wjbrandt
Registered
For those of you that have never had the opportunity to visit Saba, the following is a synopsis of what you are missing. 17 June 21 June
My wife and I arrived at the Saba airport via Winair. You havent lived until you land and take off from Saba. We were greeted by a friendly customs and immigration agent and then to our waiting taxi driver Garvis.
Saba is a Dutch Island with approximately 1500 residents. It is 5 square miles of volcanic rock. Hilly would be an understatement. Garvis dropped us at Julianas Hotel where we would be staying during our visit. We were met by Johanna and Wim the owners who showed us to our room and give us a quick tour of the resort. Imagine no room keys needed, no crime on Saba. Nestled in the lush hillside this old world style resort is a great place to stay. With a pool, hot tub, restaurant and honor system beverage refrigerator this is a great place to spend your time when not under the water or hiking the many nature trails of the island. After our tour of the resort Wim takes us for a short walk to Sea Saba our dive operator. There we are greeted by Lynn who actually put this package together for us. We complete all of the paperwork and are scheduled to do two nitrox dives each day for the next three days.
After spending some time with Lynn off we go to look around and get our bearings. The first evening we choose to dine at the Swinging Door. Here we enjoy the Friday night BBQ of chicken, ribs or a combo. Food was delish and the bill was twenty-five dollars including gratuity.
Saturday morning we grab a quick breakfast, which is included in our package and our taxi arrives at 8:45 sharp to take us down to the dock to get the dive boat. (About 1000 feet down) There the crew is awaiting our arrival. After a short thorough briefing of the boat and procedures off we go to our first dive site, the outer limits. This is a deep pinnacle with tons of marine life. Sea Saba allows you to do your own thing if you like on your computer so we just enjoyed the scenery. Large schools of wrasse, clinging crabs, lobster eels and much more. After our dive we moved to a more protected area for our surface interval and then we hopped in to dive Babylon. This is a shallower dive and again plenty to keep you occupied.
After our second dive it was back to the dock. All our gear stayed on the boat so it would be ready for tomorrow. Manny our taxi driver was waiting at the dock to take us back to Julianas.
One thing you have to be careful of is hiking some of the trails after diving as altitude could be an issue.
Saturday we select the Ecolodge for dinner. This amazing place is in the middle of the rainforest. They grow all of the vegetables and use no electricity. We ate by candlelight and enjoyed a very tasty meal. The coconut shrimp is great. Our taxi driver provided us with a flashlight so we could navigate our way out of the rainforest and he was waiting when we emerged.
Sunday same deal and we dove twilight zone another deep pinnacle and saw tiger shark which, we were informed is not a common sight here. Second dive was Ladder Labyrnith, shallower and a little current kicked up during the dive.
Sunday night we enjoyed the Buddy night at the Tropics Café at Julianas. This unique idea is the brain child of Wim and Johanna and is for divers only on the island. For twenty dollars we had beef, chicken or tuna barbeque, corn on the cob and salad as well as an open bar. We all got to mingle and there were around forty divers all enjoying the evening.
Monday morning we headed out to the pinnacles and found too much current so we chose to dive tedra wall. Very nice, deep lots of marine life and several rays. Second dive was tent reef and the turtles were all over. This is a very cool shallow dive.
Unfortunately this was our last dive for this trip so the staff at Sea Saba brought our gear back to Julianas for us. Not bad.
Monday evening Sea Saba presents a side show at the Brigadoon restaurant. A brief presentation talks about the history of Saba as well as the marine environment. The photos are discovery channel quality. After the presentation we stayed and enjoyed dinner with another diver (Bud) from Duluth Minnesota. Bud was a very accomplished photographer and well traveled. We truly enjoyed the meal. (Bud picked up the tab. Those meals always taste better)
Tuesday we relaxed and headed to the airport for our afternoon departure.
Anyone looking for a great place to escape to should check out Saba. Inexpensive, friendly, clean and very nice diving.
Lynn and John at Sea Saba really operate a first class dive operation and in conjunction with Julianas and Wim and Johanna make this a no stress trip.
Check them out at www.seasaba.com and www.julianas-hotel.com
My wife and I arrived at the Saba airport via Winair. You havent lived until you land and take off from Saba. We were greeted by a friendly customs and immigration agent and then to our waiting taxi driver Garvis.
Saba is a Dutch Island with approximately 1500 residents. It is 5 square miles of volcanic rock. Hilly would be an understatement. Garvis dropped us at Julianas Hotel where we would be staying during our visit. We were met by Johanna and Wim the owners who showed us to our room and give us a quick tour of the resort. Imagine no room keys needed, no crime on Saba. Nestled in the lush hillside this old world style resort is a great place to stay. With a pool, hot tub, restaurant and honor system beverage refrigerator this is a great place to spend your time when not under the water or hiking the many nature trails of the island. After our tour of the resort Wim takes us for a short walk to Sea Saba our dive operator. There we are greeted by Lynn who actually put this package together for us. We complete all of the paperwork and are scheduled to do two nitrox dives each day for the next three days.
After spending some time with Lynn off we go to look around and get our bearings. The first evening we choose to dine at the Swinging Door. Here we enjoy the Friday night BBQ of chicken, ribs or a combo. Food was delish and the bill was twenty-five dollars including gratuity.
Saturday morning we grab a quick breakfast, which is included in our package and our taxi arrives at 8:45 sharp to take us down to the dock to get the dive boat. (About 1000 feet down) There the crew is awaiting our arrival. After a short thorough briefing of the boat and procedures off we go to our first dive site, the outer limits. This is a deep pinnacle with tons of marine life. Sea Saba allows you to do your own thing if you like on your computer so we just enjoyed the scenery. Large schools of wrasse, clinging crabs, lobster eels and much more. After our dive we moved to a more protected area for our surface interval and then we hopped in to dive Babylon. This is a shallower dive and again plenty to keep you occupied.
After our second dive it was back to the dock. All our gear stayed on the boat so it would be ready for tomorrow. Manny our taxi driver was waiting at the dock to take us back to Julianas.
One thing you have to be careful of is hiking some of the trails after diving as altitude could be an issue.
Saturday we select the Ecolodge for dinner. This amazing place is in the middle of the rainforest. They grow all of the vegetables and use no electricity. We ate by candlelight and enjoyed a very tasty meal. The coconut shrimp is great. Our taxi driver provided us with a flashlight so we could navigate our way out of the rainforest and he was waiting when we emerged.
Sunday same deal and we dove twilight zone another deep pinnacle and saw tiger shark which, we were informed is not a common sight here. Second dive was Ladder Labyrnith, shallower and a little current kicked up during the dive.
Sunday night we enjoyed the Buddy night at the Tropics Café at Julianas. This unique idea is the brain child of Wim and Johanna and is for divers only on the island. For twenty dollars we had beef, chicken or tuna barbeque, corn on the cob and salad as well as an open bar. We all got to mingle and there were around forty divers all enjoying the evening.
Monday morning we headed out to the pinnacles and found too much current so we chose to dive tedra wall. Very nice, deep lots of marine life and several rays. Second dive was tent reef and the turtles were all over. This is a very cool shallow dive.
Unfortunately this was our last dive for this trip so the staff at Sea Saba brought our gear back to Julianas for us. Not bad.
Monday evening Sea Saba presents a side show at the Brigadoon restaurant. A brief presentation talks about the history of Saba as well as the marine environment. The photos are discovery channel quality. After the presentation we stayed and enjoyed dinner with another diver (Bud) from Duluth Minnesota. Bud was a very accomplished photographer and well traveled. We truly enjoyed the meal. (Bud picked up the tab. Those meals always taste better)
Tuesday we relaxed and headed to the airport for our afternoon departure.
Anyone looking for a great place to escape to should check out Saba. Inexpensive, friendly, clean and very nice diving.
Lynn and John at Sea Saba really operate a first class dive operation and in conjunction with Julianas and Wim and Johanna make this a no stress trip.
Check them out at www.seasaba.com and www.julianas-hotel.com
