St. Eustatius, Netherlands Antilles

The closest thing to remote, Caribbean style.  Commonly known as quaint Statia, this island is only 6 miles long and is between Saba and St. Kitts.  The time is June and off from Chicago a buddy of mine decided to try out this small jewel (diving jewel). Although not known for much, Statia is a great location for diving and has a lot of history with little tourism.  Great place to totally get away from it all.  Believe it or not, but during the 17th century, Statia was the center of commerce in the Caribbean and was the first nation to officially recognize the United States of America during its revolutionary war against Britian.

Getting to Statia is no easy task and proved to take most of the day, not to mention a little patience.  While in route, a stop over in Miami was the in the game plan, but not the fact that the plane broke down.  Stranded an extra few hours in Miami, trying to get hold of the tiny Caribbean airline called WinAir proved nothing short of impossible.  There went my connection in St. Marteen.  After about 4 hours I was off from Miami and on my way to St. Marteen.  Great island and lots of babes.  Luckly, WinAir had one remaining flight for the day and I was off to my final destination, Statia.

Once on the island, a local taxi driver took us to our accommodations, the King Well Inn.  One of the 3 (I believe) local inns on the island.  We were greated by our hosts Win & Laura and were made at home; open bar (get your own damn beer out of the cooler), and were escorted up to our rooms where we found no locks/keys for the rooms.  Where are you going to go on such a small island were everyone knows everyone?  In otherwords, the size works against the crime.  As you might be able to tell, not much room for a thriving tourist hotspot.

After a few beers, the Rinda & Rudy Hees (owners of Dive Statia) showed up to greet us and give us the low down on the following mornings diving.  After a few more beers, Larry and decided to check out a little of the island. Boosting a local population of about 1500, the people are very friendly, but watch out for the more than 15,000 goats that freely roam the island.

 Here are a few pics of Statia from our trip:

Check out the local goats!	Old 17th Century Fort	Old Water System	Old Water System
Slave Path	Larry on Slave Path	Old Cathederal Tower	Cemetary outside the Cathederal ruins.
More of the Cemetary	Inside the Cathedral