We’re staying at the Portobello Plaza. It’s a fancy name for something decidedly unfancy but it’ll do. The taxi ride is a few dollars and takes about 45 seconds. Oh well, we wouldn’t have known. The room is very simple but has good air conditioning. Best of all it’s about a minute from the beach with only a pedestrian walkway between us and the water. Score average for room and exceptional for location. That pleases me because I make all our travel arrangements and you never know until you get there how it’s going to work out.

Outside the hotel is a little market so we buy cheap sunglasses (one of my irresistible travel urges – unfortunately they usually break very quickly) and go to the beach. Now the criticism people have of San Andres, and the reason Providencia is so loved  is that there’s a long line of nondescript hotels lining the beachfront, and that’s pretty much the view one gets from the water. But the water is magnificent. It’s got a gorgeous blue caribbean color, and is warm and enticing. Once in, it’s hard to get out.

We do though, so that we can partake in what will be days of ritual failure. We have 2 seemingly simple tasks : one is to mail a postcard to our son at camp in British Colombia, Canada, the other is to phone our daughter on a program in Israel. We set out for the post office. San Andres town is smallish so this should not be difficult. Mostly we find duty free shops selling luggage and perfume. It’s hot, so we may need the perfume soon. We get directions, a few times, but just cannot locate the place. HOW HARD CAN THIS BE ?  We walk for what seems an eternity, sweating profusely and thinking longingly of that crystal blue water down the street, or by now, streets. There seem to be two different places and eventually we find one of them. It’s closed. We hang around for it to open at 2pm. At 2.20pm, an employee arrives. Success at last !! No, they can’t do it. We think they can mail it, they just cannot sell stamps. I could draw a stamp quickly, but that probably won’t do. We trudge off defeated, until the next day. We set out for a phone. We find an internet cafe with international phone calling so we go ahead. After a number of fruitless efforts we give up. We can’t tell  if the problem is on our side or the other, but it’s not our day, for now.

We give up and go to Sea Watch for tuna sandwiches for lunch. This will soon become one of our favorite hangouts. And then back to the water for hours of lolling about in the water which is just awesome. It’s getting dark by the time we reluctantly get out.

Breakfast is included in the hotel price so we go to another Portobello hotel around the corner where they have their restaurant. Breakfast is mediocre, although a little better than in Bogota. There are some inedible fried dough balls (maybe that doesn’t sound too bad, but they are), and my son orders pancakes. They never come, and the billing becomes complicated because he thinks he’s getting them in place of something he was entitled to; instead we’re charged for another full breakfast. But we’re on vacation, the sun is shining, the water’s alluring so it’s hard to get too irritated.

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