Saba

Thursday, 30th of November

Schnitzelhaus

• The public ferry takes us back to the island of St. Martin, which we seem to keep visiting just as a transfer stop.

• Nevertheless, the island is interesting because it hosts two nationalities in a very small area: there is a Dutch part of the island, Sint Maarten, and a French part, Saint Martin.
• We take the ferry to the French part, which somehow (don’t ask me exactly how) belongs to France. Everyone here speaks French, the cars have French license plates and the overall flair is such that you might as well be in a warm, sunny part of France.
• The Dutch part is somehow a bit more independent, soon there will be elections and although most people can speak Dutch, it feels less like the Netherlands than the French part feels like France.
• Speaking of elections: The parties are of course already busy advertising – election posters are everywhere and fun fact: most of them feature ALL members of the party (all 11 of them).
• Our cab driver tells us that (unsurprisingly) the Dutch part is more favorable in terms of taxes, which is why all the companies on the island have settled on the Dutch side and indeed: as soon as we cross the border, we drive through one industrial area after another.
• We reach Philipsburg, the large harbor town where the cruise ships dock, three of which are arriving today.

• We notice this shortly after arriving in the initially deserted town, as the streets suddenly fill up and the town is literally flooded with people.
• No wonder, because the Dutch part of the island has around 40,000 inhabitants, while the French part has around 30,000 and a single cruise ship can fit around 5,000 people (at least on the huge ones that sail through the Caribbean) – which means that when three cruise ships are in port at the same time (as is the case today), there are around 20% more people on the island, all of whom are running or driving around somewhere (a classic school arithmetic problem 😉 ).
• We briefly visit a supermarket to stock up on snacks etc. for Saba.

• Then I start to get hungry and as we still have a bit of time before our ferry to Saba departs, we set off in search of food.
• At some point I stop and say to Matthäus: “Mmmh, that smells good there, should we go and see what they have?” And when we look at the stall and discover the menu, we both start laughing.
• I headed straight for the Schnitzelhaus. Matthäus laughs and says: “Yes, that you smelled from afar.”

• They also play Ballermann songs, albeit more Dutch-influenced ones, and one woman shakes her head at the après-ski song that’s playing: “I hear this song and all I hear is drugs.”

• A small but fast ferry takes us to Saba.
• This super small island is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and is one of the few islands in the Caribbean that is not yet completely overrun by package tourism.

• Immigration, which is done in a small house at the harbor is correspondingly quiet.
• The queue isn’t very long and I’m really happy when the immigration officer turns out to be Dutch and I can immediately practise my Dutch.

• She asks where we are staying when we answer “El Momo cottages”, a woman behind us exclaims loudly “El Momo, oooh, sooo many stairs! Sooo many!”
• Shortly afterwards, we agree with her statement as we climb up stairs and more stairs with our rucksacks and there seems to be no end to them.

• We finally reach reception, but it is deserted, with a note next to it telling us that if no one is there, we should call here.
• So we do and shortly afterwards reach our host, who sounds rather out of breath and says “Yes, I’ll be there in 5 minutes.”
• He then tells us that his wife and he, who run the cottages together, have been invited to a party tonight – right next to the road – and they thought that if our cab driver drove past, they could stop him to drive up with us.
• However, he didn’t see the cab until it was going down again and then sprinted off in a suitably stressed state – up the thousands of stairs.
• He tells us how everything works, shows us where to have breakfast, how to take a shower (there is no running water), how to use the compost toilets (although he is very reassured when we tell him that we have just spent 10 days on the sailing ship, so the concept is not new to us) and then adds: “We have a cat and she is just looking for love…” and after a short pause, “But aren’t we all?”
• Speaking of showers: using them is more difficult than you might think, so here are some picture instructions – with our host posing as the model:

• So we sit down on our cozy little terrace, enjoy the atmosphere and the view and, to round off the day, see a crab running around in front of our hut – cool!

Friday, 1st of December

Saba Day

• Today we enjoy the really tasty El Momo breakfast for the first time – with fresh fruits, njam!

• Then we slowly make our way to The Bottom, where the Saba Day celebrations are taking place today – on foot via some of the countless hiking trails that exist on the island.

• The official program ends at noon, which is why we unfortunately miss it completely – but we do get to eat and dance.
• We chill out with lots of other people, watch the action and eat delicious free snacks.

• Finally, we hike back home and chill out on our terrace and by the pool.

• In the evening, we listen to the parade that takes place in honor of Saba Day – it sounds like a party bus is driving across the island and in between we hear a “Yeah goat” (like in the video below).

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• For dinner, we head to the nearby town of Windwardside, where we treat ourselves to dinner in a nice restaurant.

Saturday, 2nd of December

Chill-out-day

• Breakfast and then chilling out – that’s our day today.
• We read, watch a movie, enjoy the great view and have a relaxed chat about this and that.
• We also discover that the cat really is looking for love.

Sunday, 3rd of December

“Aufi muss I, der Berg ruft”

• The Austrian in me comes through today and we decide: Before we leave Saba, we simply have to hike to the top of Mount Scenery – especially as it is the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands at 887m.
• So after another delicious breakfast, we set off – equipped with plenty of water, cookies and crackers.

• The climb turns out to be super steep and actually not a walk in the park – the whole path consists of stairs – so you can perhaps imagine the short distance over which the meters of altitude have to be overcome.

• This does not necessarily mean that it is faster, however – especially as the theme of the island’s hiking trails is “slippery”.
• Closer to the summit in particular, some of the paths are in the shade and constantly wet, so the stones are covered in moss and are a real slippery slope.
• Fortunately, there are railings in some places so that you can hold on for a bit and although I initially refuse to use railings for hiking, I’m really glad that they are there, especially on the descent.

• There are three viewpoints, all of which we visit of course, although “view” is a bit of an exaggeration considering the fact that the summit of Mount Scenery is actually always covered in clouds.
• We are lucky at one of them and catch a brief glimpse of Windwardside (by brief I mean for about 5 seconds) before it clouds over again.

• At the third viewpoint, we wonder why no one is going up the path, but it soon becomes clear to us: it’s super muddy and next level slippery – really adventurous.
• We struggle up through the thicket in places, sometimes doubting whether there is even a path at all.
• The great thing about the trail, by the way, and why the adventure pays off, is that most of it leads through cloud forest, which grows here at the summit of Mount Scenery and is very extraordinary.

• The cloud forest could really be an inspiration for good fairy tales, there is something magical about the way the moss grows on the trees and the few rays of sunlight make their way through the dense cloud cover into the thicket and then fall through the canopy at all possible angles.

• Although the ascent was strenuous, we are still motivated and in the mood for more hiking, so we decide to descend on the other side via the Elfin Forest Trail.

• This path turns out to be even more extreme than the viewpoint path and is a real challenge – over really slippery stones (without stairs) with slippery sliding surfaces, it goes very steeply down the mountain.
• As a reward, we always have a great view of the sea and the airport – with the world’s shortest runway!

• It’s not surprising at all though that we don’t meet anyone else here.

• We are really relieved when we finally arrive at the bottom and the trail continues relatively flat.
• Our plan is to walk along the Sandy Cruz Trail, which leads around Mount Scenery and is supposed to offer great views.
• It lives up to its promise, and from here (at an altitude of around 500m) you actually have good views, as you are under the cloud cover that surrounds the summit of Mount Scenery.

• Here the path leads through dense rainforest – one of the oldest pieces of rainforest on the island.

• We soon reach the town The Bottom, from where we head back up via the Bottom Mountain Trail, as always on Saba, over steep hairpin bends and following the “slippery” theme, but not because it’s so wet, but because it’s so dry – wow.
• On this last climb for today (apart from the one at the end, of course), we are already feeling our tired legs, but as always, it’s really steep and the meters in altitude are overcome “quickly”.

• We return to Windwardside via the Crispeen Trail, which we already know.
• We hear loud horns and loud music coming from the car parade that is taking place today in honor of Saba Day.
• In Windwardside, we are thrilled to discover that the Saba Snack is open, where we stock up on some “good” food (Saba salad, fish and burrito) before we set off on the final ascent and master the 60 steps to El Momo with more bravura than I would have thought.
• Once at the top, we eat our well-earned meal while enjoying the sunset over the sea – wow, this is the way to live!

• To refresh ourselves, we take a dip in the pool under the starry sky – a wonderful day all in all!

Monday, 4th of December

Airplanes everywhere!

• Getting up, having breakfast – our usual routine.
• Then, unfortunately, we have to pack again, because today we’re heading off to Jamaica.
• However, our flight is not until the evening, so during the day we have a planning and organization day on the beautiful terrace of El Momo.
• We are a bit disorganized and don’t really make any progress – at least we manage to book accommodation for the first few nights in Kingston, Jamaica!
• We take a cab to the other side of the island (which means we’ve driven the whole length of the island) to the airport, where, funnily enough, we again meet the lady who stamped our passports when we entered the country.

• She also recognizes us and says: “Ah, didn’t you arrive by ferry?” and explains to us that you can even tell by the stamps, on which a small ferry or a small plane is depicted – nice!

• Speaking of small planes: the plane we are flying in, a DHC-6, has just 19 seats and there are only four of us. Plus the pilot and co-pilot, of course – cool!

• It really is a mega experience – I’m absolutely thrilled!
• You can hear the propellers so loudly that we even have trouble talking to each other during the flight.

• The flight takes 12 minutes before we land back on St. Martin – welcome back!
• There we take a cab around the airport, where our hotel is located – Marys Boon Beach.
• We pass the club that our cab driver from Saba once ran here before it was destroyed by Hurricane Irma in 2017, so that today only the ruins remain.
• Marys Boon Beach is the nicest airport hotel we’ve booked so far – sorry USA – and is right on the beach.

• Therefore we walk along the beach – already in the dark, but still great – because I really want to see the famous beach, which is right in front of the runway and of which there are these photos of people sailing along with the jet stream of the airplanes (really dangerous, but also nice!).

• When we get there, we’re not in the mood for a bar, but we’re lucky and an airplane arrives soon anyway – just a small one, but still.
• It’s really cool: especially now at night, you really get the feeling that the plane is coming straight towards you.

• We stroll back to Marys Boon Beach, where we treat ourselves to dinner in the restaurant – lobster pasta, njamnjam!