7DaysinParadise
Travel => General Travel => Topic started by: sunluvr on November 22, 2005, 08:38:00 AM
-
A cousin of mine got wind that we were considering travelling to San Andres and went out of his way to caution me about their experience there, 5-6 years ago. The ironic part is, I'd heard about his mishap in the Caribbean several years ago, but by the time the story filtered down to me, I heard he was in the Bahamas! :roll: Turns out it was San Andres.
I'm a pretty level headed, neutral person, but this information concerns even me. I've edited the names, etc., but he and his wife both wrote me some details about their trip...
"Personally, **** and I would not recommend San Andres. Unless things have changed dramatically, it was a very dirty island. The water was not great at all. As a matter of fact, this is where **** was jet skiiing and hit coral, got a little cut on his foot that became badly infected with bacteria. Within 12 hours, his leg started to swell badly. Luckily, we were heading home that day and **** had to use a wheelchair to get off the plane. We came straight home, went right to the hospital and any longer, he would have run the risk of losing his leg. Got the antibiotics into him. Got to come home from hospital, had VON coming in and he also had to have antibiotics via IV. Not cute! He was off work for a week and on crutches, got referred to the Disease Centre in Hamilton months later and they declared it to be some kind of flesh eating disease due to badly contaminated water. The source entered this little cut. We stayed at the Decameron, which was suppose to be 4 star, not even close to the Decameron I had stayed at in Columbia a few years prior. The weather was great, not much for night life, alot of drug selling right in front of the motel which sat close to the road, had to cross the road for the beach. Needless to say, a getaway but not great island or trip. Keep in mind, things could have changed alot since we were there."
"I have some things to add. The island is miles wide, 20 long. We rented scooters and saw the complete island. For a fee you can go on a cave tour, it was a 10 foot hole in the ground. Not impressive. On a bus one day the driver stopped walked over to this fish and chip place, the bus had all the windows locked in the closed position so the gas fumes wouldn't be as bad. The bus was running an it was very,very hot that day. Ten min. later driver comes back and drives. When he's done eating, the box his food was in goes flying out his window. This explains to me all the garbage on the side of the road,including glass, car parts etc. We also saw a large garbage truck backed up to a cliff on the coast unloading the trash into the water. The residents told me a few years back the crime was so bad they got rid of the police, that's why it's military controlled now. Large green trucks continually driving around with 15 or 20 fully armed soldiers with machine guns and hand guns strapped to them in the back of these military vehicles. The place is talked about diving, but there are other places that are much better than that place. I would not even take a free trip there. Sorry to burst your bubble, but thought you'd want to know the truth. It is a Columbian Island."
-
:eek: Thanks for that info Sunluvr. The injured foot could happen anywhere but the rest of the story was pretty bleak ie. dumping garbage into the ocean and anywhere else for that matter, open drug sales in front of resort. Hopefully, like he said, things may have changed!
-
Thanks for the warning Sunluvr.
With all the other great choices out there, this kinda takes San Andreas off my list.
:(
-
Unfortunately, us too :(
We were really looking forward to trying this Island out in the spring...and while we haven't struck it completely off the list, we're definitely considering other options...but I'd be lying if I said this wasn't a major letdown to hear this information. Milli, you're correct about the foot injury happening anywhere, a colleague of mine had a similar incident in Cozumel, but not to that extent. The amount of bacteria in the water could certainly aggravate the matter to catastrophic proportions as it apparently did in this case. Dumping trash into the ocean is absolutely disgusting.
The other thing that makes this a difficult decision for us is...my cousin and his wife are very seasoned travellers and also avid campers. For them to take such a strong stand is not only rare, but out of character. They are very easy-going people, but very practical as well. I simply can't just turn a blind eye and a deaf ear under the circumstances. I've requested a bit more info from them, such as if the Doctor had advised if any sort of innoculation may have helped prevent the severity of his infection...guessing "NO", but we will see.
Sigh....
-
thanks for the info Sunluvr
I'm not going to scratch it off my list just yet, but I won't be rushing to get there either.
For some reason everytime we decide that we're going to go something happens to stop us. I think it must be a sign.
thanks for the heads up, I tend to listen to seasoned travellers when they say don't go.
-
I'm almost inclined to go to see just what all that hoopla is about, but as hubby says, safety and cleanliness is pretty key and considering the island is or at least was, lacking those two vital components, he would rather go somewhere we know we're guaranteed a good, safe time...it just might be back to Cuba in the spring...
We will see.
-
Hmmmmm .... it must have taken a drastic turn since I was there! :roll: