San Andres trip

[padudle]

Thank you Crespos and Domino for the kind advice.

I think we will hunker down in Bogotá. The wife's sister has a house in North Bogotá and will be out of town while we are there so we can live independently but safely there. We will not make the trip to Boyacá. We will maximize our time in San Andrés.

Vaya con Dios

 

[domino22]

Good choice. Go to Carbon De Palo for a steak for me. And pm me about the diving. Got to go back down in July.

 

[amelium]

I am organizing a trip to San Andres Island out of Toronto, for November or early December. If you are interested in good diving and fun, PM me.

San Andres is an ok place to dive and have fun. If you go in December it will be really full of people. It's way more touristy that Providencia, so theres plenty of bars and nightlife, there is also rubbish, etc

Now Providencia, that's paradise. The people, the food, most of the people in the island speak caribbean english.

Although it's a small isalnd, in december it will have just enough people, it's very peaceful but you can get beer, rum and you can enjoy the island nightlife which is more based on the sporadic reggae concert or party at a bar or maybe bonfire at the beach.

Diving is good, although In late december if the north winds come it can get rough and not as nice. I would recommend Felipe Diving as a Diveshop, the instreuctor's name is Felipe Cabeza great guy, the diveshop is right at the beach.

Say that Amelia said hello

 

[amelium]

Domino

Thanks for the input. We will be going to Bogotá and San Andrés this May. What are your thoughts on US citizens venturing north from Bogotá up into Boyacá?

On San Andrés, are you familiar with Hotel Los Delfines? We have reservations there but the price seems too low.

Pete

I think los delfines is a hotel taylored for diving and divers it's located far from downtown but you can catch a bus or the hotel might give you a ride downtown. otherwise all there is around that hotel is scenery. the food is really good and you feel like you're at home

 

[amelium]

Enjoy all of the good food there is to eat in bogota
try sopas de la mama and postres de la abuala for tons of different typical dishes, great price and huge dishes
also have fritanga

and go to PROVIDENCIA YOU CANT GO TO SAN ANDRES AND NOT GO TO PROVIDENCIA
IF YOU DIVE WITH FELIPE DIVING ASK HIM TO TAKE YOU TO ESCALERA DEL CIELO, MY MOM TOLD ME IT was amazing -sorry pressed the caps key- was excellent and its a place not many people get taken to.

tell felipe the instructor amelia says hello

 

[padudle]

We did the May/June trip to Colombia including 10 days in San Andrés.

We logged 17 dives while there and in my opinion it is an excellent dive destination. I'm planning to put up a little "My Vacation" webpage and I'll post here when it's up so you can see some pictures but for now here's some info.

We stayed at Hotel Los Delfines which is located between two dive shops Buzos del Caribe and Banda Dive Shop. We chose to dive with Buzos and their excellent guide David Guggenheim (reggaenest@hotmail.com).

Los Delfines is a super friendly, very clean, well situated and very reasonably priced hotel. We were there during low season and paid a little less than $40US for the two of us including two meals a day. The only downside of the hotel is that their beach is not really good for snorkelling due to boat traffic between the reefs and the shore. The swimming beach is 1Km west of the hotel but there are no dive shops in that area because the boats cannot moor.

I liked the level of supervision diving with David at Buzos. I'm getting to point where I tire of guides who critique each dive. For example, on one dive I entered the water without cinching down the straps attaching my BC to the tank. Underwater, I just pointed out my situation and he quickly fixed the problem without ever mentioning it again. The boats and captains were great too.

On San Andrés, English is truly a second language. My understanding is that 50 years ago it was the primary language but due to immigration from the mainland Carribean English speakers are now in the minority. Nevertheless, this situation is helpful for the few Northamericans that venture there.