.: aaron vanderzwan :.

This morning Tam and I went to a place about 20 yards from her house called Scouts. It is a beautiful resort/restaurant/bar that is perched on the hillside overlooking the ocean and everything else that is beautiful about this island. If I had any idea in my mind of what paradise is like, it would be breakfast at this place. (Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/akv292/SabaTrip2008BreakfastAtScoutS#)

Today and tomorrow Tamar is not going to school. We are going to be spending some time just hanging out and being together. We are packing right now to go to a hotel on Saba, called Queen’s Garden. I am excited because it is supposed to be a really nice place. It is where Tamar had her Midway formal this past semester (a school-wide party).

I am also in the process of uploading some videos. All of the videos are going to be in their own album (”Saba Trip 2008 - Videos”). They are video representations of what we thought could not be caught through still images. It will be done in 6 minutes. (shhh… 35mb in 30+ min/25 KBps upload is not great… but thats Caribbean internets).
(Videos: http://picasaweb.google.com/akv292/SabaTrip2008Videos#)

I am not sure if we will have internet there or not (we should) and honestly, even if we do… I don’t know if I am going to want to post anything. Peace.

Last night we went down the hill from Tamar’s apartment and hung out at a little place called ‘Tropics’. It is rightfully named because they have a three walled bar that opens onto a pool and hot tub/patio. This then drops off to a hill of all tropical flowers and trees. This ‘from a movie’ scene finishes with a view of the never ending, bright blue ocean that glistens and ripples in the sunlight. Remarkable how much beauty an untouched area of the world holds. As we were sitting there, Tamar studying, and me working on my website, a tourist guest started talking to his friend, “This island is nice, but it is missing a few things. I think it needs a couple of Starbucks”. It reminded me of the end of that Desiparacidos song, Manana, in which Conor Oberst is talking with one of his buddies. His friend mentions that it’s time for their town to grow up and get a Starbucks. Conor replies, “No, that is a horrible idea”. For an island that is nicknamed ‘The Unspoiled Queen’ (because of it’s lack of tourist driven ventures and resorts) it seems that most people enjoy it’s solitude and naturalistic ideals. This dumb nut obviously should have been vacationing in Orlando.

Anyways, today I will be alone. Tamar has class from 8am to 5:30pm. This means, with a day to myself, I will have the opportunity to explore the lengths of this unspoiled island. I am going to make myself a little breakfast and then I am going to head out. Tamar owns a small moped that will hopefully get me around. They have ridiculously steep hills here in Saba… and little mopeds trying to get big guys like me up really steep hills, ends every sentence with a question mark. We will see how it goes, but I am excited to explore this island and see everything that it has to offer.

The roads are crazy here, not just steep, but squirrely as a corkscrew and often overlooking deep ravines and cliffs. People drive quickly… so I have to muster my courage, be an ass on the road and drive really slowly… as far from traffic and other dangers as possible. I will be sure to take tons of pictures and post them here as soon as I can. Wish me luck!

So I finally made it to Saba. I am hanging out with Tamar, doing random Saba-y things this week and will be photo documenting them at my picasaweb account. I will be honest and say that the internet here is not the same as I am used to, and she shares it with her neighbor so I have to upload them at random times of the night (when no one else needs it). Med school peeps are particular about their internets being accessible.

Anyways, check out what I have done so far here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/akv292

1) Being in St. Maarten for a night and leaving in the morning on the ferry.
2) Hiking up Mt. Scenery