DAY 7 Jan 19 - Isla de Providencia, Columbia

Isla de Providencia, or Old Providence as it is known in English, is one of Colombia’s islands lying in the Caribbean. It is however much closer to Nicaragua than mainland Columbia and is part of the Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, a department of Colombia, lying midway between Costa Rica and Jamaica.

Its terrain is mountainous with a maximum elevation of 1,200 feet above sea level.

It is the second largest among the "San Andrés and Providencia" archipelago and is situated roughly 50 miles to the north of San Andrés Island. San Andrés can be reached from Columbia's capital Bogotá in 2 hours and in 1 hour from Panama City. From San Andrés to Isla de Providencia it is another 20 minutes on a small chartered plane.

Colombian concerns pertaining to sovereignty over the Providencia archipelago were renewed after the 1979 victory of the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua, when that country's new leaders revived the Nicaraguan claim to the territory. The Sandinistas asserted that the 1928 Barcenas-Esquerra Treaty between Colombia and Nicaragua was invalid because it had been signed under pressure from the United States.

The island was the site of an English Puritan colony established in 1629 by the Providence Island Company, and has a rich history of piracy. The infamous pirate Henry Morgan used Providencia as a base for raiding the Spanish empire, and rumours suggest that much treasure remains hidden on the island.

Providencia has a population of 5,000 and receives about 15,000 visitors per year. The island is now a well known scuba diving destination, with the world's third largest barrier reef. It has few hotels and is still completely unspoilt as it has not yet been 'discovered' as a gem of the Caribbean. Today there are no organised tours, just self exploring for those that want to go ashore. Surprisingly English is widely spoken as the main language despite the island being part of a Spanish speaking nation, Columbia.

The island only has one main village, called Pueblo Viejo (Old Town), where we would later land, with a population of under 500 people. There are no night clubs and the like just a few little 1 or 2 star hotels and a small airport.

Our ship anchored around 7.00 am, 2 miles off the coast of this precious totally unspoilt Caribbean Island. Four tender boats were launched from the Prinsendam and by 8.30 the way was cleared for passengers to proceed to board for the 20 minute ride to the island.

After inspecting that all was well on the the new aft deck Maria and I had some breakfast together and then headed down below to board one of the four tender boats. There was quite a choppy sea to contend with as we proceed to our new destination but Maria's ginger tablets did the trick and she survived the short journey despite getting socked by the abundant sea spray!

One thing that was particularly noticeable was the vivid colour of the sea, a wonderful green emerald shade we had no seen before. This must be due to the patches of coral below the sea.

A lovely typical Caribbean band was there to welcome us before we moved on to explore the village and its surrounds.

The population was very much African-Caribbean and no obviously 'white' people were to be seen. There were a few little shops and people standing around chatting and seemingly in no hurry to do anything in particular.

We soon came across a more official colonial type building that we found out housed the Island's Mayor's office. We heard the mayor was a lady. I decided that it would be cool for us to meet her and offer her our fraternal greetings.

I think the receptionist was slightly taken aback when I request a meeting and while enquiries were made we were offered coffee which turned out to be a delicious blend of presumably Columbia's best beans. Soon Madame Mayor's private secretary appeared and after a short delay he escorted us into the Mayor's parlour or office. Jeanette Archibald was her name and she certainly wasn't Scottish. We exchange greetings had a short talk with the charming lady followed by a quick photo session.

Mission accomplished, we had met the delightful Mayor of this wonderful little island.

We were soon approached by Winford Whitaker, a local taxi driver, who offered to take us the 20 mile journey ride round the island for a fee that we negotiated downward from the inflated initial offering. His 1995 clapped-out Oldsmobile had seen better days but it proved a rewarding experience touring round the Island with him. Pictured here is Winford, Maria and the seen better days Oldsmobile.

We stopped at strategic spots for photos and generally took in the local scene. The island is poor with basic accommodation for its population and an extremely challenging road way. We were informed that maybe three ships a year anchor off the Island.The picture above is Maria and myself with some excited young school children pleased to have their photo taken with us.

By 12.30 we were back on a tender for return to the ship and some lunch. The sea had calmed down by now and the trip back was uneventful other that one of the boat's two engines temporarily broke down. We were pleased that we had had the opportunity to visit such an unspoilt Caribbean island where the developers were yet to leave their spoiling mark.

Pictured below is the Prinsendam anchored a few miles off the Island.

The aft deck looks great now and the results of my early morning inspection are shown in the photos below.

At our Cruise Critic meeting the day before I had asked the Captain why we couldn't access his daily blog on the free HAL website. He explained that it originated on a different server run by the Press blog people and was only linked to the HAL site. Thus the need for us to pay to go on-line to read it. My supplementary question to him was then to ask if it could be published on board for us to read.

Well an hour later during the mid-day daily announcements, the Cruise Director informed us over the PA system that Captain Albert's Daily Blog (which I comment everyone to read) would be displayed on two of the ship's notice boards. I mention this in passing as the Captain was sitting in the Lido restaurant when we returned to the ship and I took the opportunity to congratulate him on his quick executive decision to publish on board.

The ship was half empty at lunch time as many were ashore but I noticed that a bevy of officers were sitting around together having lunch in the company of Hotel boss François. This gave me the opportunity to engage in a little banter with him although not sufficiently serious enough to endanger Anglo-Franco relations!!

Beverage Manager boss Rogelio (Roger to you and me) saw us and asked if he could join us for lunch out on the terrace. I couldn't very well say no (only joking) so we enjoyed his company for lunch. Tonight he is going to arrange for me to sample a Pisco Sour drink, a speciality of Peru and Chile. As it is the local drink in much of South America I thought it would be useful to see how I got on with it and whether I need to acquire a taste before we reached Peru in a week or so time.

Temperatures were in the low 80s this afternoon with slightly cloudy skies so we decided to just enjoy our lovely suite and balcony facilities before venturing on deck for sail-away in the early evening.