Island of San Andrés

San Andrés is a tiny island in the Caribbean Sea belonging to Colombia about 220 km east of the Nicaraguan coast. It is only 12 km long and 3 width, has about 100'000 inhabitants and a lot of palm trees. The villages and settlements are connected by a road around the coast of the island and some additional roads over the hills.

Coobusan (Cooperativa de buses de San Andrés) runs speedy minibuses and some relaxed, old American school buses up and down the whole island. A hand painted wooden board hanging on the front window indicates the destination and the route of the bus. All buses start at the bus terminal near the "Cueva de Morgan" at the west side of the island, run up north around the airport and enter the downtown San Andrés, where they zigzag around and split then up in three lines.

The first line indicated with "El Cove" runs up the hill, by pases the First Baptist Church and the lagoon before going down to the west coast again at "El Cove". The line ends at the Piscinita, the only place where you can take a swim at the rocky west coast.

Island of San Andrés
click map to enlarge

The second line to "Barrack, San Luis" runs up the hill too but turns right before the First Baptist Church and only by passes the lagoon from the other side before going down to the main road on the east coast and continuing to San Luis.

The third goes on the eastern coastal round down to "San Luis", where it splits up again in two branches or through the hills "Tom Hooker Road", "Elsy Road" or the south end "Hoyo Soplador" of the island. All this buses mead the "El Cove" buses at la Piscinita.

On the way back the all indicate "Comercial" for downtown and "Cueva de Morgan" as final destination.

All of this journeys take around 30 minutes. Frequency of the buses is very high on the main routes. You will never have to wait more than five minutes. On the branches on the south side of the island you may to wait longer. There are also buses between "Cueva de Morgan" and "El Clove" but they only run once every half an hour or less.

There are a lot of modern little bus stops with a roof and bench, but buses stop everywhere on demand.

Downtown San Andrés
click map to enlarge

All buses from or to the bus terminal at "Cueva de Morgen" run on the one way Avenida las Americas, the main shopping road in downtown San Andrés.

On there way south they by pass the Airport entrance, on there way to "Cueva de Morgan" they pass the entrance a block away. Ask the driver if he can let you out at the airport.

Service starts around 6:30. Last bus to the south is after 20:00, last bus up to "Cueva de Morgan" is around 20:30 form the south. Cost of any journey is 1250 Colombian Pesos (about 60 cents). US Dollars are also accepted but don't expect any change.

There run also minivans on other routes. Taxis may convert to shared taxis and motorcycles to mototaxis and should charge only slightly more then routed Minibuses.

Daily boats are available from "El Cove" to the vicinity island of Providencia for 90'000 Pesos one way at 7:30. The return at 17:00. Duration is about 3 and a half hours. For information call "Ocean San Andres Express" 513-0562. All cays can be visited by boat. Daily excursions are arranged by local tour operators or ask the next fisherman at the beach. But don't pay him the trip, till he picks you up on the way back to the main island.