We’ve found our new favourite Caribbean island

The islands of Saba, St. Eustatius (“Statia”) and Bonaire are “special municipalities” of the Netherlands. Legally part of the Netherlands, but without the freezing North Sea gales. Saba and Statia are part of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, ferry rides away from the neighbouring islands of Sint Maarten and St. Kitts. Bonaire is 800 kms away, off the coast of Venezuela. It will have to wait for another visit.

Our favourite island – Saba

Saba is only 5 square miles in area but half a mile high. It juts steeply out of the ocean. There are no beaches, it’s challenging to get to, has only one main road, few people, a handful of restaurants and little tourist infrastructure. We loved it.

There are two ways to get to Saba. The first is to fly on a tiny plane that lands on the world’s shortest commercial runway (400 m). Overshoot the runway and you’re in the Atlantic. The second is an hour-and-a-quarter ride on a 22-metre catamaran across open ocean. We chose the latter. To maximize the roller-coaster effect, Maria chose seats on the upper, outer deck at the rear of the boat. Every tenth wave sent up a wall of spray over us. It was rough seas. One of the crew rated it a seven out of ten. At eight, they cancel the sailings.

Our drive to the hotel from the port was harrowing. There is one main road, appropriately called “The Road”. Coming up from the harbour, The Road is narrow and winding, with a 23% grade. Fortunately it was dark so we couldn’t see the steep drop-offs if our driver missed a corner.

Windwardside

We stayed in Windwardside, Saba’s second largest town, population 500. It is a picturesque town tucked into a small gap in the mountain. It has a couple of hotels and guesthouses, a few shops, a terrific Dutch bakery/coffee shop – the Bizzy Bee, and not much else.

The Bizzy Bee is the centre of the action. Everyone in town stops in for coffee and a bit of gossip. Locals are the most friendly we’ve met in the Caribbean. Our first morning, one of them, Reid, started chatting to us like we were old friends. Before we left,we knew his whole life story.

The town is clean and quiet. All the houses are painted white with dark green trim and red roofs. Any deviance from these colors will get you a personal letter from the local authorities to change them.

Hiking and Diving

The main activities for visitors are hiking or diving. We don’t dive, but we got in some good hikes. Our first morning we hiked down to the The Bottom, the capital, so named because, you guessed it, it’s at the bottom of the island. Despite being the capital, and hosting a medical university, it is a sleepy little town.

The Bottom is not quite at the bottom. Saba’s original harbour was Ladder Bay, 300 metres below. Ships offloaded cargo into dinghy’s to be transported to the rocky shore. Slaves or donkeys then carried the goods up “The Ladder”, 800 steps straight up the cliffs. Now the only ones using The Ladder are crazy tourists like us. Going down wasn’t bad, even taking into account George’s fear of heights. Returning started as a mad dash. As we reached sea level, we saw a heavy squall coming across the ocean. We raced for the abandoned Customs shelter about a quarter of the way up. We didn’t quite make it. We got soaked. The rain made the centuries-old steps slimy, so the rest of the climb was slow-going.

The Highest Point in the Netherlands

The most popular hike is to the summit of Mount Scenery. At 877 metres, it is the highest point in the Netherlands. Most people take the well-developed trail, mainly steps, from Windwardside. What fun would that be? Instead, we hiked up the less-travelled Elfin Forest Trail at the back side of the mountain. Starting out, the trail was in good condition and the scenery was beautiful. We got great views of the miniscule airport far below.

Very soon, we wondered what we got ourselves into. The trail through the cloud forest became steep and technical. The previous day’s rain had turned the trail into a slick mud-bath. It was the most technically challenging hike we’ve ever done. By the end, our shoes and legs were caked in mud. The views from the top made the effort worthwhile. (If you’re going, take the standard route!)

Coming down, we again avoided the main path. We took a circuitous route looping gradually around the mountain. The descent was uneventful except for the Red Bellied Racer, a supposedly harmless snake, slithering across the trail in front of us. On the way down, we passed by our new friend Reid’s mountain escape. He was sitting on the porch waiting for someone to chat with.

We Ate Well

For a small town, Windwardside had surprisingly good restaurants. Except for a hilariously bad meal the first night at our hotel, we ate very well.

Brigadoon is a fine-dining restaurant that would not be out of place in any big city. Choi & Suzan Chinese Restaurant is a 47-year-old restaurant high up the hillside above town. The decor is exactly as it was when Choi opened the restaurant in the late 70’s. He’s still the chef. Anyone who’s been to a Chinese restaurant in small-town Canada would recognize the menu and the ambience.

Tropics Cafe is probably the most popular restaurant, partly due to it’s spectacular view over the ocean, but the food and cocktails are also very good.

Colibri Cafe at the trail shop of the Saba Conservation Foundation is run by a young Colombian woman, the wife of the Park Ranger. When we stopped by the first day to pick up trail maps, she suggested we come back for her homemade empanadas. We returned the next afternoon to take her up. They weren’t ready yet. She phoned her sister down the road. Half an hour later, her eight year old nephew showed up with his school bag stuffed with fresh, hot Colombian empanadas. Delicious washed down by mango smoothies.

A short sample of the 1-1/4 hour ride to Saba

Statia

St. Eustatius, known to everybody as Statia, is another 45-minute ferry ride over heaving seas from Saba. Once the ferry leaves the harbour you stay in your seat and hold on.

If you read our last post, you know how informal renting a car on the islands can be. Statia set a new standard. George again used Google Maps and Whatsapp to find a car. Sebastiaan said he’d leave the car at the ferry terminal with the keys under the visor. He told us to park the car in the same place with the keys and cash under the visor when we left. If we preferred to pay by card, we could just park the car and he would send a Paypal link later. All very civilized.

Statia is slightly larger and much flatter than Saba. We drove most of the island in about an hour. It’s not what you’d call a touristic country. There are a few black sand beaches. The Atlantic coast is too rugged and the waves too harsh for swimming. The Caribbean side has a couple of small sheltered beaches suitable for swimming. The big attraction is diving. There are 36 dive sites, including shipwrecks, coral reefs and lava flows. There is a five-star resort dedicated to diving. Did we mention we don’t dive?

The water calmed enough on the Caribbean side that Marilyn was able to do some snorkelling from the beach. While she snorkelled, George ate Johnny Cakes and juicy barbecue ribs off a roadside steel drum grill.

We spent Sunday morning exploring Oranjestad, the capital. It didn’t take long. Aside from the ruins of a church, synagogue and the original fort, there is not much. The few businesses and restaurants were closed on Sunday of course. The town has a sense of sadness to it. There are a lot of abandoned, hurricane-damaged buildings.

Hiking the Quill

Besides diving, there are some hiking options. The Quill National Park surrounds the dormant volcano that dominates the eastern end of the island. Eight different trails make their way into the deep caldera. The most popular is a well-marked, easy trail to the rim of the crater at 400 metres elevation. Having learned our lesson in Saba, we took the easy route. We were up and down in 1-1/2 hours.

The toughest part of the hike was avoiding stepping on the ubiquitous Caribbean hermit crabs rolling and scurrying on the path. When they retreated into their shells they just looked like rocks. The only other “wildlife” we saw were chickens. Chickens and roosters roam freely on the island; the park was no different. Chickens popped up out of the jungle at the strangest times. We were greeted at the summit by a lonely inquisitive chicken. It followed us up the last 15 metres, then stood around watching us take pictures.