San Andrés: the sea of seven colors

A Colombian island in the Caribbean Sea geographically closer to Nicaragua than to mainland Colombia, San Andrés owes its fame to a sea that transitions through seven different shades of blue and turquoise.

The small island can be comfortably traversed by scooter or rental bike.

The day begins from a vantage point on the island, where light turquoise near the shore and intense blue where the bottom drops off compose the Sea of Seven Colors, generated by the coral reef that surrounds the entire island.

In just a few minutes by boat from the coast you reach Johnny Cay, a small coral island with a white sand beach edged with palm trees and shallow waters ideal for snorkeling.

Crossing the island toward the eastern coast, when the waves reach the right intensity, a fissure in the rock pushes salt water to the surface: it is the natural phenomenon of the Hoyo Soplador.

In the nearby villages you meet the raizal community, born from the encounter between English settlers, Scottish settlers and enslaved Africans, which still maintains today an English-based creole language distinct from mainland Spanish.

Just ask an elder on the island for directions and you'll hear Creole Raizal mixed into Spanish in the same sentence, often without the speaker even noticing.

The island has enjoyed a free-port regime for decades that makes electronics and perfumes cheaper than elsewhere in Colombia, a legacy of tourism development policies from the 1950s.