San Andrés

Reefs in the Seaflower reserve, a Raizal culture that speaks Kriol and English, and a cuisine where nearly everything tastes of coconut. This is the island, in and out of the water.

Under the water

Diving

Beneath San Andrés lie coral gardens, a wall that drops into the blue, a wreck and even a statue of Poseidon. First the reef that rings the island, then its dive sites.

Seaflower, the reef

San Andrés and Providencia lie within the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. Its barrier reefs are often cited as the third largest in the world.

65,000 km²: Seaflower Marine Protected Area
~ 223 km: of barrier and fringing reefs
2000: year UNESCO declared it a Biosphere Reserve
27 to 30 °C: water temperature, depending on the season

Data: Coralina, the archipelago’s environmental authority.

All 8 dive sites, by depth

Each bar runs from the shallowest to the deepest part of the site. Tap one to open its page.

History, languages and island life

Culture

Closer to Jamaica than to the mainland

Culturally, San Andrés has more in common with Jamaica or the Cayman Islands than with mainland Colombia. Its people, the Raizal, carry a history of English settlers, slavery and freedom, Baptist faith and coconuts.

History

17th century
English settlers and enslaved Africans

British settlers bring enslaved Africans to grow tobacco and cotton. From that encounter come the Raizal people and their language.
1844
A pastor under a tamarind tree

Philip Beekman Livingston begins Baptist work and teaches reading with the Bible under a tamarind tree. His church at La Loma, built in Alabama, arrives in pieces and is dedicated in 1896.
1953
San Andrés becomes a free port

Until then most islanders spoke English and were Protestant. The free port brings trade, tourism and large-scale migration from the mainland.
1991
The Constitution recognises the Raizal

It recognises them as an ethnic group, and their language becomes official on the islands.
2026
A million visitors and a protected sea

In 2025 the archipelago welcomed around a million visitors, including a record of more than 250,000 from abroad. Its sea has been the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve since 2000.

Languages

Kriol (Creole)

The Raizal mother tongue: an old English with African traces, learnt at home.

«Da so e go» That’s how it happened
English

The Raizal see themselves as an English-speaking people.
Spanish

It gained ground with the 1953 free port; today many people speak all three languages.

Raizal cooking

Flavours

Nearly everything tastes of coconut

On San Andrés, coconut goes into the pot, the bread and the sweets. To taste it, look for the fair tables: tables Raizal women set up outside their homes, a custom that began when fishermen spent weeks at sea.

Rondón

Run down

The island dish: a pot cooked over a wood fire, made and eaten with family.

coconut milk · fish · conch · dumplings
Fish balls

Fish balls stewed in coconut milk, never missing from the fair tables.

fish · coconut milk · basket pepper chilli
Journey cake

The bun women gave their husbands before a long journey, now eaten at breakfast.

wheat flour · coconut milk · yellow cheese
Pan bon

Bon

The island’s traditional bread, a risen dough made with coconut milk.

wheat flour · coconut milk · yeast · baking powder
Pickled chillies

Basket pepper

A basket-shaped chilli found in almost every dish, which many families keep pickled in a jar.

basket pepper chilli · coconut water · vinegar