Providencia: An island with a ‘sea of

seven coloursʼ
A tiny, emerald-green island slowly materialised out of the Caribbean
Sea. Extinct volcanic peaks rose along its spine with dense forests on
their flanks and golden sand at the edges. My 26-seat turboprop plane
descended rapidly, passing so close to a weather-boarded church it felt
as if I could reach out and touch the spire. I braced for landing, but at the
last moment the pilot pulled up sharply to a chorus of anguished gasps.
The intercom crackled as he apologised for the abrupt change of course:
“There are stray dogs on the runaway, so Iʼll have to circle round and try
again”.

Providencia, located around 800km north-west of mainland Colombia, was one of Englandʼs
first colonies (Credit: Daniel Buitrago Ch/Getty Images)

As my heart slid back into my chest, I gazed down at the “sea of seven
colours”, a vivid blue-green patchwork produced by the third-longest
barrier reef system on Earth, and quickly lost count of the shades.

The least Colombian part of Colombia

Remote, unspoilt and little-visited, Providencia is the least Colombian
part of Colombia. Spanning just 17sq km, the island has a tumultuous
history and a distinct cultural identity. Located within the vast, Unesco-
protected Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, Providencia lies almost 800km
north-west of mainland Colombia and even further from the
consciousness of most other Colombians. (Nicaragua, which has tried to
claim sovereignty, is closer, but still lies more than 230km to the west.)

Getting to Providencia involves a convoluted and relatively expensive

journey via its larger, more touristy sister island San Andrés, 50km south.
As a result, visitor numbers were low – often fewer than 100 at a time –
even before the Covid-19 crisis.

Providenciaʼs 5,000 residents have a mix of African-Caribbean, British,

Miskito (an indigenous group from Central America), Spanish and French
heritage. They speak an English-based Creole and are typically Baptists
or Rastafarians, unlike mainland Colombians who are predominantly
Catholic. The islandʼs singular character soon became apparent after my
plane landed on the second attempt. Outside an airport the size of a
village hall, my taxi driver, named Cordel, emphasised that locals saw
themselves as “islanders” first, Colombians second.

The islandʼs residents have a mix of African-Caribbean, British, Miskito, Spanish and French
heritage (Credit: Soularue/Alamy)

“Providence is very safe, very peaceful,” he said on the drive to the west
coast village of Freshwater Bay. “People fish, work in tourism, work their
gardens. You can grow anything here – sweet potato, plantain, breadfruit,
cassava, watermelon.”

The best way to get a feel for Providencia – known locally as Providence
or Old Providence – is from the water, so after checking into my
guesthouse, I took a boat trip with guide Nazario Williams. As we sailed
past tranquil coves and near-empty beaches peppered with palm trees
and the occasional rum shack, he told me about the islandʼs history.
Initially a base for Dutch pirates, Williams explained, Providencia became
one of Englandʼs first colonies, when a group of Puritan settlers arrived
on the Seaflower ship in 1631.

On the surface, this isolated speck of an island looks like an unlikely

choice for a settlement. Yet to the wealthy Puritans who backed the
project, Providenciaʼs fertile soils appeared far better suited to growing
valuable crops such as cotton than Plymouth, Massachusetts, where
another group of Puritan settlers travelling on the Mayflower, a “sister
ship” (a vessel of the same class) of the Seaflower, had landed 11 years
earlier – and whose famous voyage is celebrating its 400th anniversary
this year.
Crab Cay is located in the heart of the Old Providence McBean Lagoon National Natural Park
(Credit: Soularue/Alamy)

The islandʼs strategic position in the Caribbean between Central and

South America – ideal for conducting privateering raids against the ships
of the Spanish Empire, which was both Catholic and a bitter rival of
England at the time – also made it an alluring prize. “If England was to
build a mighty empire, the defenders of ‘the true religionʼ would first have
to cut off the flow of [Latin] American gold to the King of Spainʼs coffers.
Robbery and righteousness, greed and godliness, were bound together in
the imperial venture,” writes Tom Feiling in The Island that Disappeared.

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But the colony struggled with droughts, lacklustre harvests and labour
shortages, as well as Spanish attacks. Over time, the settlers turned from
indentured servants from Britain to slavery, with hundreds of enslaved
people from Africa brought to the island. According to historian Carrie
Gibson, author of Empireʼs Crossroads, Providencia was later the site of
the first rebellion by enslaved people in a British colony. Eventually, in
1641, another Spanish raid finished the colony off for good. Spanish rule,
however, was similarly short-lived. “They were attacked by English, Dutch
and French pirates. The most famous was Captain Henry Morgan,” said
Williams.

A sea of seven colours

We sailed past hamlets of pastel-shaded houses with hammock-strung

verandas and luxuriant gardens, often set around a simple church.
Rugged green hills rose behind them, their slopes thick with orange,
mango, guava, soursop and cotton trees. Beyond the site of New
Westminster, founded in 1631 and now called Old Town, was Santa Isabel,
the largest of the islandʼs seven villages and home to a handful of
municipal buildings, shops, cafes and churches.

The third-longest barrier reef system on Earth runs along Providenciaʼs coast (Credit:
Tiernn/Getty Images)

Later we called in at Crab Cay, a rocky islet in the heart of the Old
Providence McBean Lagoon National Natural Park, which protects an
area of tropical dry forests, mangroves, coral reefs and seagrass beds on
the north-east coast. A short, steep trail through a thicket of palm trees
led me to a naturally formed cairn of boulders. As frigate birds – one of
150 avian species found in the park – flew overhead, I looked across at
the Old Providence Barrier Reef, which Iʼd spotted earlier that morning
from the plane. Spanning 255 sq km and pulsing with marine life, the reef
system varies widely in depth, which turns the water multiple hues of
blue and green. These navy slashes, turquoise swirls and azure puddles –
to name just a few of the shades – have given rise to the “sea of seven
colours” nickname.

The diving and snorkelling off Crab Cay are predictably excellent, though
at around 25C the water is warm enough to lull you into stupor. Within
moments of submerging, turtles, octopuses and shoals of minute blue
and yellow fish appeared, as well as forests of anemones, constellations
of starfish and clusters of brain-like coral. In the late afternoon, Williams
dropped me off at Southwest Bay, Providenciaʼs prettiest beach and site
of a raucous weekly horserace. I settled down at an open-side restaurant
on the sand for a plate of rondón, a coconut-scented stew of conch, pig
tails, fish fillets, yam, breadfruit and cassava so hearty that afterwards
attempting to get up let alone walk felt a Herculean task.

In search of Captain Morgan

The next morning, I caught a lift on the back of a scooter – the islandʼs
main form of transport – to Santa Isabel to explore Providenciaʼs piratical
history. Mentioned in Robert Louis Stevensonʼs Treasure Island,
Providenciaʼs most famous pirate link is with Captain Morgan, whose
band of buccaneers attacked the islandʼs Spanish rulers in the 1660s. In
1670, they established a base on Providencia and used it to launch a
daring raid on Panama.
The reef system varies widely in depth, giving rise to the “sea of seven colours” nickname
(Credit: DC_Colombia/Getty Images)

According to legend, the Welsh pirate – who later in life became a slave
owner, was knighted and was appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica –
stashed some treasure on the small isle of Santa Catalina, known locally
as Ketlina and now linked to Santa Isabel by a rickety pontoon bridge. I
followed a path along Santa Catalinaʼs south-west coast, which is fringed
with tangled mangroves rustling with unseen creatures. Midway along, a
chunky iguana crashed across a bungalowʼs corrugated-iron roof
pursued by the broom-wielding homeowner. After 10 minutes, I reached a
rusty old cannon that looked as if it had been dredged from the bottom of
the sea. Known as Morganʼs Cannon, it marks the spot that Spanish
soldiers once executed pirates and Puritans.

At the southern end of Santa

They were attacked by English, Dutch and
French pirates. The most famous was Catalina, beyond a “Me Ketlina”
Captain Henry Morgan
sign, the Big Mama Sweet Taste
snack shop, and an empty rum bar pumping out Damian Marley, a flight
of steps led to a vantage spot overlooking the harbour. There I found the
remains of Fort Warwick, built by the Puritans on the site of a former
Dutch pirate base, and later captured by the Spanish. Only the formidable
walls of volcanic rock have survived, but it remains an evocative spot.
Below, on Fort Beach, is the semi-submerged entrance to Morganʼs Cave.
According to legend, this was where the legendary pirate hid his loot –
though the presence of a sign pointing out the caveʼs location suggested
the treasure, had it ever been present, was now long gone.

At the far end of the cove, a dirt track wound up into a forest. Clambering
over fallen trees, scattering lime-green lizards in the process, I followed
the trail until I reached a clearing where a bulbous chunk of rock was
perched precariously on a cliff edge. The landmark is known as Morganʼs
Head because of its supposed resemblance to the pirate; the patchy
tufts of greenery on its top reminded me more of a balding punk. Further
on was a ruined villa rumoured to have been owned by one of Morganʼs
latter-day counterparts, Pablo Escobar.

Morganʼs Head is named after the legendary pirate who is said to have stashed treasure here
(Credit: Gustavo Machado/Getty Images)

Beyond Puritans and pirates

Providencia was eventually abandoned by pirates in the 1680s and is

thought to have remained unoccupied for more than 100 years. It was
only reoccupied in 1789, when a white Jamaican plantation owner arrived
with a small group of enslaved people from Africa (slavery was officially
abolished in 1851). Other European and Caribbean settlers followed,
along with Anglo-Miskito people from the Central American coast.

Nicaragua attempted to lay claim to Providencia but eventually

recognised Colombiaʼs sovereignty over the island in a 1928 treaty
(though the dispute continues to flare up from time to time). Since then,
Providencia has remained on the fringes of national life in Colombia,
largely ignored by the government in Bogotá.

Today, although it looks idyllic, the island faces challenges. Health and
education services are limited, many young people have left to study or
work elsewhere, and the climate crisis is fuelling coastal erosion. But
there are also reasons to be optimistic. Awareness of Providenciaʼs
distinct culture is growing, thanks to the 2017 release of two films set on
the island: Bad Lucky Goat, the first to be shot in the local Creole
language, and Keyla, whose cast is made up almost entirely of
Providencia residents. A project to restore damaged sections of the San
Andrés-Providencia reef system is also underway; and though visitor
numbers were slowly increasing before the Covid-19 pandemic, the
islandʼs remoteness should help it escape the overtourism that blights
much of the Caribbean.

The Puritans and pirates may have departed, but Providencia remains, as
it ever was, an island of promise.
Islanders speak an English-based Creole and are typically Baptists or Rastafarians (Credit:
Hemis/Alamy)

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