I finally climbed Mount Scenery!

So working at a hotel, I naturally encounter lotssss of tourists. They ask me all sorts of questions about the trails and diving around here, and of course they expect me to be reasonably knowledgeable. Well, until now I’ve been very vague whenever people asked me questions about the Mt. Scenery trail…. But I finally did it! One morning I was supposed to go hiking with Nora but then she was called in to work early so she couldn’t come. I was awake, and was already in hiking clothes, so I decided to embark on my journey haha.

Mt. Scenery is a lava dome that forms the summit of Saba's stratovolcano. It's pretty cool, it is a dormant volcano, not extinct. They know this because there are still spots underwater near the island that are hot. I dove one of these sites the other day. The sulphur turns the sand a mustardy-yellow color, and when you bury your hangs in it it is actually a few degrees warmer than the rest of the water! It's really cool. I tried to take a picture of the color difference...

The Ecolodge is the closest establishment to the peak of Mt. Scenery, but it still isn’t that close. The Ecolodge sits at about 1,500ft, and the peak of Mt. Scenery is 2,855 ft – it’s the highest point in the Kingdom of the Netherlands! From the bottom of the trail in Windwardside, it is 1,064 steps. It’s supposed to take 90 minutes one way, but it only took me 45 minutes to get up, and 20 minutes to get down! I’m pretty proud of myself. But I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I hike 1/3 of the trail almost every day to check my email ;)

It’s a beautiful hike through the rain forest, dry forest, and cloud forest. Tons of really cool vegetation!

There are two peaks that you can get to. When I got up to the top, first I went to the left which is the less-traveled path. It’s not rock steps like the rest of the trail, but more like soggy logs that have been placed in the mud for people to climb on. I felt very outdoorsy while doing this, which isn’t really me haha. I had BEAUTIFUL views from this peak, no clouds blocking the sight. I took some pics and then decided to head over to the other peak.

This is the one that has a huge communication tower on it. There are two scenic views, but unfortunately just as I got to the top the clouds came over :( I sat up there listening to my ipod for about an hour waiting for the clouds to clear but they never did. One of the two scenic views on the communication tower side takes you to the highest possible point that you can get to. You have to pull yourself up this rope to get to the top, and it’s quite slippery.

Well this was my mountain climbing expedition! I don't think I'll do it again until the family gets here, just because it takes quite a toll on the legs!

Pretty sunset over the mountains :)

Windwardside, around the island, and a bit from my morning hike :)

So this is the town that I hike to almost every day for my internet fix! There aren’t really that many towns on Saba, but I would say that Windwardside is the center of the island. It has the only attempt at a night life and has all sorts of shops to wander around in.

I didn’t want to look like a TOTAL tourist walking around, seeing as I’m pretty much a local now, so the photos aren’t elegantly framed. I apologize ;) ALSO, you can click on some of the photos and make them bigger!

This is a cool view of the town from the road leading up to Booby Hill – you can see the clouds passing through

The Windwardside branch of the Saba library. I haven’t seen it open yet. And I do check, since reading is my main form of entertainment up at the Ecolodge ;)

The bank and ICS – Island Communication Services. For all of your mailbox services, business services, mailing, international calling, high-speed internet, bookstore, design and print, catalog ordering, DVD rentals, and car rental needs. Yes, on an island this small one place tries to do it all haha

Here is the corner of a street where you can see the Saba Snack Bar and Pamela’s Boutique. The Saba Snack Bar is so random; according to the menu it sells “Mexican Foods, Cookies, Smoothies, Milkshakes, Birthday Cakes, and Patties”… yeah. And then next door at Pamela’s Boutique, in order to show that they carry men’s clothing too they use the ultra-hip abreve “4MEN2”.

This is one of the entrances to Scout’s place. Everyone who works at Scout’s recognizes me now because I come in almost daily to use their wifi. The one waiter brings me a coke as soon as he sees me because that’s what I alwaysss get.

The Post Office – anything I send or is sent here takes a minimum of two weeks. I asked where the mail goes from here, and the guy said it’s first sent to Curacao, and then they usually take their good old time sorting it, and then it eventually makes it to the States haha.

Dad, when you guys arrive, it will be ok. They have ice cream, chocolate sauce, and nutella. Don’t worry.

My favorite: The Saba Island Realty office. In the super market. Yes.

A little bit of where I live/work. I haven’t taken many pictures, sorry!

Pool deck with the Blue Tang cottage in the background.

Yeah, it’s a tough life.

Lone papaya tree with the sky

A little tree frog (about the size of the tip of your thumb) visiting in my bathroom.

Heliconias off of my deck at the Turtle cottage

My new turtle-bed! Haha

!!! And this morning I went hiking with my new friend Nora!! She's from the States too, so it's a nice change :) She was shocked that I had so few pics of myself while I've been here, so she insisted on taking pics while we hiked. We went up to the Bottom Mountain. Here are some pics from this morning!

Bananas!!

Hahah this donkey is so friendly. He came running out of the bushes when he heard us on the way up, and the same thing on the way down!

Awwwww

Goats!

K I think that's all for now! Hope you enjoy :)

Diving: The Needle/Third Encounter and Diamond Rock! and Sunset from Booby Hill

Ok so the only photographs I have that I can include in a legit update are from Monday - first I went diving in the morning. It was my favorite day of diving, even though the visibility wasn't great. Then that evening Bus and I made the trek down to Windwardside and then to an abandoned house on Booby Hill to watch the sun set over the mountain.

So this dive was me, a couple from Ft. Lauderdale who have dived alllll over the world, and an ex-stock broker from Wall Street who now works in a bank in Barbados! - haha she wanted to retire so her boss was like "hey how about a banking job in Barbados?!" so she took it because it's a place she can dive. She's a banker during the week and a dive master on the weekends. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

The first site was called Third Encounter - but it's really the starting pinnacle to get to The Needle, which is Saba's most famous dive site. Basically, you start swimming out into the blue, you can't see any kind of structure anywhere around you. It's pretty eerie because that's when sharks swim by :) We got to see a shark!!!! It was a Caribbean reef shark, and I was so excited. And I thought it was pretty big, and having the other [way more experienced] divers tell me they thought it was big confirmed it! Unfortunately I didn't get a photo because it was at the beginning of the dive and my camera wasn't ready yet. Fail.

So I stole this from the internet so you know what this type of shark looks like :)

It's very colorful here!

Cool anemone

This is kind of what The Needle looks like - it's a relatively narrow, underwater mountain that starts at about 230ft and peaks at 80ft under water. So cool. I couldn't get a good photo with the flash on (because of the particles in the water) so I turned it off - that's why it's very blue.

Eel at the top of The Needle

The next dive we did is called Diamond Rock. Below is a picture of Diamond Rock from above the water. You can also see it in the photos from Well's Bay. You see all the white?? Yeah that's not Diamond Dust, as they call it here - haha it's just bird poop. They must have decided that Diamond Rock sounds a lot better than Bird Poop Rock :)

I think this was my favorite dive of all, so far at least. It was SOOO colorful and full of life. Unfortunately my camera battery died at the beginning of the dive. Rather unfortunate. But oh well, I got to enjoy the dive without having to think about taking photos. I hope to do this one again when the fam gets here in July!!

I don't know why this turned blue, but I'm gonna leave it.

So hiking up Booby Hill, this is one view of St. Eustatius - a nearby island. Pretty cool.

This is just a cool shot of the cloud passing through. The peak of Mt. Scenery is almost always covered by a cloud. This is just a particularly cool photo because you can see the peak, but there is still a ring of the cloud around the mountain!

Sunset over the mountains :)

That's all I have for now! Bus and I are going to the beach again tomorrow (we're getting a ride this time haha) so hopefully I'll have some good photos to share!!