Saba

Our Saba Trip

Our Saba trip started on Saturday morning.  We had to get up bright and early and head to the dock.

Josh and I on the dock waiting for our boat.

After checking in and waiting they told us we were allow to board our Ferry to Saba! Our Ferry was named The Edge!

Julia and I on the ferry (The Edge).

The boys on the Ferry

The front of our Ferry

It took about one hour to get to Saba.  At about 45 minutes we started seeing the edge of Saba.  Saba is a extremely rocky Island.  It has no beaches, only rocks. In the waters around Saba there are large rocks sticking up out of the water.

This rock is called diamond rock and is a popular dive site.

A picture of THE EDGE!

A picture of Saba- see all rocks, no beach!

The dock are of Saba.  Josh and I were worried a rock was going to fall on us.

When we got off the boat, we saw a guy holding a welcome sign with our names on it. 

The guys was from the dive shop and hotel we were staying at.  We used a company called Saba Divers.

We went to the dive shop to get suited up!

                                                                       Julia and I

The four of us getting ready to dive! Check out those wetsuits!

Josh and I on the boat

Julia and Don

The first dive we were scheduled for was a wall dive. The top of the wall was about 30ft down.  We went down to the top of the wall first then went down the sides on the wall.  The wall went roughly 200-300 feet down, we only went to about 80 ft.  It was a very different dive in the fact that we weren't ever on the bottom of the ocean.  Most of the time we could even see the bottom- we'd look down and just see black.  It was an odd feeling.  We returned to the top to switch tanks and let our bodies get rid of some of the Nitrogen from that dive.  When we came up one of Josh's stitches was bleeding so we thought it would be best if we didn't go on the second dive. The boat dropped Josh and I off and took Julia and Don for their next dive.

Josh and I used this time to explore the dock area.

A car...

Me next to the Welcome to Saba Sign!

Josh and the sign.

We were walking around when out of no where comes the craziest car we've ever seen! It was so small it could only fit one person in the car and then there was a man riding on the back (flat bed part).  It is like some mix between a mini-car and a truck?!?

After the silly car we thought we better go sit down.  We were to a small bar called Pop's place to have a drink.

A few minutes later we saw the boat return with Don and Julia.  The dive shop had arranged a free taxi to take us to their hotel- Scout's Place.  Since Saba is a small island they do not have big resorts or hotels. Scout's place is a small hotel, in which there are only 8 or so rooms, a pool, and a resturant. Josh and I truely enjoyed staying there.  We got to know the owners and workers and had a blast.

Josh and I got room #5!

Our room! No air co... what?!? Saba as you could see is just a mountian coming out of the water.  Since we were so high and there are no big buildings to block the wind- no where has air co.  It was actually very comfortable and we never remembering being hot.  It felt a good 15 degrees colder than St Maarten!

The beautiful pool area!

Josh taking a rest!

We got ready for dinner and decided to go meet Don and Julia.

The view from our room! Since it is so mountainy the houses are built into the side of the mountain/rock.  It is almost like the stack them in layers.  So outside of our room we over looked layers of roofs going all the way down to the water.

We decided to go to Eco-Lodge for dinner.  Eco-Lodge is a Eco friendly hotel and resturant.  Their rooms do not have electricity and all their food is grow right at the resturant.

Josh hiking up to Eco-lodge

A few minutes into the hike Julia mentioned that is was almost dark and there are no lights to aid us in the hike down from Eco-Lodge... so we turned around and decided to come back another time.

Just a wall I liked...

Josh and I

On the hike down... Don's shoe broke. So we were headed back to the hotel.

                                                      Don with no shoe...no shoe DON!!!!!!

After the hotel we walked to a resturant called Tropics Cafe.  We got there and they were closed! At this point we were thinking Saturday night and we can't find anywhere to eat?!? We had planned on eating at our hotel but they had a special Buffet for $29 and it was all sea food so we decide to try to find a place on our own... not going so well.

We were getting tired of walking on Saba because it was so hilly... we found ourselves outside the Tropics Cafe looking at the hill we had to walk up to get back to the hotel... ehhh

We finally decided to go back to the first place we saw walking to Eco-lodge... Saba Snack.

Josh and I at Saba Snack

After dinner we decided to go back to the hotel to have some drinks.
Our hotel at night...

The owner of the hotel has a little dog that roams the hotel... her name Lulu.

Julia and Lulu.  Lulu was a good puppy!

The resturant has an balcony area that overlooks the island.  They had lights up and it was a great place to sit and chat.

During this chating we had a friend stop by...

We went to bed and planned to wake up early enough to get breakfast and go hiking.

Views in the morning from our hotel room...

The roofs...

The mountain we were going to hike!  You can see it has clouds covering the top of it... that is how high it is.

The boys stretching before the hike

We went to get walking sticks for the hike
Josh and his walking stick

Me on the trail

My walking stick

A little cottage on the way up

Julia

Josh and I

Up, Up, Up....

Taking a break!

Another break...

As we got higher and higher the trees seemed to get bigger and bigger

Me and a huge leaf!

Bananas

Towards the top there is a communication tower.  You can see that as it goes up it becomes surrounded by clouds.  We are just hoping we when get to the top that we have a break in the clouds so we have see something!

Finally after about 1 hour of hiking! We MADE it!

The top looking down on the the island.  We were up int he clouds!

Josh had to get to the highest point!

All of us :-)

More pictures at the top

Now time to go back down...

After the hike we want to sit and get a bite to eat... Since we are already up here- ECO-LODGE!

We take the trail to Eco-Lodge (it was a little out of our way) and we get there... it is closed! Just our luck!

We head back to the hotel, decide a swim is in order since we were all sweaty from the hike.

We got ready and headed back down the hill to Tropics Cafe!

They were open!

View from our table

Josh and I

After Lunch it was time to head back to the hotel and pack up.  The hotel had a taxi take us back to the dock.  We got back on The Edge and headed home.  We sat in the very front of the boat and we had some great views on the way back to St Maarten. We saw flying fish, rocks, other boats...

Josh and I on the boat

Coming up to St Maarten

THE END!