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Post by jafo19d on Jul 14, 2019 20:28:32 GMT -5
Just got back from San Andrés and Providencia. Had never before been to the latter and it was amazing. They do a real good job of keeping the island in excellent shape. Will write more about my experience later this week.
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Post by elexpatriado on Jul 15, 2019 8:03:14 GMT -5
Yep.heard a lot of good things about Providencia. Definitely on my "Bucket List"
Now we are going to get all the comments from the Colombia "haters" who only visit Rodadero and the beahes at Bocagrande saying say all Colombian beaches are terrible, and Fort Lauderdale or Daytona Beach (Guacale) are so much better.
BTW I just came from Spain, I was mostly in the mountains, but did visit a Couple places on "Costa Brava"
Comparison to Colombia
- Architecture and history and quaintness and picturesqueness of the fishing villages a positive in Costa Brava - Beaches are smaller and less Sandy in Costa Brava _ -Mediteranean is clear blue green like the Carribean, but less fish life and coral than Carribean - Beaches in Colombia more tropical, lush and less crowded, even in high season(if you go to more remote beaches where you have to like Tayrona, Islas Rosarios, Capagurna, Providencia, etc)
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Post by buenopues on Jul 15, 2019 10:37:52 GMT -5
Love Isla Providencia. Have been there six times over the years. Always stay at Cabañas El Recreo because there's a nice strip of beach right in front of the cabañas. Always hire "Mr Hippie" to take us out snorkelling in his lancha. He knows the best areas around the island. My neighbor actually owns a lot there (never to be developed) next to Roland's bar.
There is a fascinating book about the island called The Island That Dissappeard, Old Providence and the Making of the Western World by Tom Feiling beginning with it's first colonization back in 1629.
Can't stand San Andrés.
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Post by jafo19d on Jul 21, 2019 9:09:40 GMT -5
Here’s my follow up. Meant to post sooner but had to travel for work and just got back Friday.
Getting there: we took the Avianca flight to San Andrés. We bought the island permits for about $100,000/pax right outside the Avianca VIP lounge.
Got to San Andrés at night and checked into the Sunrise Hotel. Yeah it’s run down but from the Trip Advisor reviews I was expecting worse. Next day we scuba dives with the shop located in the hotel and it was ok. It was my second time diving with them and I think it was about $200k/pax 2 dives. The next day we took the Catamaran and it was bumpy as hell. My gf and son took the sea sickness pills but still got queasy. Others were straight puking. I was cool even though I didn’t take any pills. Took about four hours.
We stayed at the Miss Mary Hotel. They’re part of Decameron and I loved this place. I think I made my reservation thru Booking and they said they’d get around to the payment later (they didn’t ask for it until the day we left 4 days later). I believe they have about 10 rooms with 5 facing the beach. Breakfast was always decent: eggs to order , juice, fruit of the day and either coconut bread (which was awesome ) or arepa, and coffee.
I don’t think that restaurant offers lunch. And at night the restaurant belongs to some other guys who although have slow service the cook is excellent. Most of our meals were at the well known Divino Niño which was just a few hundred meters walking along the shore.
Great food at the Divino Niño but their best dish was by far Cazuela de Mariscos.
My son and I did the Advanced Open Water at Sonny’s. They agreed to pick us up every day. They have us two options for the course 2 days 5 dives including a night dive or 6 dives with no night dive. Both were $1M/pax and we chose the former. Each day we did 2 dives of which one was deep. The deep dives were from 29 to 32M. Great equipment and our instructor was the owner Gerardo. Saw sharks every day and dolphins once. I was actually going to go with another dive shop until I learned that they fed sharks. Sonny’s doesn’t feed the sharks and that’s why I went with them. There’s also a dive shop right next to Miss Mary’s but I’m glad I went with Sonny’s.
Providencia is extremely well kept, didn’t see a single piece of garbage during any of my dives and the diving was awesome. My gf is the one that noticed that there weren’t jet skis, gusanos or any of that other noisy rides available. Very peaceful and safe. Cell phone reception is practically non existent with Tigo. Movistar has the best coverage there.
I’ll definitely be back.
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Post by gallito on Jul 21, 2019 12:15:30 GMT -5
Haha "Sonny's dive shop" I rented masks and fins from him,hewas drunk and rude.We had an American guy on our old forum jeep,Vince,I met up with him last S.A trip,his wife on San Andres is related to Sonny. All and all Old Prov was interesting visit,pristine,no crowds,nothing like S Andres.Probably won't return given that my bucket list has new slots.
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Post by jabberwocky on Jul 21, 2019 18:21:07 GMT -5
The wife has always wanted to go to San Andreas - but I have heard some so-so reviews about the island - my point to her - from Florida we can easily get to the Caribbean or Bahamas - we were in PR a few months ago - I would prefer to go to the Virgins - to get to San Andreas - first we need to get to Colombia and then fly - I will break down and eventually do it -to either island - my question are there AIRBNB type places? = i prefer to rent a condo - I spend too many nights in hotels rooms in the States for work - I like something a little bigger on vacation.
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Post by caliconnection on Jul 21, 2019 22:12:48 GMT -5
The wife has always wanted to go to San Andreas - but I have heard some so-so reviews about the island - my point to her - from Florida we can easily get to the Caribbean or Bahamas - we were in PR a few months ago - I would prefer to go to the Virgins - to get to San Andreas - first we need to get to Colombia and then fly - I will break down and eventually do it -to either island - my question are there AIRBNB type places? = i prefer to rent a condo - I spend too many nights in hotels rooms in the States for work - I like something a little bigger on vacation. If she's always wanted to go, then you should take her. I enjoyed my 4 nights on the island. The south of the island is much quieter than the north. We hired a golf-cart and drove it around the entire island in a day.
Not too sure about AirBnb. Check out the website...
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Post by jafo19d on Jul 22, 2019 21:50:27 GMT -5
The wife has always wanted to go to San Andreas - but I have heard some so-so reviews about the island - my point to her - from Florida we can easily get to the Caribbean or Bahamas - we were in PR a few months ago - I would prefer to go to the Virgins - to get to San Andreas - first we need to get to Colombia and then fly - I will break down and eventually do it -to either island - my question are there AIRBNB type places? = i prefer to rent a condo - I spend too many nights in hotels rooms in the States for work - I like something a little bigger on vacation. Lots of AirBnb in San Andrés with real good rates
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