Sint Eustatius? Statia? We don't know.

Oranjestad with volcano in background as seen from our anchorage

We left St. Barth's and came to tiny old Sint Eustatius or maybe it's called Statia - I seriously have no idea. Either way what a lovely island. It's the kind of place where people give you directions like this: "turn left at the barking dogs, not the first barking dogs but the second barking dogs"! It's not the typical Caribbean island of miles of sandy beaches and shallow aqua blue water. The beaches are tiny, grey and few and far between but the rest of the island is so great who cares!?

Town of Oranjestad

Apparently said island has some of the best scuba diving in the world and if our short snorkel is anything to go by I would say that's correct! Just offshore at Oranjestad is the remains of a submerged wall on which a reef has grown and is teeming with fish of every shape, size and stripe.  We finally saw a hawksbill turtle up close who seemed unperturbed by our presence so we got to watch it for quite a while. Of course this is the time I didn't bring the camera!

Museum, Oranjestad

We walked around the town, went to the fort and took in the beautiful views below.

Fort

We went to the local community based museum to learn more about this small but historically important island. As with the rest of the Caribbean it was "discovered" by Columbus (who deemed it unimportant) and settled by white people in the 1600s who proceeded to import slaves from mainly Ghana. The island switched hands from English, to French to Dutch at a dizzying speed. It was so sought after because it has the deepest natural harbour in the Caribbean and it's location is convenient to receive good from Africa and ship to both Europe and America. It's a Dutch island and we learned that since Holland was one of the last countries to abolish slavery, that slaves on this island were held captive for an additional thirty years after every other colony in the Caribbean had abolished slavery! I can't imagine being able to see Saba, St. Martin, and St. Kitts and know that slaves were free there. Apparently a lot of escaped slaves either trekked up to hide out in the crater of the volcano or attempted to swim to St. Kitts and many were successful! The basement of the museum housed a skeleton of a 60 year old man who had a full set of pristine straight teeth - what teeth look like BEFORE the advent of large scale sugarcane farming! After the museum, we went to a tiny Swedish coffee shop and had the best iced coffee ever. James ordered something from the "dessert" section we couldn't pronounce and was described as warm pastry roll with some spiced meat - it was a sausage roll!

It's a volcanic island and in the center is the dormant volcano "The Quill", which is considered by volcanologists to be a "prime example" of a volcano. The thing seriously looks like how a kid would draw a volcano or even mould one out of chicken wire for a science fair: it goes straight up to a conical point with a crater cut out of the top. It's magnificent and we hiked it!

View of the Quill en route to Statia

Considering it's elevation is over 600meters and it's humid as all hell in there I'm pretty impressed with us. We only went to the crater rim and didn't descend into the volcano as the park advises you need a guide and we were only making a quick stop on the island.

Baseball sized hermit crabs

As you hike up the volcano there are huge red hermit crabs who have lost their footing that come barreling down towards you like bowling balls! We even saw an endangered Red Belly Racer snake. After sweating and puffing away to the top of the crater we were rewarded with the serene view of the rainforest growing inside.  The walk up is so peaceful and we were treated to some incredible earthy smells of the remnants of coffee, cocoa, cinnamon, almonds, and other crops that were leftover from farmers farming in and around the crater.

Sweaty hikers

As you ascend there are information boards telling you about the animals and the volcano and in addition to being very informative they gave me a great chance to stop and catch my breath since James didn't seem to be finding the trek particularly strenuous! At the very last information board they spring on you the fact that the forrest has tarantulas!!! WHY save that until you're at the top - that's something I want to know going into the forest not when I'm stuck in the middle!!! And if the presence of tarantulas wasn't enough they tell you all about the Hawk Wasp - the nemesis of the poor old tarantula. The awful wasp, which is about 2 inches long and bright metallic blue, stings the giant spider paralyzing it so it can drag it into its creepy wasp lair. The wasp then precedes to lay an egg inside the alive but paralyzed spider. The egg hatches and the baby wasp eats the tarantula from the inside out and the spider is alive for all of it!!! Sorry but somethings are too gross not to share.  I never thought I would feel sorry for a tarantula. We saw many of said wasp and every time I saw one I was terrified it was going to lay eggs in me!!

Rainforest inside the crater

Now for a feel good story. Checking into customs was a bit of a drawn out process since their hours are nothing like what they post - "island time" is serious. However, us waiting around for customs meant we got to help out a tiny, fluffy baby chicken.  James had gone to shore to check-in while I packed our volcano hike lunch. He returned shortly after he left with the news that yet again customs was closed but that my favourite activity of helping animals was going to replace the check-in. He told me that a baby chick made her way down the steps to the dock but couldn't get back up and became separated from her family. The chick couldn't have been more than a few days old and with all the stray cats and dogs wouldn't have lasted long alone.  When we arrived back at the dock the poor little black fluff ball was just screaming her little lungs out - she was so scared. After James and I spent a few minutes running around after the little thing who tore around the dock with her useless 2 inch wings straight out to the sides I was able to throw a sarong over her. She instantly stopped and became quiet. I gingerly scooped her up and we walked her back to the rest of her siblings and her mamma. I briefly toyed with the idea of having a supply of fresh eggs on the boat but she seemed to really want to make it back to her family. I laid the sarong-wrapped chick on the grass and let the wind blow the sarong off - as soon as her head was clear she began squeaking away again which mamma heard immediately. Our little rescue chick heard her mom and her siblings and both parties ran toward each other as fast as they could - it was absolutely adorable.  Unbeknownst to us a group of burly construction workers had been watching the entire performance and erupted into applause when babe and mom ran toward each other and were reunited! I guess that's our legacy to Statia - one more chicken.

Shore of Oranjestad

"July Tree"

Endangered Red Belly Racer