Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Hiking The Quill on St. Eustastius


Yesterday was a fun filled day! I volunteered with the Child Focus program here on Saba and took about 30 kids from Saba to St. Eustastius for the day to hike "The Quill" which is their dormant volcano. This is the view of Saba looking back as we took the ferry over to Statia, as it is called.

The weather looked promising for our hike and here we're about to "rim the crater" at the start of our ascent to the top, about 2,000 feet above sea level.

Covered in sweat, I've arrived at the edge of the crater rim.

As we went down into the base of the crater the views were simply fantastic with shafts of light pouring through the tree canopy.

This is a silk cotton tree which looks alot like a Banyon Tree or large ficus.

Just as we got to the bottom of the crater the heavens opened up and it started pouring down rain. We were soaked to the bone in a matter of minutes and then had to rock climb our way out of there over moss covered boulders, slippery as all get out!
Back out of the volcano we saw lots of really neat flora and fauna and native animals.
This is a flamboyant tree, also known as a July Tree on Statia.
Coming back down the mountain we had a nice view of the Statia harbor.

Here we have a native Antillean Iguana which is bright green. This "little" guy measured about 3 feet long and was just hanging out in the tree.
To wrap up our day we visited the old fort complete with cannons to ward off pirates and other unmentionables. Statia was a holding point for the slave trade back in the day and we got to see some of the original slave cells and shackles and chains.
All in all, it was a great way to spend my day off and I really enjoyed volunteering with the kids.
Happy Tuesday from Saba!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The flamboyant tree looks like one of Charlene's hats.