Sept 2008
This was a very important trip for us, it was our first time in the ocean together, before this our vacations had only pools and rivers :)
Everything started in another trip, one to Girardot. I was affiliated to Colsubsidio at that time (I was working for my University -Universidad de los Andes, proudly :) ) and we had great discounts for nice hotels there. So we were having our nice getaway when someone trapped Sergio. Here is the deal, Sergio is the kind of guy that can't say no... so salesman are happy around him, he just go and listen to them for as long as they want and then he feels really bad if he doesn't buy...
But this time it was good! they trapped him for one of these vacation plans, where you pay for some points that you can use in different hotels around the world. It actually sounded good (probably had some trick under it..) but you needed something like 15 million pesos to start (8 thousand dollars or so). We didn't had them, but we did the whole process. For this we got 3 days in a five star hotel in San Andres, so we booked cheap tickets and we payed two more days. We had our cheap trip!
San Andres is a paradise. It's a very small island, with white sands and clear water. Sunshine and cheap cocktails are all around.
We stayed at the Sunrise hotel. It is a very beautiful hotel, and the ocean view in the morning is astounding!!
We had many pictures of this trip!! - I say had cause we lost all of them in Portugal... I'll tell you later, but it was a big motivation to start writing this-
The hotel offered us a free lesson of wind surfing and a free diving lesson (with a discount for the actual ocean trip). So we took the wind surfing lesson on the first day. Sergio was a natural, he had fun and did a great job with the board; me... well you know me... I fell like 10000 times and I was crying in frustration... I could not keep the equilibrium.
Later that day we rented a jet ski, and had fun with that too!
But that was only the morning, in the evening we went for a snorkeling trip that included stingrays... veeeery cool!
The night ended with drinks on the beach...
Day 3. We rented a golf car, they are very cheap, and you can rent it inside the hotel, so it is easy and secure. This is, as I said already, a very small island, so it easy to round it and it not really dangerous, since there are not a lot of cars outside the commercial zone.
If it is your first time around San Andres, every touristic spot is interesting, but after the first time, everything is just the same. But there are 2 places that are really worth the trip: The natural pool and the 'Hoyo soplador'. The first one is a small cove that has a lot of reef fishes, many colors, many types. They are used to get food from tourists, so they gather around pieces of bread, you pay 1000 pesos (half a dollar) and they give you a piece of bread. This is usually old bread only planned for the fishes, so no food for you in case you are hungry... (I know, I know, but I heard from a girl that actually ate the bread and went for more...) If you can swim, this is a great place to get wet. The current is strong, so you have to be careful not to fall in the rocks... if you do, you may not get out of there, and be careful going out of the place, the leader (the old and the new) are very slippery. If you go here be sure to have either a waterproof housing or a simple waterproof cover (we had a Dicapac, it worked pretty well).
The second place is a blowing hole. It does not blow every day anymore (global warming :( ) but when it does it's pretty cool to see the water being pumped by the waves. -It didn't blew when we went-
For lunch we wanted a local restaurant, so we asked around and they told us to go to a place. This is something only Spanish speakers will understand, since we had a problem with the accent of the island people. We heard 'miselia' -miseria we interpreted. We thought it was a weird name for a restaurant, it means misery, but well, what do we know, so we look for it for like half an hour (a lot considering the small island) then we were tired so we went in the first place we found, once in they told us welcome to 'miselia' and then we checked the actual name: miss Celia, which in their fast way of talking was... well... anyways very good food, very recommended
Since we loved packed days, that afternoon we went for our first diving experience. It was scary. It begins with a fast boat trip, not easy on weak stomachs (like Sergio's :P ) and we had a huge lunch so you can imagine. Then you have to put all the gear in a moving boat. Yes there was help, but it was not that easy, thank God we didn't need suits. So once 'dressed up' we had to go in the water... yeah right... the way to do so is jumping backwards from the boat... pretty scary... we jumped and then going down! The first time is a scary experience, you feel small and kind of claustrophobic, huge space but breathing is hard and the idea of running out of air keeps rounding your head. Of course all this things are controlled, and you have an instructor that takes you all the way. Our instructor told us before jumping: do no touch anything!!! you don't know the animals, some of them may be dangerous, the corall can cut your skin very easily, so please do not touch!
So we went down trying not to touch, is harder than it seems, since when floating you can't really control all your movements, but we managed to behave. But then a huge group of fishes came to us, they were like curious puppys, and we were trying to run away, then you realize you were running from a really small fish, but... All and all it was a great experience, and it was the begining of our diving adventures.
For the evening we went for 'El barco Pirata'. Very nice party in a boat, good music, rum all over and people having fun, it was great!
Day 4. We went to Johny kay and the acuarium island. Again a forced trip when you go to San Andres :). Two small kays with great beaches and many fish to see, also stingrays.
The trip in the boat can be rough, especially for someone old or overweighted, since going in and out of the boat requires equilibrium and some help from the locals, involving even carrying you.
As an advice, do not take many things to this trip, you'll be in the water most of the time. There is a kiosk where you can leave your thing, for a small amount of money, but anyways is better not to take much, everything you leave in the beach can be stolen. But do take your snorkel! there are many fishes and the water is really clear, it is worth it! Again as an advice, the stones in the water are very slippery, be careful.
That evening we went for cocktails in the Hotel Disco, some karaoke involved, thank God we lost the videos :P
Day 5 and 6 we needed to rest, so we went for beach days. The beach in San Andres is really beautiful. A tent with chairs for the whole day is very cheap, and one can order drinks to the nice people that rent the tents. If one feels like shopping, there is a nice commercial zone, you find some god and not expesive stuff like candy, liquors, perfumes and makeup - one of Sergio's friend lives there and his family has a perfumes shop, we went to visit him-
This was a very important trip for us, it was our first time in the ocean together, before this our vacations had only pools and rivers :)
Everything started in another trip, one to Girardot. I was affiliated to Colsubsidio at that time (I was working for my University -Universidad de los Andes, proudly :) ) and we had great discounts for nice hotels there. So we were having our nice getaway when someone trapped Sergio. Here is the deal, Sergio is the kind of guy that can't say no... so salesman are happy around him, he just go and listen to them for as long as they want and then he feels really bad if he doesn't buy...
But this time it was good! they trapped him for one of these vacation plans, where you pay for some points that you can use in different hotels around the world. It actually sounded good (probably had some trick under it..) but you needed something like 15 million pesos to start (8 thousand dollars or so). We didn't had them, but we did the whole process. For this we got 3 days in a five star hotel in San Andres, so we booked cheap tickets and we payed two more days. We had our cheap trip!
San Andres is a paradise. It's a very small island, with white sands and clear water. Sunshine and cheap cocktails are all around. 
We had many pictures of this trip!! - I say had cause we lost all of them in Portugal... I'll tell you later, but it was a big motivation to start writing this-
The hotel offered us a free lesson of wind surfing and a free diving lesson (with a discount for the actual ocean trip). So we took the wind surfing lesson on the first day. Sergio was a natural, he had fun and did a great job with the board; me... well you know me... I fell like 10000 times and I was crying in frustration... I could not keep the equilibrium.Later that day we rented a jet ski, and had fun with that too!
But that was only the morning, in the evening we went for a snorkeling trip that included stingrays... veeeery cool!
Day 3. We rented a golf car, they are very cheap, and you can rent it inside the hotel, so it is easy and secure. This is, as I said already, a very small island, so it easy to round it and it not really dangerous, since there are not a lot of cars outside the commercial zone.
If it is your first time around San Andres, every touristic spot is interesting, but after the first time, everything is just the same. But there are 2 places that are really worth the trip: The natural pool and the 'Hoyo soplador'. The first one is a small cove that has a lot of reef fishes, many colors, many types. They are used to get food from tourists, so they gather around pieces of bread, you pay 1000 pesos (half a dollar) and they give you a piece of bread. This is usually old bread only planned for the fishes, so no food for you in case you are hungry... (I know, I know, but I heard from a girl that actually ate the bread and went for more...) If you can swim, this is a great place to get wet. The current is strong, so you have to be careful not to fall in the rocks... if you do, you may not get out of there, and be careful going out of the place, the leader (the old and the new) are very slippery. If you go here be sure to have either a waterproof housing or a simple waterproof cover (we had a Dicapac, it worked pretty well).
The second place is a blowing hole. It does not blow every day anymore (global warming :( ) but when it does it's pretty cool to see the water being pumped by the waves. -It didn't blew when we went-
For lunch we wanted a local restaurant, so we asked around and they told us to go to a place. This is something only Spanish speakers will understand, since we had a problem with the accent of the island people. We heard 'miselia' -miseria we interpreted. We thought it was a weird name for a restaurant, it means misery, but well, what do we know, so we look for it for like half an hour (a lot considering the small island) then we were tired so we went in the first place we found, once in they told us welcome to 'miselia' and then we checked the actual name: miss Celia, which in their fast way of talking was... well... anyways very good food, very recommended
Since we loved packed days, that afternoon we went for our first diving experience. It was scary. It begins with a fast boat trip, not easy on weak stomachs (like Sergio's :P ) and we had a huge lunch so you can imagine. Then you have to put all the gear in a moving boat. Yes there was help, but it was not that easy, thank God we didn't need suits. So once 'dressed up' we had to go in the water... yeah right... the way to do so is jumping backwards from the boat... pretty scary... we jumped and then going down! The first time is a scary experience, you feel small and kind of claustrophobic, huge space but breathing is hard and the idea of running out of air keeps rounding your head. Of course all this things are controlled, and you have an instructor that takes you all the way. Our instructor told us before jumping: do no touch anything!!! you don't know the animals, some of them may be dangerous, the corall can cut your skin very easily, so please do not touch!
So we went down trying not to touch, is harder than it seems, since when floating you can't really control all your movements, but we managed to behave. But then a huge group of fishes came to us, they were like curious puppys, and we were trying to run away, then you realize you were running from a really small fish, but... All and all it was a great experience, and it was the begining of our diving adventures.
For the evening we went for 'El barco Pirata'. Very nice party in a boat, good music, rum all over and people having fun, it was great!
Day 4. We went to Johny kay and the acuarium island. Again a forced trip when you go to San Andres :). Two small kays with great beaches and many fish to see, also stingrays.
The trip in the boat can be rough, especially for someone old or overweighted, since going in and out of the boat requires equilibrium and some help from the locals, involving even carrying you.
That evening we went for cocktails in the Hotel Disco, some karaoke involved, thank God we lost the videos :P
Day 5 and 6 we needed to rest, so we went for beach days. The beach in San Andres is really beautiful. A tent with chairs for the whole day is very cheap, and one can order drinks to the nice people that rent the tents. If one feels like shopping, there is a nice commercial zone, you find some god and not expesive stuff like candy, liquors, perfumes and makeup - one of Sergio's friend lives there and his family has a perfumes shop, we went to visit him-
This was our trip to San Andres, the pictures that we have are all on facebook, I will add a link to Picasa soon.
