A postcard for paradise...
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A couple of months ago, one of my best friends growing up contacted me,
"I've been travelling up through South America and I'm about to reach the Caribbean. Do you fancy meeting up on a random island somewhere to catch up?!"
I hadn't seen him in around 5 years, but my old friend knew I was a total travel junkie and my answer would be YES! He offered to do the research and sort out the whole thing, simply told me where to fly and gave me a figure for my share in the costs.
So I was booking a flight to "San Andres, Colombia" in order to catch a boat to one of its sister islands, "Providencia, Colombia". Even though I knew I'd be in for a beautiful Caribbean island, I didn't look much into it to make the most of the surprise.
So you can imagine my amazement when I landed to find this...
A tiny piece of paradise with a population of 5,000 people and pretty much no internet
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When I say tiny, it only took around 20 minutes to drive all the way around the island on a small moped. If you're looking for somewhere a little more off the tourist track, I can't recommend this place enough. The locals are also some of the kindest people I've come across, always looking to have a chat and do what they can to help make your stay a memorable one. We made friends with a guy that took us out on his boat, I ended up playing with the island band at one of their gig's and a couple of people even invited me to go spearfishing with them when they saw me chilling on the beach one morning by myself. We ended up spotting a couple of nurse sharks and cliff jumping off one of their favourite points along the way.
A note to fellow female solo travellers: Even though I was travelling with someone at this point, I usually travel alone and would have felt completely safe and comfortable on this island if I was.
As always, thanks for reading and let me know if you have any questions in the comments below!
With love,
Faye
