Statia's diverse landscape

Statia maybe small, but it is an island with many faces and a very diverse landscape. I have spent the first days of my stay here exploring the entire island and it’s diversity. In the first place this is important for my project to understand the character of the island and its diverse qualities, but of course it’s not a punishment to have to spend several days hiking and be treated to incredibly stunning views. So far we explored some very different sides of the island.

The first day we went up and inside the Quill, the big volcano that dominates the view of the island. Immediately after entering the area, you notice something rolling downhill. It turns out that literally 1000nds of hermit crabs live on the mountain and instead of walking down they just roll. Before this experience I didn’t even know that there where crabs living anywhere else but in the sea, so this trip already turned out to be very educational.

The second day we explored the other side of the island, which consists out of an older volcanic area and offers beautiful views over the entire island. This area, however, is not easily accessible and apparently private property (which we found out when we came back), which is a shame, since it’s really beautiful. Day 3 was spent exploring the south-east side of the island behind the Quill. Here the area is still really  unspoilt, the coastline is quite rugged, the main wind direction provides a nice cooling breeze with some amazing views over to Saint Kitts and Nevis. At the end of a path there is a botanical garden where we spent the afternoon chatting with some locals, eating coconuts and enjoying the shade of the trees. But it looks like every day just keeps getting better.

To finish the study of the island so far, we went to the North part of the island. This part can only be accessed by foot but offers great hiking and spectacular views. Here as well, a great cooling breeze and welcome shade where provided and a path with many different views. Ate the end of one of the paths you come to Venus bay. Unfortunately not great for swimming unless you want to drown, but very beautiful again. After these couple of days of exploring we found many hidden and undeveloped qualities and have enough inspiration. However, I think we need to go back in the field a couple of times to keep in touch with that feeling ;-).