Reflecting on my time here, San Andres was definitely a highlight. I stayed here for 3 and a half weeks as I was volunteering at a hostel on the island. I found the hostel through the website ‘workaway’, if you are travelling for a long time, I would suggest signing up to this website and volunteering for a bit! Most of the openings ask for at least 2 weeks commitment and some for 1 month. They also get pretty booked up so I would suggest emailing hosts one month in advance. For me, volunteering was a great way to save money and also gave me a little routine. I could not have been luckier to have Juan as my host and to work in Blue Almond hostel. This hostel is one of the best hostels I have ever stayed in, it is perfect for meeting friends! The hostel has a kitchen, beer vending machine, shaggy (the blind dog), an outside area and a little living room where you can watch netflix. It has a home feel to it and by the end of it everyone knew each other so well. I would say that I prefer smaller hostels like Blue Almond as everyone knows each other and it feels like a family. Getting to San Andres is easy from any major city in Colombia. There is also an entrance charge of $110 COP to the island.
Whilst working at Blue Almond, some of my tasks included checking guests in, Juan kindly trained me in using the ‘optilodge’ booking system. My daily routine would consist of starting work around 9ish, changing beds for guests that were checking in or out. Then Juan and I would do some cleaning or general odd jobs such as gardening and painting chairs. I became a whizz at changing beds by the end of it, it was also so nice that Juan did most of the tasks with me to keep me company. As I was working in low season, the work was super easy and chilled. I had pretty much every afternoon off which was amazing! It was also really interesting to get an insight into how a hostel is run, I didn’t realise how important it was to check guests in correctly (e.g. full name, passport name) for migration purposes. Also the way that the hostel is planned, for example organising the beds and dorms in a certain way to make sure that everyone feels comfortable. Volunteering in a hostel has helped me to become a more considerate guest as I understand the reasoning for many of the rules in hostels. I was also given the opportunity to cook a ‘family dinner’ which I enjoyed, I managed to make the guests fajitas and I was so proud of myself for making this meal!
Another factor that made San Andres so special was the scuba diving! it was here that I discovered my love for diving. I started off with doing a ‘discovery dive’ which gave me a feel for the sport. I then decided to sign up to an open water PADI course. If you decide to do something similar, then definitely do it with ‘Scuba San Andres’ dive school, the staff are lovely and they take you to some excellent dive spots. They also take awesome underwater pictures which they send you! For the whole PADI course, I paid $900,000 COP, which is pretty cheap for the world of diving!
The PADI course consists of 3 days and you are required to read the manual before you start. On the first day you are based in the pool where you learn the basic skills and familiarise yourself with your BCD and regulator. You are also required to float for 10 minutes and swim 18 lengths. I struggled with some of the skills at first, especially the one where you take off your mask and then have to put it back on underwater, it took me a couple of times to ace this skill. My instructor Andres was so patient! I also found it difficult to achieve neutral buoyancy as it took some time to get used to the breathing. On the second day you practice 2 dives where you perform the skills. I was quite nervous and anxious in these dives as I didn’t want to mess up the skills! On the third day you do your final dive where you practice other skills such as using the compass to navigate and rescuing someone to shore. After 3 days you then have to do an exam (super easy) and then you are qualified to dive at 18m! After I qualified, I then signed up for 2 fun dives which were fantastic. At first I was super nervous to go diving again as I found it quite scary on my course, but as soon as I got down to the bottom and saw all the colourful fish I was in awe. I felt super confident by the second dive and had nailed my buoyancy! We swam through caves and the corals were beautiful. I no longer felt scared but in love with this new hobby of mine! After open water there are many other levels you can achieve such as advanced, rescue and dive master. There is a lot of dive tourism on this island and if you get the chance then you should go to Providencia too. As well as becoming a diver, I also had the experience of being an extra for a Colombian TV show. As soon as I arrived at the hotel, I was taken straight to hair and make up! My role included walking across the hotel lobby, big star in the making!
If you don’t dive then San Andres is still worth visiting! The snorkelling is beautiful and you can also visit the cays and beautiful beaches, San Luis and Cocoplum are two of the best. It is also fun to hire a golf buggy and drive around the whole island, its only small at 36km! The island is divided into the ‘Colombian’ side and the ‘Caribbean’ side. San Andres is an island off the coast of Nicaragua and used to be British, so lots of the residents are Creolan. The Colombian side (downtown) is dominated by luxury hotels and restaurants, which is not really my thing. I much preferred the Creolan side which consisted of reggae bars and more secluded beaches. It was just difficult to get to this side if you don’t have a scooter as the buses are not the best! You can visit this side in a golf buggy though! One of my favourite spots for the sunset was ‘Reggae Roots’ bar, this bar also has a diving board and snorkelling gear you can rent. It is well worth spending an afternoon and evening here. Just beware that the mosquitos will come out when the sun goes down, so get out of there quick! Reggae roots is right next door to ‘West View’ which advertises itself as a water park but all it has is a diving board and a rickety slide. You also have to pay a cover charge, in Reggae roots you only have to buy a drink to enter.
In terms of restaurants, they are a little more expensive. There is an excellent restaurant at San Luis beach called ‘The Paradise’, it serves fresh fish. As a vegetation I found it quite difficult to find good veggie restaurants so I cooked most of my meals! Another good restaurant in the downtown area of the island was the 80s bar which served excellent Mexican food. As for nightlife, the island has a limited selection. There is a club called Coco Loco but I never went. There is also ‘Bonzai’ bar which the hostel goes to on a Wednesday and gets a free drink! Most of the time we would head down to the beach and have a couple of drinks at the waters edge. The island is absolutely beautiful with some of the best beaches in Colombia. It has such a nice vibe and the people are the loveliest. I was so so happy here and would wake up every day with a massive smile on my face. I would recommend staying on the island for at least 4 nights and definitely stay in Blue Almond. I made friends for life in this place (big shout out to my girl Meg and of course Juan!)
Romy's Roamings 