This trip took place in January 2001:

Hi folks!
Finally I found the time now to write you a long long mail. I know
some of you I haven't written for weeks or months. But as you
know, Germans are always very bussy and I hope you haven't
forgot me. As you can imagine I made some nice trips in the last
months. And as life in Germany is not so interisting I prefer writing
about my last trip to the Caribbean in January/February 2001. As I
write you this mail in April I will stick to my mails I wrote to my
german speaking friends directly from the islands. In the future I will
try to send you my latest adventures on the spot and not 2 months
later...

So I started my trip from Frankfurt via Paris to Saint Martin in the
Caribbean in first days of the new century. St. Martin is located
approx. 200 km east of Puerto Rico. The island is only as big as
an average city in your country (i.e. Winnipeg, Amsterdam, Port
Lo0is, Auckland) but it is "occupied" by 2 countries: The
Netherlands and France. That means the 3 currencies are used:
The guilder of the dutch antilles, the US$ and the french Franc! The
island is the perfect spot to relax after the big party I had to survive
on New Year's Eve! But the next day I had to take the ferry to Saba
which is 60km westward located from St. Martin to climb the
highest point of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for a dutch friend of
mine in Germany. After a "hard" climb of an hour or so I reached
the peak of Mt. Scenery at a height of 887m! The best thing on
Saba is the fact that you don't see a lot of tourists. The people
know each other and are very friendly to strangers. The villages
look rather been built in the European Alps than in the Caribbean
due to the dutch influences and the rocky scenery in the back. But
the jungle reminds you that you are really in the Caribbean.

The other island I visited from my base in St. Martin was Anguilla
and it belongs to the UK. As there is a lack of public transport I
took my little scooter with me to the island and got a big attention
from the locals by riding with such a strange thing around their
island. But unfortunately noone wanted to try a ride with that
scooter (on other islands they tried it and had a lot of fun!). The
crossing from St. Martin to Anguilla was a very rough one (approx.
10kms distance). It was rather a rafting trip than a boat ride,
because that small boat was "flying" from one wave to the next and
everything and everybody got wet. The island itself is only famous
for its paradise-like beaches. They are really quite romantic and the
turquoise water makes it a real paradise like Mauritius or the
Seychelles. The best was the fact that you were nearly alone at
the beach and you could really enjoy a CARIB (the beer of the
region).

From St. Martin I flew with a small prop-plane to St. Kitts & Nevis,
that you perhaps have never heard before. Both islands have a big
autonomy from each other, so every island has its own stamps etc.
St. Kitts has still a big fort dated from the 17th century called the
Gibraltar of the Caribbean (Gibraltar is the southernmost point of
the Iberic peninsula still occupied by the UK). It is still well
maintained and you can enjoy its nice location and the superb
views from it to the islands of Saba and St. Eustatius nearly alone,
due to the lack of tourism. From St. Kitts I took another ferry to go
to Nevis for crossing the island through the jungle. I saw a lot of
monkeys (introduced from Africa), butterflies and lots of colourfull
birds. Back in St. Kitts I took once again a prop-plane to reach
Antigua. That island consists of at least 365 beaches, because the
coastline is divided in hundreds of small bays, formed by the
Atlantic Ocean. As in Anguila you can enjoy the withe beaches
and the turquoise waters. There are still a lot of colonial buildings
to explore. But unfortunately the English settlers cut down the rain
forrest for planting sugar cane. You still can see some mills where
the cane was squeezed for producing the famous rum. In Antigua a
litre of rum is as cheap (or expensive) as a litre of beer. (Bad times
for a german guy!). From the paradise of Antigua I crossed into
"Hot, hot, hot". This expression stands for the island of Montserrat,
where in 1995 the volcanoe "Souffriere" errupted aftter sleeping for
400 years. By that erruption the whole island had to be evacuated.
Today two thirds of the island are still lying in an exclusion zone,
where the entry is prohibited, because the volcanoe is still
errupting. From Antigua (40km distance) you can see already the
big black cloud over the volcanoe. When you are only 4 kms away
from the volcanoe you are getting a really bad feeling! You can the
with your eyes huge rocks being catapultured from inside the crater
down in to the open land. The former airport is totally damaged as
most of the villages and the whole land is grey and full off ash and
rocks. But some of the people of Montserrat came back to rebuild
their island. And these people are the friendliest I met on my trip to
the Caribbean. They all invide you to visit the island, because in our
Media some rumours occour that you cannot visit the island at all,
or that it's too dangerous to explore it. By the few visitors (we were
6) comming with the ferry every day the island receives at least
some dollars to survive. Otherwise the peope depend on aid of the
motherland UK. So if you have the time the people will be happy to
welcome you on the island!!!

Back in Antigua I took a 19seater-prop-plane (Dornier 228) to
Guadeloupe. ln this part of the world flying is a bit different from
what we are used to. At the beginning we (the 7 passengers) didn't
know  which plane would be the one going to Guadeloupe as the
airline staff took only our boarding pass and told us to go out of the
terminal to the plane. So we asked the pilots where they are flying
to, because they had their own door to enter the cockpit and they
were are hangin' around in their cockpit. Finally we managed to find
the right plane. The cabin was very small. One seat on the left
side, one seat on the right side of the aisle. And in the front was
the cockpit located as in a car. So we could see perfectly through
the big cockpit window, enjoying the nice scenery. The
announcement were done by the pilots and the closed and opened
the passenger's door themself as there was no cabin crew on
board! Arriving in Guadeloupe is like arriving in France, because
this island is a part of the "grande nation" and everything looks the
similar or the same as in the motherland 7000kms away. Due to
the fact that it belongs to France Guadeloupe even belongs to the
European Union (EU) and you can see the flag of the union even on
the number plates of the cars like in all parts of the EU in Europe.
Consequently the € (Euro) is the legal currency in Guadeloupe. The
best for me was the fact that after all these english-influenced
countries with the terrible engish food, I could enjoy croissants and
a delicious red wine. In the evenings I felt a bit being at home
because the locals were celebrating carnival. (In my hometown
Mainz in Germany the carnival is the biggest event in the whole
year). But it was the 1st time for me, that I could celebrate the
carnival without freezing and that I could wear shorts and a T-Shirt
istead of warm clothes when we are celebrating carnival in
Germany. From Guadeloupe I took once again a ferry to go to
Dominica. -Columbus describe the island like a piece of paper
folded several times, because of the mountaineous interior and the
rainforrest. But beware Dominica (spoke Do-mi-niiiii-ca) is not the
Dominican Republik with all the all-inclusive-ressorts and the hords
of tourist. The DomRep lies 1500 kms to the north-west! Dominica
is one of my favorits on my trip. Untill now I heard the whole day
Reggae nonstop in the streets, in the minibus, at the airport, at the
restaurants, in the hotel rooms and somewhere in the middle of
nowhere! In Dominica you hear the sound of the rivers, the wind in
the trees and the "singing" birds, which are found everywhere on
the island. I was hiking for 4 days in the interior and enjoyed the
beauty of the country and its curriousities. As Dominica  like nearly
all islands of the lesser Antilles is of volcanic origin, you can find
some crazy volcanic curriousities: For example I was hiking to the
boiling lake. The lake looks like a big bowl full of Spaghetti water!
Everything is boiling and making fog. To reach the boiling lake you
first climb up through the rainforrest where I saw colourfull flowers
I've never seen before. Than we entered the valley of desolation.
The valley was destructed by a volcanic erruption centuries ago.
Nowadays is it a dessert.  Everywhere you can smell the sulphur
and the stones are colourfull as well due to the different minerals
that coloured them. Even the mud is boiling making a strange
sound and the small river was still boiling as well. Because of the
difficult hike to get to this magical site you have this wonder nearly
for your own. The next day I climbed through the rain forrest to look
for some parrots which used to live still in the free nature. After 4
hours of search I found an Imperial Parrot in a tree 5 meters away
from me. Fortunately the parrot didn't feel threatened so I could
observe the parrot for a few minutes. This specy gets nearly 50cms
large and is mainly green-coloured. The breast however is purple-
coloured. You can find this parrot on the national flag of Dominica!
Later on I enjoyed a boat ride through the mangroves on the Indian
River. This name comes from the indians who survived here in
Dominica. These indians are called Carib-Indians. They gave the
whole region its name (and a good beer as well). Unfortunately  you
don't see the Caribs quite often outside their territory, and I didn't
want to enter their territory to see them like in a zoo. However I
saw some of them in the capital of Roseau which is as big as a
little village in your countries! The next day I enjoyed some
waterfalls in the interiour. The hikes in Dominica are well
signpostes and there is only a low risk to get lost in the rainforrest.
The snakes you definitly will meet are fortunately non-poisonous
(not so on other islands, but there I didn't see any!). The evenings
were unspectecular but I enjoyed the evenings with the local dirnks
like peanut-punch or bush-rum (with certain herbs!). Due to the low
value of the € (Euro) this trip was not the cheapest one and
therefore meals seldom consisted meat. (Perhaps not a bad idea
with all the storries of mad cows in Europe). For breakfast I often
had bananabread and bread rolls made of coconut. For lunch I
normally had only fruits like paw-paw or bananas. The best natural
product was the coconut.  In Europe the coconuts normally are of
poor quality meaning no liquid and a few jelly inside. Here in the
Caribbean the coconut was a big green bowl. They are shaped and
cut untill you got a little hole inside. Than you could drink the liquid
(1/2 liter approx.), which tastes only slightly like coconut. When
the nut is "empty" the nut is cut into two pieces and you can eat
the jelly.  The whole procedure take a long time, but in that region
of the world you have a lot of time. For diner you often get chicken,
with either french fries or bread fruit chips or plantain.

From Dominica it continued my trip by ferry to Fort de France the
capital of the island of Martinique. Overthere I was once again in
the EU, cause Martinique is a DOM (departement outre-mer) of
France as Guadeloupe. The short stay of only 2 days (what shall I
do in France if I want to travel through the Caribbean?) I enjoyed
again for some culinaric reasons: In Martinique they have the same
supermarket chains as in mainland France with the delicious
cheese, joghurt and baguette etc. But I also travelled through the
island (when I was not eating). I visited the former capital of St.
Pierre which was totally destructed by an erruption of the Mt. Pélée
volcanoe which lies only a few kms away from St. Pierre. The city
looks a little bit like Pompej in southern Italy because the ruins
were never rebuild again. But around the ruins the new city was
reconstructed only 2 years after this fatal erruption in 1902 which
cost 30000 lifes!

From Martinique I took again a boat going to St. Lucia. The
government of St. Lucia tries to "imitate" a bit the strategy of
Dominica with its ecotourism. However they made it in a very
bureaucratic way: They built up some hiking trails in the
mountains, which are advertised in several brochures. And on a
sunny Sunday morning I tried to reach one of these trailheads. But
the trailhead was locked by a big gate, because the government
wants to make some money with its trail (10US$ p. Pers.) and
therefore they constructed a big gate, which is locked up after 4
pm and on weekends! Well I thought the rangers would come back
the next day and I climbed over the gate and enjoyed the track.
Shortly before I reached one my way back the gate I heard some
voices and I remembered that it was an "offence" to climb over the
gate. So I decided to take a "shortcut" through the jungle down to
the street! Unfortunately it was a very rough one and when I was
finally falling down onto the street the locals were a bit astonished
by that white man covered full of mud!!! Fortunately St. Lucia offers
some hikes, which aren't locked at all as well! But the people are
the best. The atmosphere between the local is very relaxed. If you
are in the street drivers give priority to others where you won't
expect it at all. If there were no buses people offered me always a
ride for free. These people remind me on Africa, which I travelled
several times ago. And the locals are proud of their roots. You can
see everywhere the colours of the black continent: Green, yellow
and red! And the public transport is getting more and more african
the further south I'm going on my trip: This means principally the
word full! Full in St. Kitts meant 12 people in a minibus. In St.
Vincent the same bus was full when there were approx. 20 people
in it (in Kenya sometimes 25 people were in it!). And the volume of
the music in these buses is rising as well. In St. Vincent ear-plugs
are really not a bad idea due to the incredible "noise" and due to
the kind of music (Brittney Spears, Backstreet Boys etc.) Reggae
is not so popular as it is Brittney and her collegues and
Gangstarap as well!

From St. Lucia I flew via Barbados to St. Vincent & the
Grenadines. In St. Vincent I definitely made the best hike of my
trip: The cross island track from the Atlantic Ocean to the
Caribbean via the active volcanoe of La Souffrière. At the beginning
I even didn't know wether there is a track or not. But as I was
walking towards the volcanoe I first got a ride uphill through some
banana plantations, with some locals getting to work in these
plantations. That the politics of the EU is sometimes really helpfull
I saw on that island. The EU is buying bananas and other fruits
from the CARICOM countries for a fixed price. So the owner of the
plantations have a guranteed market with guranteed prices. And
the owners of these little plantations are still the local farmers, not
these big US companies like Chiquita or United Fruit like in Central
America. O.K. that's enough of anti-american statements. So I
made my way uphill through rainforrest and later on through
bushland covered with lava flows from the last erruption in 1979. By
getting in the higher regions it was getting really "cold" with
perhaps 14°C and a strong wind. And then I found myself in the
middle of the clouds that I thought being brought to the Scottish
Highlands! I climbed further on and finally I thought I reached
another valley because I could only see a few hundred meters due
to the clouds. But I had reached already the crater and the "other
side" was the rest of the cold lave left behind in the crater with a
height of approx. 150m! I realized that I reached the crater as it
was going only down on that ridge. Fortunately the clouds left a bit
and I saw now the huge dimensions of the crater: It was more than
1 km long and perhaps 300m deep! And from the crater I could see
down to the Carribean sea! This view was really phantastic.
Unfortunately I had to leave soon, because I didn't know if there
was any track going down to the Caribbean. I had good luck and I
got down without any problems once again through rain forrest and
I saw nice flowers and colourfull birds. The whole day I saw only
one person (a local) who was as happy seeing a humang being as I
was. I finally reached a nice lonely beach with black sand which is
typical for these volcanic islands, but what you never see in a
tourist brochure which shows only the "nice" white beaches. I still
had to cross a big river and on the other side the locals welcomed
me and didn't believe me that I crossed the island on that track.
They were very helpfull and organized a ride on a lorry to the next
village with public transport. Riding on the top of the lorry was big
fun but we (some other locals and me) had to pay attention
because you could easily been thrown down by some telephone
cable hanging down in the streets.

From St. Vincent I took a cargo boat for "sailing" through the
Grenadines. This is an island group between St. Vincent and
Grenada. The islands are so small that they even don't have a port.
All the goods (cargo and humans) had be offloaded on smaller
boats which carried the goods finally to the beach. The crazy thing
in the Grenadines is the fact, that most of the islands don't have
any infrastructure at all and on some others which are privately
owned (by Mick Jagger f.ex.) you find all luxurious things you can
imagine. These isands were not on our schedule because Mr.
Jagger can touch down on his island with his jet on the private
landing strip! But when I reached the last island I had really other
problems, cause the flights in small prop planes mentioned in my
guidebook didn't exist. And the boat which plies two times a week
between my island and the first one in Grenada left on the same
morning I arrived on that island. What to do? Rely on the locals.
The usual answer on my problems was "no problem!" This time
they told me someone is going normaly the following day by boat
to the first island on the Grenadian side to fill up some empty gas
bottles. So I could get a ride for sure with that person. And they
told me the boat will leave around sunrise the next morning and
finally this was really true! So I got up early and I went down to the
"port" were I found two small wooden sailing boats. And really
shortly after sunrise an old Rastafarian arrived and we loaded a
dozen of gas bottles into the boat. After that he enjoyed quickly a
little joint and we picked up the captain and sailed to my next
destination. The last island of the Grenadines looks a little bit like
some parts in Germany in times of the "cold war". The streets were
packed with GI's from the US. They try to disturb the drugtraffic
from South America via the Caribbean to the states. I don't if they
are quite sucessfull if I think of the rastafarian on my sailing boat
;-)
In Carriacou I followed the behaviour of the locals: Limin' that
means doing nothing, just relaxing. Unfortunately I had to leave
Carriacou the following day because I had to be in Carcacas the
week after for returning to Germany to earn once again some
money for my next trip. From Carriacou I took the ferry to the main
island of Grenada with the same name. Grenada is still very british.
The locals behave like in England, having their tea-time, eating pie
etc. I took the opportunity to make a last hike in the jungle.
Another word for jungle is RAINforrest. This fact I realized on that
trip in particular. After a few meters I felt like bathing in the mud,
because the rain made everything wet and the path was a big
muddy river. I finally looked like just having lost a mudcatching
fight. However the hike was a funny thing, because in the tropis a
heavy rains doesn't mean a dropping temperature as well like in
Europe. So I didn't get a bad cold and my clothes were dry again
after a few hours. This rainy weather reminded me even more on
England. Grenada was unfortunately the first place were the people
were not very friendly to white people because off their latest
history. The US occupied Grenada for a few weeks in 1983 and
threw some bombs on a nearby hospital instead of the real target
the military fort in St. George's the capital of the island. Fortunately
the occupation was finished soonafter and since then everything
was (nearly) peacefull again.

From Grenada I took once again a small prop-plane for flying to
Trinidad&Tobago (TT). Arriving in TT I didn't know how I would be
able to continue my trip to Carcacas. Actually I wanted to take a
ferry to South America but this ferry was not in use I was told from
some people on my way down to TT. So I had to buy a plane ticket
out of the country but I asked around the locals for a ferry and I got
the usual answer: No problem, there is a small ferry crossing once
a week to Venezuela. So I had a few days left to explore TT before
heading to Venezuela. Trinidad is no tourist destination, but a
developping country with a lot of industry. After more than 3 weeks
I saw for the 1st time house higher than a palm tree, I smelt smog
and I saw people in a hurry! However the capital Port of Spain
(POS) is worth a trip in the time of the carnival. Everywhere in the
city you can find the so called Steelbands practicing for the big
event at the end of February. The name Steelband comes from the
big steel drums which are former oildrums, which were turned
around for making music. They create a very rhythmic sound so
you simply have move your hips and you have to dance. POS was
the 1st city were you found a big nightlife. On the other islands
after a few drinks at the bar after sunset the party was over. In POS
everything started after 9pm and there were really big parties.

But TT has besides of the carnival still some natural wonders.
Trinidad lies only 11km to the east from South America. Therefore
the fauna and flora is plentyfull. One day I visited the Magoni
Swamp Nature Reserve. We took a boat which brought us through
the labyrinth of the mangroves. The trees with their leaves formed a
big tunnel over our heads. Above us we didn't see only birds but
also some species who like birds for dinner: On some trees we sa
the big boa constrictor snake who waits untill the night comes for
hunting birds. Therefore the birds try to spend the night on small
islands in the mangroves. But there were a lot of crocodiles as well!
Just before sunset we saw hundreds of the so called Red Ibis
looking for a place to sleep. The former green island turned into red
the later it was. Their colour comes is developped by the food they
eat in their life. The young birds are grey. But with all the carotine
they get by eating crabs they turn more and more in a flashing red!

The following day I went to the so called Pitch Lake. It's the only
pitch lake in the whole world. And Trinidad uses the pitch for
exporting it into countries like Canada and Germany for building the
streets in these countries. So if you go into the street next time
perhaps you walk on part of Trinidad origin. The funny thing was the
fact that the last kilometers to the lake the road was in a terrible
condition. So they prefer exporting their pitch instead of using it for
rebuilding their roads. With a guide you could even walk on the
lake which looks like a big elephant skin. If you make a little whole
into the surface you get the black liquid known as pitch. The lake
smells a bit like the parking ground in front of a big shopping mal in
summer but this miracle was a strange one! As a souvenir I got a
piece of this crazy lake. The next day I had to leave the Caribbean
and these friendly people and I entered my last (inhabited)
continent where I have never been before. In Venezuela I had to
take the next bus to cover the last 800km to the capital of Caracas
to reach my plane back to Germany.

Now I am back here in Germany and the storry is over. I hope you
enjoyed it a little bit, even if my english is not the very best. So
that's it for today. I hope hearing from you again!!!