Chaz Sin: One Writer's Sojourn Through An Odd Life
Views like this, though they hold sad memories for some, inspire me to write, because the earth and sky still create magical art together every day here on Saba. The novel continues to move forward, no slower or faster than my muse will allow, and I’m ok with that. Que sera sera, amigos y amigas!
Brother Michael leaves Monday, so after doing a final pair of dives for him with our Sea Saba friends Aaron and Vicky, we spent a quiet Saturday evening at the Vineyard Cottage…aka home…resting up for Mt Scenery tomorrow morning, his final hike of the island. It’s been quick and delightfully fun in the way that all vacations are, and I’m thinking he’ll leave with a little of the fondness I have for Saba and its friendly culture and of course, dynamic vistas above and below the water.
The picture today is an 8am sunrise picture over Core Gut along the Spring Bay trail ridge descent. Lens flare murks up the foreground cactus a bit, but not so much I didn’t think it worth sharing…hope you agree. ‘Til tomorrow, have yourselves a great day!
Saban villages are lovely settings for these red tin roof cottages and houses, their wash white painted shingles, their green gabled shutters. You walk the friendly Road and people young and old greet you with a variety of waves and acknowledgements; I think brother Michael has catalogued ten or more different waves in his visit here. Those of you who havent been, put Saba on up your bucket list and come here one day to witness in person what I’ve tried to convey in this blog, this charming rock and its rugged shores and guts and mountains, its hardworking people.
When two photographers walk together, particularly brothers, often as not, they happen upon scenes or settings where they both see the image to be captured; so it is with today’s picture. We were on our way through The Bottom to hike The Ladder when we turned the corner near the Thomas Dinzey cemetery and came upon this juxtaposition of Saban houses against Paris Hill greenery, a clouded sky above. We both saw it at almost the same time…I snapped a few pics, he snapped a few pics, here’s my favorite of mine. Hope you enjoy it!
My brother has arrived on Saba isle for a brief visit and brought a rescue camera so I can continue to bring you my shots of this lovely Caribbean paradise. Three cheers for him!
Today, some stunning cumulonimbus clouds stack like cotton candy above Peak Hill In Windwardside, with a view to the top of the Wash Gut that I climbed up with the scientist last week
It’s day 5, and I’m at Scout’s Place, a restaurant in Saba’s biggest village of Windwardside that has reasonable–if not fast in US terms–WiFi. As this is my first post on Saba, forgive me in advance if my chronology is all over the place. I’ll talk about the journey here in a later post, but if we’re all going to live this vicariously, lets chew on the scenery a bit, shall we?
Vineyard Cottage, the 150 year old cottage I’m renting a lot larger than I imagined; this picture only shows the front of it. It’s typical Saban Dutch style, as is the whole island by law; corrugated red roofs to channel precious rainwater into cisterns, white sides with forest green gabled wooden shutters on its windows. The yard is amazing, a wooden bench, two wooden chairs, and a whole wooden picnic table in the side yard not visible here. The cottage itself is two big bedrooms split by a rustic living room that leads into a decent sized kitchen with a table and a small Saban stove.
The views? Well, in modern parlance, they don’t suck. This is my first Saban sunrise on Sunday morning, looking out my front door across my little yard. You see the little village of St Johns a hundred feet below me, the islands of Statia, St. Kitts, and Nevis in the distance, the large grape tree and…what’s that? A white picket fence? My alpha male self would be telling football stories if the whole scene wasn’t so damn beautiful. Really. It’s surreally beautiful here. Pitch quiet…roosters crow, a goat bleets, wind rustles the trees, the occasional buzz of the school bus coming by to drop the kids off at the local school in St. John’s. That’s it – nothing about this island pushes you to finish anything in a hurry, so you simply don’t. Bliss.
The single undulating road winds up, down, left and right; it’s a great workout for me to walk to the villages. I could blab all day with photos but I’ll save you the reading and space this out. The stories of what’s happened to me on this island already are hilarious. Today at 2pm, a visit with the Dutch island police. Oops. Til then – keep the comments a-comin’.
A Tangled Mind In Motion 