I'm also from Colombia and I just wanted to comment that my very recent experience getting the certification was very different from the scary experience of tutifruti.
I did the theory and pool practices in Bogotá, and then I went to San Andres to get certified. In Bogotá, a school was recommended to me by a friend, and it turned out great! The instructor we had was very professional, but he also spent a lot of time giving us extra information from he's own experience (thank you Fabio!). I took the course with my girlfriend and we were both very happy because he answered every question we had, and when we finished the course we felt very confident about our knowledge and our skills.
In San Andres we went to the dive center located in the hotel, and it turned out great as well. Besides diving time, we spent a lot of time just talking to the instructors and getting more information about specific safety procedures and about the different diving sites around the island. Our first dive was something they call a fun dive, and we didn't practice any of the PADI skills (removing your mask, sharing air, etc). However, we descended and ascended using a line, we watched closely our ascend speed, and the instructor was never more than 2-3 meters away from us. She also checked us frequently, checked our gauges, and adjusted our buoyancy and our position. I think that was a pretty safe dive: we dove up to 50', in perfectly clear and hot water (30ºC), with no current at all (it just seemed a living pool).
Our other dives were also very good, they felt safe, and we enjoyed them a lot. The rest of the divers were also very nice. Some of them were very experienced and during surface time they also gave of hints and advices. I also noticed that in one of the dives, there was another instructor with an unexperienced diver that was also trying to get certified. However, the diver had problems with her ears and they called off the dive immediately.
As a final remark, on the last day we found out that the guy that drove the boat, and always stood on it waiting for us, was a certified rescue diver. Although that's something you don't want to learn the hard way, in retrospective it was good to have some knowledgeable on the boat in case of trouble.
Tutifruti, I'm sorry you had that rough first experience and I hope you're now enjoying diving!
