Snorkeling at Well's Bay!

Today Bus and I made the long trek to Well’s Bay, the one seasonal beach on Saba. We’d heard good things about it from the owners as well as guests at the Ecolodge who had been there in the past few days. It’s only there in the summer months, aka now. In the winter it is totally covered because of something to do with the ocean swells. Anyway, good timing on my part!

The muscles in my legs are going to HATE me in the morning because of the journey it was to get to this beach. Let me tell you, it was quite an effort. We had to get from the Ecolodge, which is 200ft above Windwardside, clear across to the other side of the island. We planned to leave at 8:30 this morning so I could get back in plenty of time to start my shift at 3:00. At about 8:00 it was pouringggg with rain. I guess that’s what we get for living IN the rainforest. The thing is, these rain showers never last very long and are great to fill the cisterns. So we waited about a half an hour just so the path on the mountainside down to Windwardside wouldn’t be super slippery. We set off at about 8:40, not really knowing quite how long it would take to get to Well’s Bay. We had our masks and snorkels in hand, and Bus had made some sandwiches for lunch.

The first part of the journey was like any other trip to Windwardside – the 15-20 minute hike down the mountainside through the rainforest. That was relatively easy. Then we set off walking down the road heading toward The Bottom (the town closest to Well’s Bay – and by closest I mean a 45 minute walk from…). Our plan was to (Mom don’t freak!) hitchhike to The Bottom and then walk from there. So we start walking, and the first car that comes along sped past us. Fail. The next car that came along picked us up : ) Yes, we did the whole stick up your thumb thing haha. And don’t worry, I never would have done this if I didn’t have a huge Dutch guy with me. No way. So we get in the car and the driver, Trisha, took us to The Bottom. It was about a 7 minute drive up and down mountains. Basically, it would have been pure hell to walk. You have to understand, hitchhiking is very common here. Apparently it’s like a simple courtesy to pick people up and take them in the direction you’re going. So we get to The Bottom, thank Trisha, and set out for the beach. We were told it was about a 30 minute walk, so we figured, how bad could it be?

Bad.

It was the most strenuous walk of my life. We were going up and down STEEP mountain roads and my legs have never hated me so much. I guess they hated me even more for the fact that I haven’t really done any strenuous exercise since I was actually an athlete in high school. Oops. Oh, and we also took a wrong turn at one point and ended up walking five minutes down a not-so-friendly hill which had a lovely dead end. And five minutes may not seem like much, but when your quads are on fire it seems like an eternity. So back up we went. We thought that was bad, but had no idea what we were in for haha. A nice woman who lived nearby pointed us in the right direction and off we set. When we were about 100 ft from the beach, meaning still walking down the steep road, it randomly decides to start pouring. I must admit, it did feel rather nice to cool off after he mega exercise haha. But it was also really annoying; we had finally gotten to our beach and it was raining :( But again, the weather changes very fast here. After about a 5 minute shower it was done. We sat under a tree on the side of the road (very near some goats, I might add) and waited it out. Not that we weren’t about to get soaking wet jumping into an ocean anyway, but it’s the principle of it!

Our first view:

With Diamond Rock in the picture :)

Me and my obsession with the mountains/clouds.

So we FINALLY made it to the beach, and it was quite beautiful. It had soft, black sand –some kind of volcanic sand. I’m not really sure all the science behind it. So we promptly dumped our stuff and put our masks and snorkels on. We walked into the clear blue water and it was such a nice temperature. I’m usually such a baby about getting into water because it’s slightly cold, but this water was nice and warm :) but not so warm that it was uncomfortable… We snorkeled over to the boulders in the corner of the bay and saw all kinds of sea life! I was so surprised to see so much while snorkeling! We saw pretty much all of the Caribbean reef fish, 4 sea turtles, a nice flounder, and a southern sting ray. The only thing was that the waves were definitely present, and you had to be a relatively good swimmer to maneuver between the rocks. We snorkeled through some great swim-throughs that were dark underneath but light enough that you could still see exactly where you were going – very cool. There were some legit caves, but the water wasn’t terribly smooth and we didn’t have a flashlight or a guide so we used our better judgment and stayed away. So after our 1.5 hour snorkel we headed back to the beach. I might add that we had the entire beach to ourselves all day.

I sat on a chair reading New Moon for a while, and because I live in Ohio and my skin gets scared when it sees real sun I got a nice sun burn :( Even after putting on my spf 55. Fail. There was no such thing as shade so it was bound to happen. I’ve been putting on lots of lotion to keep my skin alive haha. After a few more swims we were ready to leave. This was at about 2:00. Bus had smartly arranged for a former Ecolodge employee to pick us up then. Thank God, because if he hadn’t picked us up, and we had to walk the whole way back I think I would have died. I’ve never been so thankful to get in a car haha.

The end of the TERRIBLE road...

For future reference, if any of you decide to come visit this beautiful little island and want to go to the beach, take a taxi. No really.