12 Apr: Living Upstairs
Jessica and Jonathan climbing "The Ladder" being 800 steps
Our sweat was pouring down our faces and found its way behind the sunglasses. Our bodies were working hard to climb up “The Ladder”, as it is called. We were anchored in a bay with its suitable name “Ladder Bay”. Of course, we wanted to follow the traditional approach, since this was previously the only possible way to reach the island.

As a steep, circular rock, Saba was rising out of the Caribbean Sea. Never conquered by an enemy, who bothered to risk his ships for this “unattractive” island, it let their inhabitants live in piece. The hostile beachfront was its best defense. Ships had to anchor out in deep water and literally everything had to be unloaded via smaller boats coming in to the stony shore with its millions of boulders. Men standing in waste height of water were unloading all goods, carrying it up “The Ladder” and past the old customs house one third up the ladder. Everything had to go this way and “The Ladder” was used to bring in cargo until the 1970’s. Even a piano and a bishop were carried up the stairs; not at the same time, however.
Karolina standing on the "beach" where we followed historic unloading of cargo by landing with the dinghy. Regina in the background anchored in "The Ladder Bay". Anything by most calm conditions makes a landfall impossible.
We were lucky, having nothing else to carry than a backpack filled with water bottles. Still, this was a major hike just to get up the stairs reaching the little village called “Bottom”. The name of the village had, like Ladder Bay, a good reason. This town namely, despite being 800 steps up above sea level, was still just the lower part of the islands inhabitants. There was more to come, hiking yet further up along the old volcano.

To visit Saba is only possible in very settled weather. We picked a day with minimal swell from North East, and still experienced a very rolling night anchored off The Ladder Bay. A visit is, however, strongly recommended, since Saba is so different to any other Caribbean islands.

"The Ladder" as seen from the anchorage with its stairs reaching from the stony beach climbing up the hill. Here, only a fraction of the entire "Ladder" is seen, which continues quite some way further up.
Jessica climbing the upper part of "The Ladder".
Resting in the shade along.
We had sailed along the inner isles, a route off the main stream of yachts, which usually take the route Antigua - St Martin – BVI (British Virgin Islands). Jumping off Montserrat, we had island hopped to Nevis, St Kitts, Statia and finally Saba on our way to the BVI’s.

These four islands all had their own appeal and character and despite being so close to each other, they were very different.
Nevis, the sleepy little Caribbean islands with the sugar plantations recently turned into fancy hotels and its inviting beaches with palm trees.
Palm trees along the deserted beach and volcano as seen from the anchorage at Nevis.
The sleepy little beautiful Charlestown of Nevis.
St Kitts, which more looked like a stage built for the cruise ship passengers and then Statia, with its volcano, which we climbed all the way to the rim of the crater. Statia and Saba belong to the Netherlands Antilles together with St Maartin to the north and Curacao and Bonaire close to Venezuela in the south. St Maartin and Curacao have lately elected to become independent islands, while Bonaire, Statia and Saba will continue to belong to their mother country Holland.
Basseterre of St Kitts, which seemed to be built for cruise ship passanger with numerous shops for jewelleries and watches but also with a very charming and interesting hinterland.
Possibly even more sleepy than Nevis is Statia, here with its old Dutch fort overlooking Oranjestad.
St Maartin, Statia and Saba all get their share of the Netherlands Antilles budget, but it is obviously spent according to different priorities. In Saba, it is spent wisely and carefully to keep the island neat, clean and attractive. Sabans are proud people. Every village is responsible for its part of the road net and all roads are hand swept five days a week, and the garbage cans along the streets are emptied just as often. All roads are perfectly paved with a little wall on either side, which feels necessary considering the steep hillsides with close to impossible road constructions. Until 1958, the only way to get from one village to the next was to walk along steep mountain trails. Of course, the Sabans wanted a road, but the engineers coming from (flat) mother-country Holland declared the terrain being so steep that a road was impossible.
Of course, the people on Saba did not accept any impossibilities, they did not live on this island for nothing. Therefore, one of the inhabitants, Joseph Hassel, related to our taxi driver Garvis Hassel, took a correspondence course in road building, getting his fellow industrious Saban people to hand-build their road.

This road from Bottom to Windwardside is today known as the “road that couldn’t be built” and our Taxi driver, Garvis Hassel remembered how life was before the road existed and while it was proudly being built by its people. Garvis Hassel is, by the way, one of the few taxi-drivers who doesn’t mind taking its guests on the “road that shouldn’t have been built” as Sabans call another of its “impossible” projects. It goes from Well’s Bay in the north-west to Bottom and is so steep that cars cannot make it up with full load.

The same story could be told about the “impossible airport”, where Dutch engineers were claiming that Saba could not be flown into. To prove that flying to Saba in fact was possible, they asked the bravest pilot from St Barths to give it a try. He came to investigate the situation on Saba, chose the only possible spot on an outer edge of an old lava bed, and asked the Sabans to remove big lava rocks which lay in his way and to fill holes that made landing impossible. Remy de Haenen landed in 1959 and proved that an airport could be possible. The Sabans got their airport four years later, in 1963.
The "impossible" airport of Saba. Landing airplanes have to be precise and the stall warning is giving its alarm long before touchdown.
The houses on Saba are kept in perfect shape, all painted in the same off-white color with green or brown/red corners turning the villages into clean, beautifully maintained gathering of houses. Once owning a house on Saba, it is often kept for generations within the family and hence the ancestors are buried in the back garden, close to the living family. Practical to have them close by!
If you never intend to sell your house, anyway, its practical to have your ancestors close by in your garden!
I wondered how it must feel to live on Saba, while I was working my way up the stairs. Possibly, you should not try to be different, like wanting to paint your house pink, or believe that sweeping the road might not be necessary that day. I think it would be difficult to become accepted if I’d use the word “impossible” too often, at least as long as all Sabans think the same. They seem to have a strong sense of community, these Sabans. I think I would feel safe in a way, with no crime around and being taken care of by the other islanders, with impressive schools, hospitals and care for aged and handicapped. I think I would quickly become proud living in such an environment and find a joy to work hard for my little island. Hmm, maybe I should become Saban starting a business here?
The Bottom with neet houses in perfect shape.
With just empty water bottles left in our backpack, we finally reached the top of “The Ladder” and continued uphill on a steep road leading to Bottom. Suddenly the road become flat and I felt like a dinghy starting to plane. Walking became so much easier on a flat road and our legs felt like spinning up in revs!

Between the island chain of Nevis, St Kitts, Statia and Saba, the people who lived here, up the stairs, clearly were interesting. It is a community “above” the other islands, both literally and spiritually. Many of the Sabans had been to sea in their lives, returning to Saba as retired. The seamen were gone for such long periods that Saba was called the “Island of Women” in the 19th century.

Others, like our taxi-driver, had been living on Saba his entire life; he was born here as the fourth generation on Saba.

Who visits to Saba, we wondered, other than the few boats anchored beside us in Ladder Bay, which, by the way, were predominately Dutch cruising boats. Strange, I thought, how “patriotic” cruisers are! The French visit the French islands, the English the formerly British colonies and Dutch seem to like the Netherlands Antilles. I wondered if all the Swedish boats go to St Barths, which had been a Swedish colony for almost 100 years? Luis XIV traded St Barths to receive some vague promises of establishing a trading post in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. Sweden gladly did that trade with the French and obtained St Barths in the Caribbean, instead, which they immediately turned into a tax-free port (yes – the Swedes did that!). St Barths became very successful, since suddenly ships could trade in St Barths without interfering with neither the French nor the British, who constantly seemed to fight each other on the other islands. 90-odd years later, in 1877, the Swedes sold it back to the French for a good sum of money, rectifying the mistake made by Luis XIV. Today, St Barths is a fashionable meeting place for superyachts.
So who does visit Saba, I thought, while reaching the little village Bottom, other than the very few cruisers, we have seen? Scuba divers do! The waters here are the clearest I have ever seen! Both diving and snorkeling is excellent all around the island. Sea life is astonishing and it is a fantastic feeling to swim along through natural bridges and underwater ravines watching fish of all colors, turtles and even small sharks.
Regina's and Koshlong's dingies pulled up the "beach" on Saba.
Main income for the island, however, is the medical school on the island. When the 300 students arrive for the semester, population increases by 20%!

If you do not want to dinghy into the tiny black beach with its breaking waves in Ladder Bay to then climb the stairs, an alternative is to take the bespoke airplane to Saba from St Maartin. The air strip is just as small as you can imagine, built for small planes, skilled pilots and brave passengers to land on the island. Further, behind a break-water, they have lately also built a landing site for ferries, but it was not long ago at all, when everything needed to be carried up the stairs of “The Ladder”.

So, to obtain the right feeling, how it must have felt to live “upstairs”, taking the traditional route by boat and then dinghy in to “The Ladder” is the most truthful way to visit this spectacular island.
The coast line of Saba looking past Ladder Bay towards Well's Bay. Pilot rock in the background being the best snorkling and diving on the island with Diamond Rock a bit further out to sea.