Providencia

A few years ago Zach and I hiked the Inca trail.  While on the hike a couple told us of a small Colombian island off the coast of Nicaragua called Providencia.  It's the third largest reef in the world next to Australia and Beliz.  This year when trying to decide where to go on vacation we remembered their suggestion and decided to go.  It was quite the adventure.  We ended up having an island pretty much all to ourselves for a week.

It took 4 plane rides to get there, the last of which was in this tiny little thing.  I was terrified but it was actually not too bad.

This is the place we stayed.  We had made reservations at another place but it was very far from town, pretty much everything so we went here instead.  It was awesome.  We had a room on the third floor that overlooked the beach.  Did I mention there is not a single shower with hot water in all the hotels on the island.   

This was my favorite beach, Southwest Bay.  We spent most of our afternoons here.  There were times when we literally were the only people on this beach.  That was a little weird at first and definitely took some getting use to.

Our second day we took a boat tour of the island.  One of the stops was a tiny island called Crab Caye.  It had beautiful views from the top and we got to snorkel all around it.  

One of the days we hiked around a small island connected to Providencia by a makeshift bridge called Santa Catelina.  It is famous for being the place that Pirate Morgan had landed and hidden treasure.  You can see the cannons etc.  There's a rock formation that they call Morgan's head that we snorkeled out to.  

Another fun thing we did was hike to the top of the Peak.  It's the highest point on the island and ended up being about 8 miles round trip.  We had a native guide who spoke very broken English but was so friendly and so much fun.  He knew everything and even opened a coconut up for us to drink and eat on the way down.  This is a view from the top.

The next day we did another hike around the Lagoons of the island.  This was my favorite hike.  It had great views of the reef and the water.  These island are the 3 Brothers Caye.  No one is allowed near them because of some birds that live on them.  While hiking by the water we also saw some turtles and a huge sting ray.  Our guide was a local guy they call Nino.  He was very rasta.  

This island is famous for their crabs.  Every year starting now the crabs come down from the mountains to the beach, leave their eggs and head back up to the mountains.  There are crabs everywhere and when I say everywhere, that's what I mean.  They are all over the road, walls, trees...everything!  This pic barely gives you the idea of what it is really like.  NUTS!

Our last day on the island we rented a scooter and went all around.  There is only one road on the island and it goes all the way around.  Zach drove and I got to tell him to stop wherever I wanted so I could take way to many pictures.  Most people on the island get around by moto so there are a thousand scooters on the road.  

It rained on the island almost every day we were there.  That was a little frustrating but we managed just fine.  The one thing I was disappointed about was that there was no sunset when it rained.  I love sunsets and wanted to see one.  Thankfully, it cleared up on the last day we were there and there was a spectacular sunset!

Some of my other favorite things about the trip

1. FOOD!  The food was amazing!  Fresh fish, crab, shrimp, lobster...you name it, they had it and it was fabulous!

2. Language.  The island has 3 languages: English, Spanish, and an English Creole mix. It was amazing to hear the natives speak this language.  I couldn't understand a word.

This was a great trip!  I remembered how much I love adventure.  I'm already starting to plan our next big one!