Sophie and I (Carol)are now back in SXM . The various flights were smooth but took all the daylight hours. We left home before dawn (leaving the first real snowfall - beautiful) and arrived after sunset at Princess Julianna International Airport,where Paul was waiting with the car.
Paul had made tasty mixed fish chowder for us! We unpacked, repacked for our next adventure and fell over into sleep.
Even earlier the next day, we trundled down the road in the dark (waking all the dogs) and failing to negociate a reasonable taxi rate and not seeing a bus, we walked the really very short distance back to the airport. I was not so thrilled but actually, it was just fine as the road and shoulders had been improved over the year and it was much, much shorter than I had imagined.
Truthfully, I needed that mental adjustment to push me into a new mode for I was apprehensive about this whole project - the tiny prop plane, the short runway waiting us, the dormant volcano we would be sleeping on and the vertical hiking vis a vis my own endurance! I'd been quite intrigued by the island, Saba and the Eco-Lodge from first reading about them but thought them beyond us. Four hour hikes up mountain trails - no alternative?
But once in the plane, the spirit of adventure took over as it always will. Otherwise, one would get out, right? After the screeching halt, we did take a taxi up to almost the very top of the all-green mountain - as far as the hairpin turning road could go (and by the way, that perfect concrete road is only 50? years old; before that the local folks used a maze of steps, carved into the hills long ago. Those steps now comprise a good part of the hiking trails and like all steps, they are nearly vertical!)
It is impossible to describe the Eco-Lodge and cabins unless the reader has been to summer camp. Here is the difference - no piney smells, no horizon - for everywhere you turn, you are looking into a wall of looming tropical plants, mossy rocks, ferns layered upon ferns. If there is a break or a turn, the clearing will not be a flat lake or fields, it will be a sharply falling valley with close pointy mountainous hills rising over it and the ocean beyond, and clouds.
Sophie and Paul set out the next morning for the summit, to Mt Scenery, and will tell their own story.
I was happy just to be there but eventually set out on my own to poke about. All the cabins are tucked away on minitrails and covered by plantings and soon, I realized I was not on real trails. But, I saw the huge cistern which collects and holds rainwater, the only water used in camp and indeed, on the whole island. I tried to follow the various pipes and leads and wires from the solar collectors to the cabins (the only electricity used) and from the (total 5 min/day) showers and sanitary in-cabin composting toilets. The systems are carefully set out and managed and pretty well concealed.
I found a real trail finally and set out. It was a wonderland, not really a hike, but more like a crawl upward on ancient semi-hidden steps wiht mossy boulders offering handholds. Lots of fun, never the same from one footfall to the other - a thinking trail. After what seemed a long time, I came to the first major turn and descent and sat on a mossy rock and sketched for a time, enthralled. Picking my way back, I found a spider had built her web across the trail but left me a space to creep under. Later that day, we followed the trail to a village and more the next day.
The island has a few villages, Windward, The Bottom, the two Hells Gates (upper and lower) and St John's. The population is around 2000 and is mixed, generally Dutch and descendants of enslaved workers. It is all under the protectorate of Holland. There is the small, tidy airport and a loading pier (newish.) The waters surrounding are a Marine Park and are famous for diving sports. Hiking and diving are it - no casino underlife, no "shopping," for cruiseboats can't get in. There is a Medical University. All the buildings everywhere are white, all the roofs are red tile, everything else (except the concrete) is green wiht the exception of the white, orange yellow and red flowers.
This was a wonderful retreat and I encourage you to consider it: http://www.ecolodge-saba.com/.
ps. stay at least two nights and 3 days and be sure to rent a cabin with a hot tub on the deck - you'll like it after the walks! Tell them we sent you - thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment