San Andrés, Colombia
In November of 2023, Sonny and I took a trip to San Andrés, Colombia. To be fully transparent we had never heard of San Andrés or Providencia before booking this trip.
Known as the sea of seven colors San Andrés and Providencia are home to the third largest coral reef in the world. This stunning tropical paradise is off the coast of Nicaragua but is owned by Colombia.
How did I stumble upon these two amazing tropical islands? To be honest, I was looking for a trip to the Caribbean, but I wanted to find someplace where the accommodations are cheap. To do this I pulled up Airbnb and started zooming in on different islands. When this island popped up accommodations started at $38 USD and up.
At this point, I booked our tickets through United Airlines using our miles to pay for the airfare. Once the airfare was booked I then turned my focus to figuring out where we were going to stay.
Typically when I book a trip I go back and forth between Airbnb, VRBO, and Booking.com. I feel VRBO tends to have more expensive listings. Booking.com has a lot of features I like, such as making partial payments, and paying when you arrive, and to me, it seems like there are fewer fees for the renter. In the end for this trip, I ended up using Booking.com.
Originally, I booked a property that was about 400 feet from Playa Spratt Bight, but after more research, I knew this was not the spot for us. When we travel we are often looking to relax. I know boring, but hey we work a lot!
Eventually, I stumbled upon the small town of San Luis. San Luis is tucked away from the bustling crowds and has a laid-back chill vibe. I found a little apartment on Booking.com called Apartamentos Sound Bay Beach it cost around $60 USD a night. The apartment was very basic the kitchen had just enough for us to be able to cook and store our beer. That said the apartment was directly across the street from the beach. My favorite feature was the balcony where we would sit and listen to the ocean, birds, and reggae.
We stayed in Sound Bay Beach for four days. Our days consisted of playing in the ocean, laying out on the beach, and reading. We did go to the beach club one day and enjoyed some piña coladas and a lounger.
For food, San Luis is not in a bustling section of town so your only options are small mini-markets (there is a large grocery store in the main town where the airport is). Our flight landed in the late evening so we went directly to our accommodations and were hungry. Once we talked with our host we knew we would discover there were no restaurants in the evening only during the lunch hours. This was not a big deal because two small markets were within walking distance from our condo.
During our stay, we pretty much lived off coconut, beans, and rice. Often when Sonny and I travel we do very simple meals. The reason is often we find ourselves in smaller towns away from the hustle and bustle of the city and are often limited to mini markets (I know we could get a taxi and go to town, but we don’t mind living simply).
The locals in San Andrés were warm and welcoming. Since this is an island of Colombia most of the people speak Spanish, but the local Raizal community speaks an English-Creole. In the morning we would take walks along the beach or the street. Locals would stop us and ask us where we were from and tell us to enjoy every minute we were there on their beautiful island.
Two days before we were scheduled to leave we decided to rent a buggy to explore the island. While there are cars on the island most people travel by motorbike or buggy (really most tourists travel in a buggy). The buggy rental cost us around $60 USD for 24 hours. The day we decided to rent the buggy ended up being the sunniest day during our stay on the island.
San Andrés is 13 kilometers in length making it easy to see the island in one day. Once we got the buggy Sonny had to navigate his way through town, which is jam-packed and on top of all the traffic driving in another country is always a bit intimidating.
Once we made it out of the city we started our journey around the island. As you are driving along you see houses painted in bright bold colors surrounded by lush green vegetation. Beautiful beaches with multiple shades of tropical ocean blue.
One of my favorite spots (we did not swim, we sat and drank beers) was on the south tip of the island right before El Hoyo Soplador. It was such a peaceful spot where palm trees lined the beach (not a lot of sand). As we sat on the bench this was the first place I saw a vivid blue rainbow lizard. Seeing this lizard was seriously one of the flora and fauna I wanted to see (who knew I would see so many in Providencia).
As we traveled around the island we would stop at different scenic spots and I would assist Sonny with the recording of his rap video Going, Going, Gone. We film this video on every trip we go on.
The day we had the buggy it was so warm and sunny we decided to do a touristy thing and we went to West View to jump off the diving board. The fee to get in is 8,000 COP which is about $2 USD. We needed a reprieve from the heat so this was a no-brainer for us. It was busy when we were there, but there were still plenty of bleachers and the line to jump off the diving board was minimal.
Overall we enjoyed West View. Both Sonny and I love jumping off rocks into the water. Being able to jump off an old school, super springy. diving board into the ocean that is 6 meters deep was calling our names. Once you are in the water there are tons of fish and the water is an amazing color of blue. There are metal ladders along the cliffside to help you get out.
After about 45 min. we decided to pack up and keep driving around the island. As we drove around we just kind of stopped wherever looked interesting and had a spot to pull out.
One of my favorite spots to drive along was the Cove Sea Side. It’s a little inlet from the ocean and houses line each side and boats line the shoreline. It is one spot I did not take any pictures of and I do regret it.
After driving around and exploring the island around dusk it started to rain (which makes it difficult to drive a buggy that has no windshield). At this point, we decided to call it a day and head back to our spot.
On the last day we were there we went into town to return our buggy, as we were walking we saw a small empañada shop and we stopped in and grabbed a couple. Neither of us was all that hungry at that time so I ordered a cheese one and Sonny ordered a two chicken. All I have to say is that I regret that I only bought one! The crust on the empañada was light and flaky with a mild sweetness contrasted with the saltness of the cheese. Oh my goodness I am salivating just writing about it. Sonny’s was savory and full of flavor.
After catching a taxi back to our spot Sonny and I talked about our flight the next morning. In the morning we were scheduled for the first flight at 7 am to Providencia. Our spot in San Luis was not in a densely populated tourist area and we realized that we were going to need to stay in the city by the airport.
At the last minute, I booked us a 1-night room at the Dreamer Beach Club in town. The hotel/hostel was within walking distance of the airport so we booked it. Upon arrival the staff was wonderful. While inquiring about our plans I mentioned that we had a flight to Providencia in the morning and that we planned to walk to the airport. The woman welcoming us advised us that it was unsafe to walk to the airport that early in the morning in the dark and recommended we use a taxi. This was a huge contrast from where we were just at, but hey it’s a city and we were thankful for the warning.
The accommodation was nice and clean. The room was small but we were only there for one night. That night we enjoyed dinner from the restaurant on sight. I had a chicken salad with patacones on the side and Sonny had a Colombian rice dish topped with an egg. Both of our dinners were delicious (especially after 3 days of coconut rice and beans for every meal).
After dinner, we stayed at our table and had a couple of cocktails. Sonny drew in his blackbook while I read. It was peaceful and a fun place to people-watch. After a couple of drinks, we decided to call it a night.
We woke up the next morning at 4:30 am. We needed to be at the airport two hours before our flight. The check-out process at the hostel was very easy and again the staff said that this was not a safe hour to walk to the airport so they called us a taxi. The taxi arrived and in less than a minute we were at the airport headed to the next island.
Providencia…. (To be continued)
El Placer, Mexico
The view from our back door of our AirBnB
Finding Our Vacation Destination
Back in December of 2020, we decided to travel to Mexico. Due to COVID, we weren’t able to travel much that year and by December we were getting a little stir crazy. I booked the trip on a whim so I didn’t have much time to plan things out. I had 5 days to find lodging and come up with things for us to do. Since it was peak COVID time, I knew the majority of our time would be spent at whatever house we booked. That meant I needed a house or studio that was right on the beach and preferably a bit remote.
One thing I try to do when I travel is to go to new places and see different things. On our previous trip to the Yucatan, we stayed in Playa Del Carmen and traveled extensively throughout that region. My husband and I love the Yucatan with the beautiful Caribbean beaches. We decided that we wanted to go to the Yucatan region, but we wanted to go someplace new. On our prior trip, I wanted to visit Laguna Bacalar, but with so many ruins and ceñotes to visit, we never made it down that far. With that in mind, I then got on my AirBnb app. One thing I like to do on the AirBnB app is find a general location and just start looking up and down within that region to find a spot.
Once I logged into the AirBB app, I started scrolling just south of Tulum on the beach and started zooming in and looking for places to populate with a price. That’s when I found an amazing spot in a village called El Placer. To call El Placer a village seems silly, it’s a strip of land with houses and vacant lots. El Placer is about 20 minutes north of Mahahual and about 5 hours south of the Cancún airport. Since El Placer is pretty remote we knew that we would need to stock up on groceries. We also knew there were some smaller markets and fruit stands in Mahahual.
About Our Lodging
Our AirBnB was a downstairs studio with a private entrance. The studio was simple, it had a bathroom and shower and a small kitchenette where we could prepare our daily meals. The window inside the studio looked out at this beautiful beach. There was an outdoor shower that you could use to rinse off after spending the day in the water. The caretaker of the property resides in the upstairs unit and there is an additional studio on the other side of the house. When we were there, we were the only visitors besides the caretaker. All of the properties around us were vacant at the time of our visit. The cost to rent this AirBnB was $69 USD a night! The one downfall of this location was the trash on the beach. I am not sure if it was the time of year or maybe it is the way that the tide comes in, either way, there was trash on the beach. That said the trash wasn’t enough to detour us from swimming and hanging out on the beach. Even with the trash the beach was beautiful. White sands and turquoise blue water what’s not to love? Would I visit this location again? Absolutely!
Laguna Bacalar
Things To Do
We stayed in El Placer for about two weeks, at a certain point we wanted to venture out. Here are some of the things we did:
Costa Maya- Is a small village located just outside of Mahahual. Costa Maya is where we would go to pick up groceries, visit the fruit market and pick up any random supplies we needed. The town is pretty small but it does have a couple of hotels.
Mahahual- Is a small village that I imagine gets pretty busy when the cruise ships are docking there. Luckily while we were here the cruise ships were not running due to covid so the village didn’t seem overly crowded to me. We would visit Mahahual when we felt like eating out or getting a cocktail next to the beach. I am vegetarian and was pleasantly surprised to find enough options for me to eat. Mahahual is also a great place to stroll along the malecón.
Laguna Bacalar (Lake Bacalar)- Prior to our trip, Laguna Bacalar has been a destination that I have wanted to visit for years. Lake Bacalar was just under two hours away. This lake of seven colors did not disappoint. On the lake there are several open ceñotes that you can swim in on your tour. One thing that we didn’t do that we regretted was going to Fuerte San Felipe. It is a fort that was used to protect the citizens from the pirates. While we were visiting we were told that the lake was not as vibrant as it normally is due to a recent hurricane.
Chetumal- I wanted to visit this town while we were down there, but we never made it. Supposedly you can see manatees swimming in the water. It is also a larger town that has bigger markets like Costco. If I were to do this trip again I would have taken an additional plane ride to the airport in Chetumal to avoid driving five hours from Cancún. Chetumal boarders Belize and is about 2.5 hours from El Placer.