Providencia - population "five thousand and change"

After a short hop on a half full, fume filled plane we land on Providencia.

The pilot lands on an airstrip the length of a driveway at home and once nine locals have gone through and the three immigration officials have decided on which country we're from - after much discussion between the three of them but without asking us, they settle on 'Grande Brittain' - we get a cab to hotel Sirius.

View from Hotel Sirius

The locals speak Creole in preference to Spanish and pretty much everyone speaks English too - life is going to be easy for us on this island.

After selecting our room, like the two city girls we are we head off to the beach for sundowners only to find that all but one one of the bars is closed and that one is closing, we panic buy four bottles of beer with the help of the bar mans English speaking wife who also tells us about a 'Programme' on the beach on Saturday. The island has it's annual event on the beach, with horse racing, music, sack races (!) - not to be missed. When I ask Jadeth if all 6,000 islanders will be there she says no and corrects me in her beautiful lilting accent that the population of the island is "five thousand and change" - I loved that description.

The winner!

Old Providence, as it's known by the locals is a tiny island it has just one road (17k long) around the perimeter of the island and we hire a Kawasaki Mule (a golf buggy!) to go and explore.

We've done a boat trip around the island, visited Morgan's Head (named after the pirate Henry Morgan), met a man who smokes 15 joints a day (lots do) met a man with 15 brothers and sisters (it's a catholic island), eaten a fish called 'old wife', watched the most incredible storm descend on the island and learnt that a bottle of tanqueray lasts us four nights!

We're currently sat in a coffee shop on San Andres before flying to Bogota this afternoon then it's on to Ecuador.

See you in Quito!

Raine x

So far so amazing.....

Colombia has exceeded expectations on every level, particularly Cartagena and Providencia.

Casa villa colonial our hotel in Cartagena was a big step up from the hostel in Bogota and the cold shower here provided a welcome relief to the sweltering heat. Cartagena is an old walled city founded in 1533 (and raided by Francis Drake in 1586!) it has a very colonial feel to it. 

On our first day we walked without any real plans, the city is easily walked in an hour or two. Beer o'clock struck while we were in one of the old squares, a great vantage point to people watch from and to see the small horse drawn carriages called huelepedos (or farties!) take tourists on a romantic tour of the city.

We've seen very few European tourists, in fact the majority of tourists here are Colombian.

We have been treating this first part of our trip as a holiday and so have eaten well in some very nice restaurants - the first night we ate in Gaucha just over the road from our hotel - when we offered our card to pay the bill the owner apologised saying that he only accepted cash and asked if we would return the following day to pay, he wouldn't accept any kind of surety - I just can't imagine that happening in London.

Dinner at Gaucha

It was in the Cafe Lunatico next door to our hotel, where we breakfasted everyday that I perfected saying "Quisiero dos tinto americano con poco leche - mas negro, por favor".

On Tuesday after some exploring we went in search of El Bistro a restaurant that Abs had read some good reviews about - it was so hot and so we stopped for a diet coke and tried to work out where El Bistro was on a map, not far by the look of it. Then just as I'm finishing my drink I see a Trip Advisor award for excellence on the wall, presented to El Bistro - turns out it was closer than we thought.

At Beer O'clock we head back to our hotel and start talking to Marta from Holland who is travelling alone, she's here to visit the children's home where she was put up for adoption 33 years ago, she'd like to trace some family members but she isn't hopeful as there were very few records kept and no paperwork. We leave for Providencia in the morning so have cocktails and dinner with Marta - very brave of her to have made this trip alone, I hope she is able to trace some members of her family. See you in Providencia! Raine x