About 9 or 10 in the morning, we saw the first faint line of land on the horizon. This was to be our first experience with coral reefs, so we were appropriately apprehensive.
Even though San Andres is far closer to Nicaragua than it is to Colombia, it belongs to Colombia. Since we hadn't originally planned on stopping in Colombia, we didn't have a Colombian courtesy flag. What's worse, we didn't have a large-scale chart of the island.
Check-in procedures are different here. You're not allowed to go to the Port Captain, etc., on your own; you have to hire an agent. And you're charged for a pilot whether you use him or not, so you might as well use him.
As we drew closer to the island, we saw a freighter in the distance. It didn't seem to be moving, so we assumed it was anchored. Then we got closer, and--OOPS!--it wasn't anchored and it hadn't moved in a long, long time; it was aground on a reef! That curdled our bones in a hurry. I immediately got on the VHF and called for a pilot. He told us to maintain our position; he'd be there in 15 minutes. Roy went around in circles for a few minutes, but then he spotted a buoy and headed towards it. A fishing boat passed us on its way in, so we followed it. By the time the pilot got there, we didn't need him, but we followed him anyway. He led us into the harbor on a zig-zag course. Took us to where some other boats were anchored and told us to drop anchor next to a fishing boat. Roy didn't like the location, but we obeyed. However, we soon started to drag, so we moved to a better location. There are 3 or 4 other sailboats here, plus a motor yacht.
Roy had expected San Andres to be a sleepy fishing village with a population of 200 at most. I had read that it was a popular tourist resort and free trade zone, with a population of 35,000. Even so, we were surprised by the size of the city and all the high-rise hotels. Acapulco it's not, but it's getting there.
Even before we were anchored, an agent named Lever called us on the VHF. We arranged to meet him at the marina tomorrow morning after 8. He said it was ok for us to go ashore and walk around in the meantime, so we did.
We left our Royaks on a tiny little beachlet next to the marina and walked towards the center of town. This being Sunday, all the stores were closed. We were surprised by the number and variety of stores. Many fancy shops, catering to wealthy tourists.
Found an ice cream parlor that was open, so we treated ourselves to two scoops of ice cream each. We didn't have any Colombian money, so he charged us $5 U.S. and only gave us 300 pesos change. That seemed awfully high, but it was good ice cream. We later learned there are 700 pesos to the dollar.
I especially wanted to make a long-distance call to Kathy. By luck, we found the Telcom office. Went in and were astonished by the number of people. There were dozens of them standing in line to use the phone booths and dozens more seated. There were 16 phone booths, but the one marked "International Calls Only" was unoccupied.
The clerk motioned me over to the desk. I asked her if they accepted U.S. money. She said, "No," so we left, but then we noticed the Visa and Mastercard emblems on the door, so I went back in. She accepted my Visa card, and I gave her Kathy's number, but the line to the United States was busy. The clerk tried numerous times but couldn't get through.
Roy and I walked around for 15 or 20 minutes and then went back, but the line was still busy, so we gave up and returned to the boat.
Pictures of San Andres
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