Hands down best day on di island was hiring un carrito de golf (golf buggy) and driving around. Ours was green and quickly christened El Tortuga (the turtle) on account of the fact its max speed was about 20km per hour. The island is only 12km long but it took us a fair wee while to meander around on el tortuga stopping off at beaches and restaurants along the way. We stopped at Westview and paid $3 to swim off a cliff in a cove that was absolutely chocca with tropical fish. You got 2 slices of bread with your entrance fee and when Zoe chucked it down to me in the water the fish went nuts. There were hundreds of them all just swimming away totally not bothered by the tourists snorkelling around them or the 2 gringas shrieking away! My favourites were ones that looked black until they got close up and then you saw they aware actually neon purple. We passed on the diving board off the cliff and the ramshackle water slida but had the most amazing time swimming with the fishes.
Driving on di island was quite the experience and I reckon the highway code got lost in translation. Also they peep their horns all the time anyway and that went into overdrive when they saw us......still the only Gringas on di island.
Other highlights of our last few days:
1) Massive storm came through one day which put paid to our plans of lounging and swimming but gave my sun burn a day to recover and helped take the edge off the pinkness.
2) We hired a couple of loungers on the beach and spent a day alternating between swimming in the ocean and sleeping in the shade. The guy will bring you booze, food, water etc so you can just lounge and take in the view.
3) We rotisserie chickened it up at the pool on the last morning to get maximum tanning in before we headed home.
4) Bum bags appear to be the new black in Colombia as most of the dads were proudly wearing them.
5) we heard enough reggae to last a lifetime and the "bueno bueno bueno" song is beyond annoying.
6) Malaria tablets not only make me nauseous but one day they made my eyes so sensitive to light it felt like I wasn't wearing sunnies when I was. Thankfully that was just one day.
7) La Regatta serves the best ceviche I've ever had. I'll be trying to replicate it when I'm back home.
8) We got asked everyday if we wanted to get our hair braided, which despite the frizz we did not. The Colombians however were lapping it up.
9) Colombian security at the airport was random and we saw the girl in front of us get money from a stranger and not have her bag searched, while they raked through mine from top to bottom. He seemed to be fascinated by the packing cubes ( I love a bit of bag organisation).
Sad to leave San Andres but excited to head back to Santiago for Zoe's birthday celebrations and the eating tour of the city that she's planned for while I'm there. And after a week in town I'm heading up to Peru for the Machu Picchu part of the trip. Almost 2 weeks in and am loving being in South America, speaking spanish, and generally kicking back.
