On most days, the 'Jungle Island' of Saba can be seen from St. Maarten's southern beaches. A tall, steep mountain rises out of the ocean, its top often covered by a mysterious cloud. Only 5 square miles in size, Saba is home to about 1,650 residents, whose ancestors had to make an incredible effort to survive the forbidding terrain.
The four main settlements used to be connected by stepped pathways. Against the advice of European engineers, the island population started to build a road - "The Road!" - in the late Nineteen thirties, prepared through knowledge gained in a correspondence course. It took five years to complete the first segment, twenty to complete the project, and the first car arrived in 1947.
Today, the untouched beauty of Saba makes it a famous destination for Scuba Diving fans with numerous and varied dive sites as well as the protected Saba Marine Park. Hiking up into the tropical rainforest is another one of the big attractions of the aptly named "Unspoiled Queen of the Caribbean".
Saba is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, with Dutch as the official language. As with many of the neighboring islands, however, English is spoken all over. The island can be reached by a 15-minute plane flight or by ferry.
