Our time on San Andres Island was relaxing, educational and so much fun. One of the most interesting aspects was that the residents typically speak both English and Spanish. And due to their heritage, they speak English with a Caribbean accent known as San Andrés–Providencia Creole. It is music to the ears.
Challenges Getting There
After flying a little over two hours from Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG) to San Andrés’ Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport (ADZ), we arrived to a quaint, but hectic scene of intense COVID protocol and short-term immigration paperwork. The flight is about 1200 kilometers or 746 miles.
Earlier that morning we stood in line at the Viva Airlines baggage check location for two hours and as we checked in we filled out the forms and paid the entrance fee for our stay on the island.
The entrance fee to San Andrés island ranges from 52,000 – 112,500 Colombian pesos (depending on exchange rate: $15 – $33) that you’ll have to pay in cash before boarding your flight.
Note: Our experience with Viva Air was miserable. They were unorganized and inefficient. We are not flying Viva Air ever again if possible. We found our experiences with Avianca (another international Latin airline) and regional carrier EasyFly much better.
Fun Starts Beyond The Airport
We located the taxi to take us to our hotel – Decameron Hotel Aquarium. This place is a resort and just a few steps away from being Paradise. We originally were scheduled to stay at the Decameron San Luis. Due to the recent hurricanes – Eta and Iota – the Decameron group relocated us to the Hotel Aquarium.
It is an all-inclusive resort with 6 restaurants and 3 bars onsite. As they so precisely describe in their literature “this resort has an exceptional architecture with circular towers overlooking the sea at ‘Punta Hansa’ – at the northern end of the Island of San Andrés – which allow for wonderful panoramic views of the Caribbean Sea”
For an amazing five days and four nights we stayed on the island. We spent two afternoons on the best beach on the island – Playa de Spratt Bight. We shopped in the tourist shops and bought gifts for family and friends. There were also many duty free shops offering primarily alcohol and expensive fashion apparel.
Check out my video below from the Curious Perro YouTube channel highlighting much of our experience.
Lastly, we took a taxi tour of the island to see the beauty and the devastation from the recent hurricanes. To see more about these, please visit my more recent blog post – San Andrés Island: Overcoming Hurricanes Eta and Iota
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