WOODMAN
Contributor
The wife and I recently returned from a dive trip to Old Providence Island, a tiny island in the southwest Caribbean which happens to be a part of Columbia. This area does not usually see tourists from the United States, and caters more to northern South America, so the available information on it was sparse. I hope to provide others with more information through our experiences down there. Please forgive the length of this report, as I have a lot of detailed data to get across. Getting to this place was no picnic. The only way to get there is from San Andres island, another Columbian island in the Caribbean, and although it is served by flights from several South American and Central American cities, there are no flights direct from the US. So, we had to fly to Miami, and there pick up COPA airline to Panama City. Let me say a word about COPA. This is air travel the way it used to be. More leg room than I have ever seen on an american carrier, free hot meals to all passengers, (not just first class) , and free alcoholic drinks to all passengers, if desired. It's been a long time since I have seen any of that. Anyway, we overnighted in a Panamanian hotel, and then tried to leave the next morning for San Andres via COPA again. We ran into mechanical problems with the plane, however, and Copa sent us all to a prepaid lunch at the airport restaurant (very nice!) while they dealt with it. When we came back we found they had switched planes, and we finally got off to San Andres. We arrived without difficulty, but then found that our little commuter flight with Satena Air to Old Providence had moved up the flight departure time and had just left 15 minutes before. We were rescheduled with their early AM flight the next day, and COPA came through with prepaid vouchers for a night's stay at an upscale beachfront hotel, complete with meals. They even paid for the taxi fares. We spent a delightful night, at COPA's expense, and were delivered to Satena Air as promised the next morning. Now, Satena was a real switch from COPA, as we now entered the world of tiny island hopper airlines. The baggage allowance was a 10 kilo joke, and they dinged us $40 in excess baggage charges for the 25 minute flight, which wasn't too bad considering what others have paid under similiar circumstances elsewhere in the world. But be warned, anyway. The plane was a small 30 passenger twin prop affair, and it was a noisy but short flight to Providencia, as the locals all call it. We set down in El Embrujo (meaning "the bewitchment") and had our first look at this little place. San Andres was a bigger but flat island, completely devoted to resort hotels and such, but Providencia looked like a set for a remake of Bali-Hi. Beautiful blue waters and several white beaches surrounding several tall mountainous-looking green covered hills in the main center of the island. Lord, but it was gorgeous. The population was sprinkled around the edges of the island, in several small communities, and a main highway (if you want to call it that) went all the way around the edge of the island. Our taxi (a pickup truck) was waiting at the door when we cleared customs and such. (Don't forget to buy your tourist entry card, either in Panama or at immigration at San Andres, and keep it with your passport. It costs about $20 US, and you won't get far without it.) 5 of us squeezed into that truck, including me and another fool who rode in the back end with the luggage. We zipped around the south end of the island, and eventually ended up in the settlement of Freshwater Bay, where Sonny's Cabanas was located. Our room was a basic kind of thing, with air conditioning, a mini fridge and spanish speaking cable TV, similar to the kind of thing I have seen before in the cheaper motels in the Florida keys. Very clean, but the beds were the familiar rock hard mattresses I have seen so often in Cozumel. Also, no hot water in the bathroom. Not just the usual lack of supply, but no provision for it (!) 
Anyway, we were provided breakfast in the nice open air restaurant next to the cabanas, which consisted of eggs and ham cooked to order, or interesting grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for us, who really don't like standard breakfast fare all that much. We then walked down to the dive shop, which was about 200 yards down the street from the cabanas. They had waited for us, and we got out for our first dive without difficulty. The boat is an uncovered fiberglass hull with a 200 HP outboard and a removable entry ladder, with bench seating on the sides and tank storage down the middle. It could handle about 12 divers easily, but we never had more than 5. A sun top would have been appreciated, as the sun is fierce down there, and I am told they are working on it. The dive shop is right on the beach, but no dock. Not many docks anywhere, actually. Coralina, the overseeing park agency for the island, forbids most of them. So we waded out to the boat and climbed in. The sea was unusually brutal that morning, with wind and waves that were badly out of character for this area, and we got tossed severely. We dove at Felipe's Place, and conditions were so bad we aborted the second dive and got out at the settlement of Santa Isabella when the shop manager met us with a new tank supply. We caught a ride back to the cabanas with him. Things moderated considerably by the next morning, and the waters were much calmer. The sun was still intense, however, and we got pretty fried despite sunscreen and hats. We dove The Convent, named for a nearby religious outpost, and then went on to Manta City and then Tete's Place. Manta City was notable for it's population of friendly stingrays, and the others were a mixture of walls and fringing reefs. On Tuesday we went ot Turtle Rock, and then The Bar. We had a nice night dive back at Tete's Place. On Wed, we saw The Hole, and then the wreck of an enormous WW2 barge that was overturned in about 70 feet of water. We went back to Manta City for our second night dive. Fish life was somewhat sparse, especially big fish, but we saw a nice selection of most of the usual Caribbean suspects, including several nice moray eels, a few turtles, and a couple of small nurse sharks. No reef sharks, but we did see a lot of stingrays, and a few eagle rays swam by. The barge wreck is a macro lover's paradise, with lots of arrow crabs, coral banded shrimp, bristle stars, pederson shrimp, and many more. We dove it twice, and I could have gone back there twice more. We also visited a site named "Confusion" and also Nick's Place, which was Speedy's(our divemaster) favorite site. Saw about a dozen large parrotfish grubbing around in one spot on top of the wreck, and also a selection of lobster, crabs; and a large school of jacks paid us a call. We spent all our surface intervals on the boat, and this tended to get old. The night dives were rather unremarkable, and the boat is unlit except for a hand lantern. No running lights, but we did okay with our dive lights. Speedy, the divemaster, and Anderson, the boat captain, were extremely attentive and solicitous, and never failed to walk Judy out to the boat and back again, due to the layer of smooth but ankle-turning rocks which carpeted the beach from the waterline to about 30 feet out, where sand started and it was waist deep. This is also where the boat was anchored. END OF PART ONE
Anyway, we were provided breakfast in the nice open air restaurant next to the cabanas, which consisted of eggs and ham cooked to order, or interesting grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for us, who really don't like standard breakfast fare all that much. We then walked down to the dive shop, which was about 200 yards down the street from the cabanas. They had waited for us, and we got out for our first dive without difficulty. The boat is an uncovered fiberglass hull with a 200 HP outboard and a removable entry ladder, with bench seating on the sides and tank storage down the middle. It could handle about 12 divers easily, but we never had more than 5. A sun top would have been appreciated, as the sun is fierce down there, and I am told they are working on it. The dive shop is right on the beach, but no dock. Not many docks anywhere, actually. Coralina, the overseeing park agency for the island, forbids most of them. So we waded out to the boat and climbed in. The sea was unusually brutal that morning, with wind and waves that were badly out of character for this area, and we got tossed severely. We dove at Felipe's Place, and conditions were so bad we aborted the second dive and got out at the settlement of Santa Isabella when the shop manager met us with a new tank supply. We caught a ride back to the cabanas with him. Things moderated considerably by the next morning, and the waters were much calmer. The sun was still intense, however, and we got pretty fried despite sunscreen and hats. We dove The Convent, named for a nearby religious outpost, and then went on to Manta City and then Tete's Place. Manta City was notable for it's population of friendly stingrays, and the others were a mixture of walls and fringing reefs. On Tuesday we went ot Turtle Rock, and then The Bar. We had a nice night dive back at Tete's Place. On Wed, we saw The Hole, and then the wreck of an enormous WW2 barge that was overturned in about 70 feet of water. We went back to Manta City for our second night dive. Fish life was somewhat sparse, especially big fish, but we saw a nice selection of most of the usual Caribbean suspects, including several nice moray eels, a few turtles, and a couple of small nurse sharks. No reef sharks, but we did see a lot of stingrays, and a few eagle rays swam by. The barge wreck is a macro lover's paradise, with lots of arrow crabs, coral banded shrimp, bristle stars, pederson shrimp, and many more. We dove it twice, and I could have gone back there twice more. We also visited a site named "Confusion" and also Nick's Place, which was Speedy's(our divemaster) favorite site. Saw about a dozen large parrotfish grubbing around in one spot on top of the wreck, and also a selection of lobster, crabs; and a large school of jacks paid us a call. We spent all our surface intervals on the boat, and this tended to get old. The night dives were rather unremarkable, and the boat is unlit except for a hand lantern. No running lights, but we did okay with our dive lights. Speedy, the divemaster, and Anderson, the boat captain, were extremely attentive and solicitous, and never failed to walk Judy out to the boat and back again, due to the layer of smooth but ankle-turning rocks which carpeted the beach from the waterline to about 30 feet out, where sand started and it was waist deep. This is also where the boat was anchored. END OF PART ONE
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ARRGH! Oh well, welcome to the joys of traveling in far away places.
) San Andres was uneventful this time, but be sure you get your passport stamped with a tax-exempt stamp (free) which will let you avoid the departure tax. Back on COPA for our flight through Panama City and then on to Miami, and we were back to the 2 free 50# bags of checked luggage and the usual carryons. Nice to get back to big commercial jets. One strange note- they sealed up all our checked luggage with zip ties on the zippers and big sealed COPA imprinted plastic bags. They said this would speed the luggage through Panamanian security and save about 4 hours in luggage inspection time there. I have never seen this before, but was told it is fairly common down here. Interesting. 
) 
