Caribbean Islands: Island hopping in the Caribbean on Saba, St. Martin and St. Barthélemy is written by Lene Kohlhoff Rasmussen.
Island hop in the Caribbean – a palette of colors and tropical idyll
In the cold winter, I traveled to the Caribbean Islands, and the first thing I did was lay down comfortably in a hammock strung up between two palm trees. My T-shirt read: "Time flies when you ain't doin 'shit".
The Caribbean Islands are ideal to while away the time, but after a while I still start to feel the tingle after some activity, so I decided to go island hopping and quickly discovered that the Caribbean Islands are a melting pot of different cultures and colonial history.
The islands in Caribbean certainly not similar to each other. They bear the unmistakable mark of their former colonial powers, but common to them all is a fertile mix of races, skin tones, and a little local color.
The romantic image of the Caribbean trope idyll can easily be found over there, and there are plenty of islands to choose from.
The encounter with a jumbo jet on the beach in the Caribbean Islands
I was on Sint Maarten/St. Martin in the eastern Caribbean, which is a good starting point for island hopping to a couple of the French and Dutch Antilles. In fact, the island is both. That is why it has the two connected names; Sint Maarten/St. Martin, as it is spelled in Dutch and French respectively.
The island is only 96 km2 and is thus the world's smallest island with two national flags. When the Dutch and the French had to divide the island, they went their separate ways around the island, and where they met, the border had to be drawn.
The Dutch side is the least, and it is said that it is because the Dutchman went with a bottle of gin. He had had a tear over his thirst and swayed as he walked, and he apparently also took a nap halfway. Therefore, the Dutch had to settle for about a third of the island.
Sint Maarten/St. Martin is a busy island, as it is one of the Caribbean islands with the most calls cruise ships. There are tons of big hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, casinos and everything else needed to attract tourists in droves. With mass tourism, much of the idyll unfortunately disappears.
When I laid down on the stand at Maho Beach, I also got really nervous about whether a jumbo jet landed in the middle of the beach towel. On the approach to the runway at Princess Juliana International Airport, the planes came only 10 to 20 meters over the heads of me and the other beachgoers. This is precisely why the stand at the airport is world famous among plane spotters.
There were also other good stands on the island, but there was not so much peace and quiet on Sint Maarten/St. Martin. However, I found that on the next small island hop in the Caribbean.
Charming Saba - Caribbean's unspoiled queen
Before I could figure out how to pronounce Juancho E. Yrausquin Airport, the plane was ready to land. The flight between Sint Maarten and Saba takes just under 15 minutes. It gave a little suck in the stomach when the small plane landed on the world's smallest runway, which is only 400 meters long.
Colloquially, the airfield is called 'The Flat Point' as it is the only flat point on the island. It was therefore a great challenge for the engineers to build the airport. In the arrivals hall I got a 'souvenir stamp' in my passport which read: “Welcome to The Unspoiled Queen, Saba”. I immediately set about exploring the reasonably manageable island.
Saba is a small, charming island that quickly became one of my absolute favorites among the Caribbean Islands. It belongs to the Netherlands Antilles and is only a small volcanic mountain that sticks out of the sea at approximately 5 x 3 kilometers.
There are two tiny and very ornate 'gingerbread' style villages with red roofs that contrast beautifully with the green nature. Windwardside is the largest of the villages and the other of the villages is called The Bottom. Well, guess where it is.
The thing with the names of the island is, on the whole, quite funny. The steepest hill is called 'The Ladder' and the only main road is called 'The Road', while the flattest place at the airport is called 'The Flat Point'. So there is probably not much to go wrong with.
On top of Saba – mountain hiking in the Caribbean Islands
The cloud-shrouded peak, Mount Scenery, is an extinct volcano 870 meters above sea level, and it is actually Dutch highest point. The hike to the top went through a lush forest with tall ferns, tropical flowers and mahogany trees.
I saw several hummingbirds that, with their 5000 wing beats per minute, stand still in the air for a few seconds. Sometimes right in front of someone's nose and, whoa, they're gone again. From the top there was a fantastic view of the island and the sea, where the neighboring islands of St. Kitts and Sint Eustatius can be seen in the distance.
The next day I walked around the island on the footpaths that were once used by the locals before they started building the road. Saba has no beaches, and therefore not very many tourists come, but the island's biggest attraction lies below the surface of the sea.
Here are lava tunnels and hot springs, which remind of the island's dramatic origins. There is a fine coral reef, colorful tropical fish in small and large shoals, sea horses, sea turtles and rays. Saba is one of the few unknown beauties in the Caribbean, and I loved the idyll of the island, the cool air and the indescribable calm.
From Saba to jet set mica and Swedish colonial history
Well into my island hopping in the Caribbean, I decided to take a detour over to the small French island of St. Barthélemy, and there I came across the rather unusual colonial history of our Nordic brothers.
After many years of trading with smugglers and pirates, the island's approximately 1000 inhabitants learned in 1785 that their island had been leased to Sweden for nearly a hundred years. In return, the French were granted trading rights The Baltic Sea based in Gothenburg.
The island's capital is named Gustavia after the Swedish King Gustav III, who made the barter. The town has several pretty streets, some of which have Swedish street names, and a few old houses are in the Swedish building style.
St. Barthélemy is the paradise of the rich in the Caribbean, and one can see expensive Dior bikinis on fat, rich Americans and beautiful supermodels. However, the island is no bigger than it can be comfortably seen in a few days.
The jetset glitter also did not fit my style or wallet, so I took the ferry back to Sint Maarten / St. Martin, where I lay back in the hammock before continuing my journey to a new island in the warm tropical idyll.
When flying to the Caribbean Islands, it is not unusual for the plane to have a pit stop in the United States. It is therefore sometimes possible to extend your layover and take a few days in one of them US big cities.
Have a nice trip to the Caribbean.
You must experience that on the Caribbean islands
- Snorkel and dive – you might meet a sea turtle
- Hike in the jungle on Saba
- Relax in a hammock with a good book
- Experience authentic jet set glitter at St. Barthélemy
- Go island hopping around the more unknown islands of the Caribbean
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