This is really shitty news for some.

Due to the turmoil the Nicaragua/Colombia litigation made, now the Colombian government is subsidizing a big chunk of the airplanes tickets to Providencia in the government's own airline Satena. Prices run for as little as $250.000 COP round trip.

Thanks to that, now the Catamaran and the other Airline that served Providencia are going out of business. The catamaran has officially announced that they can't compete with the prices and are going on a "charter basis" until they figure it out, if you ask me they will most likely pack and leave. Way to go Colombian government!.

Although this is great news for tourist wanting to visit Providencia, it is really bad news for locals when 2 medium sized companies go out of business. Also i would like you to mark my words, this government initiative will ruin Providencia as swarms of crappy tourism is now able to afford go to Providencia, which historically had been an expensive and difficult destination to go to.

So basically, if you want to see the last unspoiled Caribbean island left, hurry up, because it has its unspoiled days counted.

Here we go again.

Once again the debate whether we are close or far from downtown has come up. Believe or not I take the time to read post on forums, online travel agencies and personal blogs about the island and specially about our hostel.

This debate has been going ever since we started the hostel and although everyone is entitled to their opinion we try so hard to make sure that people know exactly where the hostel is located and how far from the touristic area we are before you make a reservation. Here's how we do it.

• We have a satellite map on our website that shows exactly where we are. Link 
• We have a video in our website showing you how far downtown is in a motorcycle  Link

  This post is yet another atempt to get people to do their homework before they book. It will save us both the aggravation.

Kitesurf en San Andres.

Mini reportaje tomado de Spain Kiters

Bueno, os cuento para quienes vayáis a ir a este Paraíso.

He estado en un hostal llamado "Blue Almond Hostel", sus dueños son muy majos, barato y muy limpio.

http://bluealmondhostel.com/

4 días por 78€

Al llegar dejar la maleta, me fui directo al centro a alquilar un "carrito de golf" para moverme por la Isla, me costaba 25€ x día con el tanque lleno de gasolina.

Hay 2 sitios en la isla dónde se hace Kite uno en la zona del centro, y el que más me gusto a mi, en Chemay´s Náutica, en la parte SUR de la isla, Spot pequeñito, lleno de palmeras, musiquita rollo chill out, en maldito paraíso.

Allí el alquiler de la cometa + arnés + tabla = 51€ x Hora.

Se que es caro, pero al no llevar material es lo que hay, la cuestión es que con el buen rollo que tiene el dueño, llegamos al acuerdo de 51€ x día.

En un sitio dónde sopla de Norte, sopla desde temprano, cada vez que llegaba al spot había viento y aflojaba sobre las 14hs aprox.

A mi me dejaron una Cabrinha Convert en 11 metros, con eso navegue los 4 días, eso si, si veis que os aproxima una tormenta salir pitando, porque el viento cambia de dirección de Norte a E, luego a SE constantemente.

Banzai Beach Party

Banzai Beach Party

Fulfilling Job

The results are in for the first month of our social responsibility initiative. If you don't know what I'm writing about , please check this blog entry
So far we have:
- 7 check out reservations with an average spent of $168.571 COP
- An average of 1.71 night per reservation.
-21 reservations in total for the months on JAN, FEB, MAR & APR.
- 4 cancellations.

In the technical department we have from DEC 25 to JAN 25:
-84 unique visitors to www.posadanativa.com
-50 Likes in the Facebook page
-6 excellent comments in Trip Advisor.

What's next?
I have to definitely finish up their website, increase the revenue per available room (REVPar) by lowering their fixed costs and get them to prioritize on how to spend their hard earned money in things that would attract more clients such as Internet access. Juan

Complaints advice

Complaining after you leave, makes you look dumb.

Complaining about fixable things after you have left the premises is silly and makes you look dumb, mostly, because there is nothing we can do about it for you. We take complaints and advice very seriously into account when they make sense and are informed to us at appropriate times.

With that said here a list of thing we can not fix.

• Water Pressure: We would have to re-design the whole island in order to get good water pressure in San Andres. Only hotels with desalinators and hydroflows can offer good water pressure. We have neither. We used the good ol' reliable gravity to get water to the showers and toilets.

• Hot Water: The whole hot water argument is a waste of time, yes, we do understand that in some countries people are only used to shower with hot water, but implementing a hot water system in the hostel, besides expensive would be underused as with the weather most people won't use it and ultimately pay for it in the rate.

• Air conditioning: Did you know that San Andres pays the highest Pesos per Kw in Colombia? that is why the government subsidies 40% of everyones electricity bill. The electricity here is generated by gigantic German diesel generators, this diesel fuel comes by boat from Cartagena which makes it more expensive and ultimately this reflects on the electricity bill, therefore if we installed AC units We would have to pass the bill onto the rates and stop being the cheapest hostel in San Andres and become just another hotel with suites and room service.

Thing that we can fix.

• Cleanliness: If you think that the common areas of the hostel or your room, are not clean enough, just let us know. We will either tell the maid or clean them ourselves.
• Noise: If a guest is being noisy, LET US KNOW, we don't sleep in the hostel and can't read minds.

 Juan

Blue Almond and Social Responsibility

Posada Nativa Ms Trinie

Jenniffer and I are happy to announce that we have adopted a "Posada Nativa" which in English is the equivalent of a guest house. The Posada Nativa initiative is a goverment program that helps local house owner open their doors to tourism. In the case of San Andres one of the prerequisites to be a Posada Nativa is that it should be run by local native people, however as many government programs in Colombia whoever makes the decisions thought that by making a flashy website, this would attract hordes of tourism to a posadas' door... WRONG. Posadas currently have a very low occupancy rate, horrible REVPAR and a lack of vision, which comes basically because the people running the posadas have little or no knowledge of tourism, segmentation, marketing, applied technology, customer service etc.
We will not be running the posada, we will only provide them with the tools and the training to make them more competitive these tools include, a website with online booking capabilities, reservation system software, a marketing and e-marketing plan.


We are doing this because we know posadas nativas give people who are interested in culture a chance to take a plungle into our amazing soon-to-be lost traditions, an on top of that we will help a local family increase their income therefore their quality of live.