San Andres island

View of a section of San Andres from the steeple of the First Baptist church at Mission Hill

San Andres is a Colombian-owned coral island in the Caribbean Sea. This and the nearby islands of Providence and Santa Catalina form the department of San Andres, Providence and Santa Catalina of which San Andres is the largest. These islands are however closer in distance to Panama than Colombia.

A brief  history

According to Wikipedia, the Dutch went to these islands at the end of the 16th century and British settlers arrived in 1628.  

It is also mentioned that Columbus ran into the islands during his fourth voyage. 

Inside the Baptist church

During the 17th century, English Puritans from Barbados and England settled in San Andres and i they later brought in African slaves from Jamaica.

Signs of Jamaican culture visible almost everywhere

Around that period too, the competitive Spaniards saw the economic potential of the islands and attacked the archipelago but were driven out shortly after.

Pirates including the notorious Henry Morgan also used the area in the 1670s as a center of his operations. They attacked Spanish ships carrying gold and other precious material that sailed in the Caribbean waters and also attacked Panama and Santa Maria.

After the temporary Spanish occupation of the islands, they were controlled by the British from 1740 until 1787, agreeing to respect the Creole population.

 In July 1818, the independent forces of Simon Bolivar occupied the islands, and it became part of Gran Colombia on June 23, 1822.

In 1821, the issuing of the Constitution of Cacti determined that every child born in Colombia was born as a free.

When the construction of the Panama Canal ended in the early 1900's, thousands of Jamaicans (and a few other West Indians) workers who had toiled on the project, settled in Colon, Panama; San Andres; Bluefields in Nicaragua and Limon in Costa Rica instead of going home.

 The extremely pervasive Jamaican culture and use of patois in those regions are lasting
reminders of this history.

My introduction to San Andres.

My late cousin-in-law Harris

I first heard of the tiny island of San Andres (it is just over 10 square miles with a population of around 80,000) from a cousin-in-law, Harris, who was born there.

Lifelike statues are all over the island

As a ship's engineer, he had traveled extensively and always insisted that his island was just like mine, Jamaica, so I should go there and see for myself.

Unfortunately, I procrastinated until he died. However, I met several of his relatives at his funeral in August 2018 and they too insisted that I respect his wishes by visiting their island soon.

Finally, in December 2018, I made the trip and was not at all disappointed, for indeed the similarities are stark, especially the similarities to my favorite parish-Portland.

Scooters are the most popular mode of transportation

Downtown San Andres, Centro, also bears a remarkable resemblance to our own western tourism city of Montego Bay with the proliferation of hotels, tourists and great white-sand beaches.

The immediate contrast though is that San Andres has smooth pothole-free roads throughout the island, because unlike our flimsily built asphalted roads, their roads are made from  hardy concrete.

The Mule

There is significantly less traffic there too with the most popular mode of private transportation being scooters, whereas tourists use a larger and hardier variation known as the Mule.

 Anyway, the island does resemble Portland a great deal in that it is extremely green and fruitful with wonderful white-sand beaches.

It is not quite as mountainous though and most importantly it has no rivers or waterfalls.

They, therefore, get their water from wells and have also constructed a desalination plant at place called Cove.

 We visited that area where I was re-introduced to the lifelike statues that the government erects throughout the island to beautify it, and also something called  Babia.

Downtown with its numerous hotels, beaches and tourists reminds me a bit of our own Montego Bay

These tiny croc-like creatures clearly do not like red meat!

The Babia is a small crocodile-like creature that lives in the pond close to where the desalinated water is processed.

What fascinated me about these tiny reptiles is how tame and peaceful they are!

 I just could not believe my eyes as they swam around looking for fish to eat while small dogs and birds were in close proximity, each ignoring the other.

Because the island is so beautiful, I was not surprised that despite their small size, they welcome over half a million tourists annually. 

The attractions that I personally found extremely enticing were the Cays, the stingrays and the Blowhole.

I had always thought of stingrays as being extremely dangerous creatures because of their lethal tail,  even if they do not mean to do harm!

The young man plays with a huge stingray.

However, the captains of the boats that take visitors to nearby Aquarius and Rose Cays apparently do not think so, as they had no problem interacting with these interesting creatures that heavily populate an area close by.


Rose and Aquarius Cays are close to each other, allowing visitors to easily walk

from to the other.  Rose Cay has great beaches and Aquarius, a wide variety of restaurants mainly specializing in seafood.

They are both visited by hundreds of visitors daily as boats arrive and leave in droves non-stop, up to 4pm.

Other Cays that also attract hundreds of visitors are Johnny Cay and Rocky Cay.

A section of Aquarius Cay

While you need to take a boat to Johnny Cay, you can actually walk from the huge white sand beach on the mainland to Rocky Cay.

The attraction that I found most fascinating however was the Blowhole.

The western side of the island is extremely rocky and the water is quite rough but it is still very beautiful.  This is where you find the blowhole which is in fact a big hole in the rocks through which the huge waves forces the water upwards, dousing all who are close by, much to our enjoyment..

Getting doused by the fierce sea spray coming up out of the blowhole

I really enjoyed the bath there.

I think Harris is finally happy that I followed his suggestion to visit his homeland as not only is it as absolutely beautiful as he described but I discovered such a warm and welcoming "family" there. Well, all except for this goose that lives at his cousin Kathleen's home, where I was hosted for my entire stay on the island.

The only unfriendly inhabitant of San Andres that I met!

 He made it known every time he saw me, that I was unwelcome.

However, the humans showed the very opposite attitude as cousins and new friends, made every effort to ensure that my stay was comfortable and most rewarding.

I have rarely felt more welcome and loved elsewhere and considered this visit a mere taste of what I hope will become a giant meal one day. 

Hopefully, San Andres will remain as quiet and peaceful as it is today, although based on some troubling information I garnered during my visit,  I am having a few doubts. 

I enjoyed riding around on the back of 'cousin' Colagio's scooter

As I understand it, there seems to be a major thrust by some "Spaniards" from the mainland to take over the beautiful island and even introduce racism in what I found to be the most integrated society I have ever seen.

Posing with some of my new 'family members' at Cove

 Due to the threat of over-population and excessive pressure on the infrastructure, the government passed laws a few decades ago preventing people from the mainland, living or working on the island unless they marry a native there or have a skill that is not available locally.

 However, an ominous sign that autonomy on the island is in danger arose from the government in Colombia, recently imposing a military person from the mainland to replace the civilian governor on the island.

Further, they have built  a huge police station downtown, which is mainly manned by "Spaniards" from the mainland, many of  whom are not shy to make racist statements against
the local people, it is reported.

 Troubling too is the fact that many from the mainland who sneak into the island through the porous beaches, are wanted for crimes on the mainland and are accused of escalating the drug smuggling industry and introducing a really scary form of extortion to vulnerable local young people on the island.

You can walk from the mainland to Rocky Cay

Hopefully, these trends will be nipped in the bud as San Andres is too close to being a real Garden of Eden to be destroyed.

Turning tourist with Natural History society!

On Saturday 28th February, a couple of us joined up with the Natural History Society for a field trip to the ruins of Agualta Vale Great House and to visit a beautiful orchid farm in St. Mary. The able co-ordinator of the tour was Trevor Yee.

It was a great day which found me leaving my house at 8 am and not returning till 8pm.

The trip to Agualta Vale was uneventful but the search for the ruins was not, for our guide could not find the

We parked as we walked around in search of the great house

overgrown path for about an hour.Anyway it was no big thing as it gave us an opportunity to meet and greet other outdoor lovers. In fact, I even saw a number of persons from Jah 3 who I had not seen for years. Eventually an employee from Jamaica Producers, owners of the property, came rescued us and took us there.

Of course as it was totally overgrown we had to have a man with a machete chopping a path for us.

A comprehensive history of the house is to be found at http://www.thejamaicanmagazine.com/archive/23-pages-past.html in Jamaica magazine.

The same section now. Totally overgrown

Briefly, the original Great House was built by the Englishman and wealthy slave merchant Thomas Hibbert in the 18th Century. After the first Great House fell in ruins, the Scottish physician Sir John Pringle bought the property in 1914 and built an impressive house on the ruins of the older one. In World War II, it was used as a barrack for the Canadian army. 

It was later acquired by Sir Harold Mitchell and then the Jamaica Producers Group. They had used some sections as offices but the house was destroyed by fire in 1980 and has never been restored. It was there that I was introduced to Mukee aka Rat ears which is a wood mushroom growing on host trees, which the Chinese love to cook with pork.
Next we visited a 25 acre experimental teak plantation at Bellfield, St. Mary which was planted some 10 years ago in a joint venture project with Jamaica Producers.

Teak we were told takes 15-20 years to reach maturity and the board is said to be among the most expensive in the world, fetching some $7.50 per board foot.

As we drove through Port Maria, my cousin Sheila who lives here and in Canada, saw the "Firefly" sign and said she had always wanted to visit that property. That had been the home of the famous British writer Sir Noel Coward but what it is known for is the spectacular view.

The spectacular view from "Firefly"

 So comprehensive is the view that the pirate Henry Morgan is said to have had a lookout there.

I obliged Sheila and took her there .

When we left, we stayed on the high road which took us to Oracabessa via Mason Hall and Canoe Pond. I had never been to that area before and the roads were not all that bad.

Next stop was the home of the Chongs, also in St. Mary where we saw the wonderful orchids bieing grown by Mrs. Chong for which she has won dozens of awards.

Orchids all around

Their house on the hill is absolutely fabulous and has a great view too. The house is powered totally by wind and solar energy and Mr. Chong also restores classic cars.

 His pride and joy is this model T ford.

When we left there we took a back road to enjoy the absolute beautify of the White river with its numerous swim areas which are beautiful "blue holes".

I was happy to see locals have now set up businesses all around the blue holes, selling t shirts and renting river shoes and life vests. Other enterprising vendors were also selling Ganja Brownies aka Angel food.

Above the last "blue hole" which we had visited in the past we found the wonderful waterfall called "Island gully Falls" which  had only heard about recently after the "Gleaner did a feature on a mass wedding which was held there.

One of the "blue holes"

 This area has been developed with steps to the falls and changing rooms and there were a lot of local persons enjoying themselves there.

My curiosity as to who developed that area around the falls and how they recoup funds spent has not been satisfied as there was no one there collecting money to use the facilities.

As we arrived there late,meaning the water would be extra cold, we did not swim but only took pictures and resolved to return soon to enjoy a great dip under those beautiful falls.

Beautiful Island Gully Falls

While we had started our journey going to St. Mary via the Junction road, we returned via Ocho Rios as it would be closer.

I did not use my favourite toll road though as I was dying for some soup and that would not be available anywhere else but the Faith's Pen area. We were not disappointed and after having delicious chicken foot sours, returned to Kingston tired but very happy.