Gabriel recounts his impressions of a journey he made to Saba Island in 2014.
The best of going to Saba Island is the airplane trip. To take the 15 minutes flight, in Winair´s Twin Otter from Saint Marteen and watch the pilots while they fly the plane with the wing so close to the wall of the mountain at the side of the island and head the aircraft towards the only plain area, where the landing track of no more than 400 m long appears, that starts and ends at a precipice that falls abruptly to the sea, already justify having chosen that destination. This airport is considered one of the five more dangerous in the world, so much is so that the landing of any kind of private airplane is not allowed. The island is located in the middle of the Caribbean but has no beach. It has the shape of a pudding that stands above from the sea, with a total of 13 km2 and around 2000 residents. If you are not an enthusiast of diving or trecking (with demential temperatures) in a tropical environment, then Saba more than anything is this: The experience of the airplane trip.
In Saba the landscapes are very nice, with lot of tropical vegetation and beautiful flowers. The architecture in wood is interesting and the people are very kind. There are some picturesque information regarding this island. It belongs as an integrated town to the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Holland), being at a distance of 7500 km from Amsterdam. The official language here is English (and not Dutch) and the currency is the Dollar (and not the Euro). In Saba is located the tallest mountain of Holland (!) of 887 m altitude.There is only one zigzagging mountain path, which goes up from the small plain of the airport, pass through Winwardside town, reaches to The Bottom, that is the capital, at the other side of the island and from there goes down to the marine anchorage. The construction of this narrow and difficult road was directed by a native of the island, that made a technical course in road building by mail, about sixty years ago.The name of the road is “The Road”. And nobody asks what road it is, because it is the only one on the island.
