San Andrés is a sister island to Providencia, which we visited at this time last year. Although off of the coast of Nicaragua, these Colombian territories are a hold-over from earlier eras of Simon Bolivar's republic. It is a popular tourist destination for beach activities and shopping, an urban counterpart to the more laid back Providencia.
Arriving in the afternoon after a fantastic sail, we anchored in front of a small marina where René was available to begin to check us into the country. You must use an agent to clear into Colombia and in many ways this is worth the extra fees, since they bring the Immigration and Customs agents right to you.
The Immigration officer arrived at the marina with a nifty fingerprint machine and we all got a laugh when Mark's fingerprints weren't able to be imaged. He had sanded them off when wet-sanding the new sterns!
Thankfully they didn't opt to arrest him and were able to get a print of his third finger on one hand!
Later the Customs agent came aboard Reach for the rest of the paperwork and we were official.
From our anchorage right next to the public pier, we witnessed many community events and were impressed with the civil participation at all times of the day. There were frequent exercise classes, instructed over loudspeakers and a good beat, in both evenings and mornings. There was also the occasional protest and/or parade marching down the streets.
Walking around San Andrés it was obvious you could find just about anything here with major grocery and hardware stores present. We found some old favorites like PulpiFruta juice, yummy uchuvas and even a capacitor for our generator.
There is also a major shopping zone that used to be duty-free and still resembles those types of stores, products and prices that you might see in any airport.
Liquor prices were better than most places we've been, but everything else, especially clothes, are very expensive in Colombia.
There was a lot of construction going on and we had the impression that the area is somewhat past its prime and in a re-building stage. That doesn't mean that there weren't plenty of tourists around enjoying themselves.
In true Colombian style, people pack themselves into vehicles, buses and boats with good cheer and loud music to voyage around and experience the sights.
Even though it seems like longer, having been back living aboard Reach for less than a month now this place was our chance to truly wind-down and get into the rhythm of boat-life.
We've had memorable meals, laundry days, haircuts, walks, reading and naps as the days begin to merge into each other.
All of this excitement wears out even the dogs...
