Saba

The day following our St. Barts outing, we took the same ferry with Aqua Mania Adventures to the island of Saba, known as the Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean. The ride to Saba was pretty rough and lasted about 90 minutes. I was so glad once we were able to see the port.

Once we arrived in Saba, we made our way through immigration and then hopped in a van with a local to get a quick tour of part of the island. Saba is a five square mile island with four main villages, The Bottom (Saba’s capital), Windward Side, Zion’s Hill (Hell’s Gate) and St. John’s.

The road pictured in the photo above is named ‘The Road’ and goes through all four villages on the island. Several Dutch and Swedish engineers said that it was impossible to build a road on the island. Josephus Lambert Hassell, a civil engineer, believed otherwise. He, along with a group of locals, began construction of The Road in 1938. Nearly 10 years later, the 10.6 km road was completed. The first car arrived four years after that.

While getting a history lesson from our driver on the island, we made a few pit stops. The photos below are of Sacred Heart Church which was built in 1935.

 

The views from our drive were incredible, yet slightly terrifying. We tried not to look at the steep drop offs as we drove along.

Saba is known for its amazing diving. Unfortunately, we are not certified divers so we decided to check out the hiking trails. We hiked to the highest peak in the kingdom of the Netherlands!

The hike took about 75 minutes to get to the top. It was pretty steep so we took a few breaks every now and then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FUN FACT: Supposedly, Christopher Columbus laid eyes upon the island in 1493, but decided not to land because of the island’s rocky shores.

This is the view from about half way up on our hike.

As we got higher, it got a bit cloudy…

By the time we got to the top, it was super wet and muddy. I sank up to my ankles in mud and had scratches all over my legs from sticker bushes. To get to one of the viewing spots we had to climb a rope up some rocks. Once we were up there all you could see was white. I didn’t take a photo.

We went to one last viewing spot and could see a little bit better. Shortly after taking this photo, Adam climbs a rock to get higher. I am scolding him to come down because it was dangerous. He then calls me a ‘Grumpapotamus’ and I respond by saying I’m not a ‘Grumpapotamus’, I’m a ‘SAFETYPOTAMUS’. He rolled his eyes and came back down.

The hike down took us about 45 minutes or so.  Here is a photo from the bottom. You can barely see the top of the peak because of the clouds.

On our search for a bathroom to clean all the mud off our shoes and legs, we came across the Saba Museum. We met a wonderful lady who took us inside and told us about the history of Saba. She also informed us that quite a few people that live on the island are Petersons.  🙂

After our museum visit, we found a nice bar called Scout’s Place and enjoyed a beer before we headed back to catch the ferry.

The start of our ferry ride was lovely…for about 10 minutes. I was able to get a few pictures of the island as we were heading out of the port. After that, I was tightly gripping the handrails and saying prayers that we wouldn’t flip over and sink for about the next 80 minutes.

We were very glad we decided to visit Saba. It wasn’t our original plan, but since our excursion to Anguilla was cancelled, we were able to book it last minute. I’m so happy we did. It was a lovely island with a neat history. Maybe we will go back one day and visit the other Petersons. 🙂

CLICK HERE to read about our last few days in St. Maarten!

-E