First impressions of San Andrés Islas, Colombia

I don't want to unnecessarily promulgate any single stories à la Chimamanda Adichie, or lugares comunes (lugar común is the word for stereotypes in Spanish - common places), but I have a couple of general observations to make about the new place I have chosen to hang my hat.

First, regarding punctuality: Before getting here we learned that whatever time you arrange an appointment, in Colombia the policy is to show up an hour later. But we are discovering there are other rules in San Andres, too. For example, if it's raining, all bets are off. Any arrangement made concerning leaving the house is cancelled. 

In the first couple of weeks I found the rain here to be foremost a relief. For me, the sound of rain aroused a desire to leave the house. A long, cold shower without guilt of wasting water!! A brisk walk without getting winded! 

But yesterday came one of the first fabled October rains, the kind that penetrates the densest canopy and renders lower lying roadways impassable. The kind you can hear coming five minutes before it arrives. In that kind of rain, I understand the all bets off policy. Oh, the lightning is kind of a deterrent, too. 

Still, it is rather discouraging to find out after you have left the house and put up with a downpour, (and you can't reach the person who you're supposed to be meeting) that your aren't going to be met until the rain stops.

This is not a low-lying area.

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Fortunately, Colombians are very warm in general and, especially here, people want to help. 

Though the "a la orden" (something like "at your service", what everyone who invites you into her store, office or home says as a welcome greeting) might seem off-putting at first for its formality, it is sincere.

We already had one guy drive us to a supermarket we couldn't find after we asked him for directions. Since we couldn't both fit, he took each of us separately on his motorcycle. George. Good man.

Another friendly stranger spent close to an hour racking his brain and calling around to find out if there is any way to procure used bikes here. All we did was walk into his arts/crafts and souvenirs shop after seeing bikes for rent on display. Unfortunately he came up empty handed, but the feeling of being helped to that extent by someone with nothing invested in our finding bikes, was about as important as having a bike. 

Looks like we won't find bikes, but there's always the bus.