reefs that surround the island. This is not an easy place to get to. To get here by anything but your own boat, first you need to get to Isla San Andres (our next stop) and then take a plane or a water taxi the rest of the way. To get to San Andres, you have to get to Panama or Colombia and fly out. So we're at the end of the tourist line. Its both good and bad. Good because the island is still "undiscovered", but bad because people here are poor and could use the money and jobs that tourism would bring.
Things are very inexpensive here, at least I think so as we're still not sure of the exchange rate. I think its about 1,900 pesos to the dollar. So I had quite a wad when I drew 400,000 pesos out of the ATM. Our excellent lunch on the beach cost us 20,000 pesos, or about $10.00 for both of us. It gets some getting used to to see a bill for groceries for $25,000, but we're learning. But as its a remote island, fresh things like fruit, which we enjoyed in plenty in Jamaica, are either not available or of such poor quality from their trip here, that they aren't worth it. But we're not starving. We still have food in the freezer from Marsh Harbor in January that we are getting through and there is an excellent bakery. Grocery shopping is an adventure, and with three good sized stores, all within 40' of each other, we can usually find what we want (except for fruit).
And we are learning to adopt the local customs. All shops and offices close at noon until around three as it is just too hot to be out in the sun. Then things pick up and businesses carry on until eight or nine pm. On weekends things pick up. Saturday night the band on the beach played until dawn! Sunday was quiet.
We have lots of pictures, but there is no high-speed internet here and none at all often. Perhaps we'll be able to post them from Isla San Andres. Its supposed to be significantly more up-scale and touristy.