ENTRY 4, San Andres and Providencia

From Bogota, I flew to San Andres, the larger of the two islands in the San Andres and Providencia territory, which has been administered by Colombia since the early twentieth century. I spent 2 days here before catching an early morning catamaran to Providencia, where I would be spending the next month. 

Providencia (or Old Providence, as the locals refer to it) is a small volcanic island in the Caribbean, about 70 miles east of Nicaragua. It is exceptionally beautiful and unspoiled, with the hills of the interior almost untouched by human activity. All the settlements are clustered around the edge of the island, and connected by a single 10 mile ringroad, which is exceptionally good fun to drive round.

The population of Providencia is predominantly a distinct group of Afro-Caribbean called "Raizal", for the most part descendents of the slaves who were left to their own devices in the late nineteenth century after the Spanish abandoned the island. They speak a unique Creole dialect, but as a Colombian territory, they can all speak Spanish as well, and many are fluent in English. This linguistic mix is the result of Providencia's fascinating history. First settled in the seventeenth century by English Puritans, who were then ejected by the Spanish, but who in turn soon abandoned the island, after which it became a haven for foreign privateers, before once again being retaken by the Spanish, who brought large numbers of slaves to provide manual labour. When the Spanish withdrew they left the slaves, and the island was eventually absorbed into the new Republic of Colombia, despite a continuing existing claim from Nicaragua.

View of Providencia from the plane

I was to spend a month here as a volunteer working with an NGO called "Trees and Reefs", which is concerned with preserving the ecological diversity and cultural distinctiveness of the island. One of the main concerns within the island's community is the Colombian government's desire to impose its own cultural traditions on the islanders and damaging their distinct identity, as occurred in San Andres from the 1970s. For instance, schoolchildren from Providencia do not learn any of the island's history, but instead the history of mainland Colombia, which many argue is of little relevance to them (the islanders are officially recognised by the UN as a distinct ethnic group), and it is feared that over time this may get worse. In a desire to combat this, one of the foundation's projects is to establish a local museum detailing the island's history, specifically with regard to the islanders' cultural heritage. My role was to write the project proposal and to start researching and gathering materials for the exhibition.

The island's history is patchily documented; although the colonial exploits of the English and Spanish survive in documentary records, the intervening periods, and after the departure of the Spaniards, is extremely difficult to recover, as the islanders of those periods produced few written records, and much is dependent on the accounts of visiting ships and outsiders.

The museum is due to open in September 2012, with the intervening time spent gathering the information and resources necessary to mount the exhibition. Trees and Reefs have a continual need for suitable volunteers, for this project and others, and it really is an amazing opportunity - if you're even vaguely intrigued, have a read of this:

http://www.paisatours.com/volunteer-providencia.htm

When I wasn't working on the project, I had time to play the tourist, and enjoy the many delights the island has to offer. As the slow pace of life would make a day-by-day account pretty dull, I`ll try and give a flavour of the place with a few edited highlights that stand out most in my memory.

I was staying with a local Raizal family on Santa Catalina, the small island connected to Providencia by a wooden foot bridge. Although the island has all the modern amenities of electricity and running water, some local problems on Santa Catalina meant that for the month I was there, my showers consisted of upending a bucket of cold water over my head!

View from Santa Catalina to Providencia

The reef that surrounds Providencia is the fourth largest in the world, therefore the snorkeling and diving is excellent, due to the huge variety of corals to be found around the island, which are home to many species of marine life. Some of the best and most easily available snorkeling is to be found on Santa Catalina, where a path runs along the West side of the island to `Morgan`s Head`, a rocky outcrop named in memory of the famous pirate who operated from Providencia for several years, and whose treasure is rumoured to still remain hidden somewhere on Santa Catalina.

View from Morgan`s Head over the North side of Santa Catalina

One of the best aspects of my stay in Providencia was that I was working with a local woman named Arelis Howard, who in addition to running Trees and Reefs, also runs one of the island`s best seafood restaurants (`Bamboo`), which served up a diverse mix ranging from conch to lobster. Working with Arelis meant I was able to have all my meals at the restaurant that also doubled as our office, which was an unexpected bonus!

"the office"

Lunch!

A particular highlight was a visit to Crab Key, a small island off Providencia's East coast. This small piece of rock is within the McBean Lagoon National Park, and is home to a large amount of wildlife - on the day I visited some conservation workers were recording the size of King Crabs that were carrying eggs. It is possible to snorkle around the island in around 30 minutes.

Crab Key

The island's summit affords terrific views over the large reef that shelters the Eastern side of Providencia.

The reef

As some of you will know from Facebook, I had a motorbike accident while on Providencia - I was on the way to the airport to collect a book and decided to take a detour via a more scenic route. As I turned off the mainroad, my front wheel hit something (I'm not sure what, but the road surfaces are horrendous). The next thing I knew the bike had flown out from underneath me, across the road and into a ditch, while my left leg was in quite a lot of pain. I was extremely fortunate that on the corner there was a small shop with several people outside who promptly rushed to my aid. Happily, these included a nurse from the local hospital who cleaned the cuts and scrapes on my foot and leg, as well as making sure I had no other injuries. Remarkably, there was also a mechanic present who set to work on the bike, making sure nothing was broken (luckily, only a mirror, which he replaced with a spare he had with him). The icing on the cake was that the shop`s owner, after sitting me down and giving me a beer proceeded to speak at length about life on the island, how it had changed over the course of the 60 years he lived there, etc. This was all exactly the sort of oral testimony we needed for the project. I found his strong antipathy to the Colombian government particularly interesting, and he went to great lengths to stress that the involvement of a large proportion of the island`s population in the drug trade was due to changes brought by the government. When I got back that afternoon, I discovered that he was in fact a well-known drug trafficker, who had spent time in an American prison for murder, which goes to show you never can tell!

McBean Lagoon National Park - view over the mangroves

On my peultimate day in Providencia I went for a hike up El Pico, "the Peak", which is the highest of the island's volcanic hills. This was an extremely pleasant walk, and the steepness of the climb which necesitated scrambling over massive boulders was certainly good fun. The views from the peak were fanastic, as it afforded a panoramic view of the entire island, and the reef that surrounds it.

View from El Pico across the Western side of the island, note the reef in the distance

I departed Providencia by plane. The island's runway is so small that the largest aircraft that can use it is a small twin prop plane that can seat 15 passengers. The views of the island as we took off were brilliant, as you can see from the first photo. A brief stopover in San Andres allowed me to take advantage of the Duty Free, before another flight back to Bogota, from where the next day I would take a flight to Leticia, Colombia's southernmost city, located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

Next time... the Amazon!