Sint EustatiusMapMay 17, 2013 In all my traveling experience, this is the first country (a special municipality of the Netherlands, to be precise) where there are no taxis at the airport. There’s probably a grand total of five of them on the entire island, and you have to know the phone numbers and call them in advance. Then again, it takes only fifteen minutes to walk downtown from the airport at a leisurely pace. ![]() Along the way, you encounter murals of incredible beauty and sincerity. Local residents. ![]() Scuba diving. ![]() Relaxing and watching the sunset. ![]() And here we are downtown. ![]() The police station. ![]() The Department of Women’s Affairs. ![]() A residential house. ![]() A no longer residential house. ![]() A street. ![]() And now for the most interesting part. The most interesting part in Sint Eustatius is the license plates. Not even the plates themselves, to be precise, but the tradition of covering them with stickers with the current year, which are actually vehicle inspection stickers. Everyone tries to collect as many as they can on their plate. The island only has a couple thousand residents anyway. ![]() All the traffic signs on the island are painted by hand. ![]() You can find a version of the “yield” sign that’s practically extinct in the rest of the world. ![]() There’s also a sign that means no parking on the side of the road which is painted on the sign (like in Sint Maarten, only here the white part has a black border). ![]() It’s astounding how, on such a microscopic island, a tradition was born, grew, and became entrenched to frame fire hydrants with red-and-white pipe enclosures. ![]() An old post box. ![]() A less old post box. ![]() A payphone booth. ![]() A payphone. ![]() Half the households in Statia (as the locals affectionately refer to the country) have no plumbing. They collect rainwater. ![]() A telecom equipment casing. ![]() A street sign. ![]() A planter. ![]() A trash can. ![]() A family sitting outdoors. ![]() Someone has died. A grave is being dug. ![]() Flowers. ![]() The best illustration of life on the island is the storefront of a pastry shop which closed a year ago. ![]() The departures hall at the airport, which consists of one small room, has a display stand with a “humor” section, where a local pilot displays his hand-drawn caricatures. The main themes in his works are explosions, fires, and aviation accidents. I have a suspicion that psychiatrists just don’t make it all the way out to Statia. ![]() |
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Sint Eustatius
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