Luke Taylor in Providence

The first thing that strikes visitors arriving on Old Providence is the island’s deep serenity. There are no cars and little noise except for the reggae playing at beach bars. Unlike most of Colombia’s tourist hotspots, there are no hawkers either; visitors are left to laze on the powdery white sands of Providence’s beaches alone. Even the sea is still as a lake.

“We don’t have a lot here. No big hotels, no museums, none of that,” says Ferma Livingston in a thick Caribbean English as she emerges from her restaurant kitchen in Manzanillo Bay. “But what we do have is peace and tranquillity.”

Providence’s laid-back lifestyle and local customs have been preserved by the tiny island’s isolation. Though it is part of Colombian territory (and known in Spanish as Providencia), the volcanic island sits 450 miles (724km) north of the mainland and some 260 (418km) miles off the coast of Nicaragua…

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/29/providence-island-culture-colombia-caribbean-isolation