February 26, 2020

Roadtrip USA

A little big city hopping in the states is always fun, especially in the early spring when everything and everyone starts sparking back to life. Festivals and carnivals start happening again, and the end goal of this roadtrip was Mardi Gras in New Orleans for my 33rd birthday.

NY, NY

I started in New York for a long weekend, staying with a friend in east village. Being half a block away from C avenue, there was plenty of night life, and the Zum Schneider bar was having its final Karneval after their 20 year rental agreement would end. I spent my days running or biking, and my evenings at meditation events with Franck Raharinosy or yoga classes at Humming Puppy.

Welcome to Miami!

My next stop was Miami, where I spent 3 days with a friend walking her dog, working remotely and lounging at the Soho Beach House. I rented a car and drove thru the Everglades to Anna Maria island, where my Danish friend and her family had rented an apartment at the Bali Hai beachfront resort. We waited for turtles and dolphins but a cold front came in and we bundled up for some windy beach walks instead.

roadtrip crew

I met my roommate from 2018 yoga teacher training in Goa in St. Petersburg, where she lives out of her campervan in between fairs and human statue gigs. Only a few miles later over a huge bridge, I finally arrived in Tampa where our roadtrip crew would assemble. Clio flew in from Colorado, Ditte the Dane and I picked her up and drove to my friend Mike´s place to wait for Jana to arrive from Germany. We went out for gin and tonics at the Gin Joint, meeting up with Clint of Travr, and crashed on couches with Mike´s cuddly dog until the next morning.

hiking around the alligator lakes of St. Mark´s National Wildlife refuge

We then drove thru Florida, Alabama and Mississippi to get to New Orleans, stopping for the night at Steinhatchee and Fort Walton. Steinhatchee had some great food and fluorescent coloured cocktails at Kathi´s Crabshack, followed by a live band at the County Line Bar where we made friends with all kinds of Trump supporters.

leaving the parade with beads and mooncakes

We drove through Mobile, Alabama right on time to witness America´s oldest Mardi Gras parade tradition, filling our pockets with mooncakes and our necks with colourful beads. Mississippi was gone in the blink of an eye, but we managed to stop at a microbrewery called Lazy Magnolia.

I often felt rather overdressed

Checking into our Airbnb just meters from the French Quarter was the highlight of the roadtrip, the feeling of finally arriving to the chaos of a fringe culture we were not dressed appropriately for. Our beads and basic clothing were miles away from others´costumes, but at our first Krew Poo parade, we realized noone cares how you look or what you wear, or if you wear nothing at all. The first night ended at a drag bar and some karaoke, and the next couple of days in and around Bourbon street were as much of a shock as many moments I remember from Burning Man.

February 15, 2020

Barbuda & Antigua

I wanted to go to Barbuda the first time I went to Antigua in 2012, but the ferry was broken down and Barbuda wasn’t accessible within the 5 days I was there. Then hurricane Irma screwed things up in 2017 so badly that Barbuda was completely deserted for months. The island was in shambles, everyone had evacuated, and noone was sure if it or when it would get rebuilt.

Two Foot Bay Cave

Now in 2020 people have returned home, rebuilt their 300 roofs that blew away, and some still have the emergency shelter tents provided by the US government… I guess as it works well as a spare room. I finally got to go there on a new ferry that sails from the end of the airport, and booked a day tour to get from A to B and on a boat to the bird sanctuary without a headache.

Frigate Bird Sanctuary

We went to the Frigate bird sanctuary to see the puffy red necks, one guy got shat on, visited a pink beach at the edge of the lagoon and another guy lost his sand-coloured flip-flops. We went to some old caves and Two Foot Bay, had lobster lunch on the beach, and ended our day at Princess Diana beach, also slightly pink, beside an ocean so blue no picture could do it justice.

the perfect beaches were endless in Barbuda

Im glad I made it to Barbuda, but Im happier that everyone else that calls its a home made it back first. Its also great they’ve opened their lives to tourism again, slowly building up with the return of ferries and flights. I hope the wild donkeys and dirt roads never change, but that everyone gets to finish rebuilding their homes. I’ll certainly come back, for the peace and quiet, and wouldn’t mind keeping those beaches to myself next time either.

February 3, 2020

Montserrat: The Pompeii of the Caribbean

Like Saba, Montserrat is also very green, and used to be known as the Emerald Isle of the Caribbean. But since the 1995 eruption of Soufriere Hills volcano, the airport and port town of Plymouth were buried in ash and turned into a modern Pompeii. The capital city was abandoned, much of the island was evacuated, but 19 lost their lives, and hundreds upon hundreds of buildings were either buried under ash or washed away with one of many pyroclastic flows, which kept occurring until as recently as 2009.

the panoramic view of Soufriere Hills from the Volcano Observatory

So why would a tourist want to go there? Well for one, I´m Icelandic and we have volcanic eruptions all the time, so that wasn´t a deterrent. Secondly, driving around Plymouth (which requires an escort and police clearance) was tons more moving than Pompeii – these were people´s homes that are still alive today!

black sand tropical beach

I was supposed to take a ferry to Montserrat from Antigua, but the one day I had booked they decided to dock the ferry for maintenance. I was lucky enough to have pre-booked, so they offered to fly me instead, in a charter, and I was only one of 4 passengers going out to John A. Osborne airport, newly built in 2005 to replace the devastated Plymouth airport. I was even luckier flying back – as the only passenger in an 8 seater plane, I got to play copilot instead!

I helped fly myself back to Antigua

I walked down to Brades and Little Bay, saw black sand beaches that reminded me of home, then hitchhiked south to the Montserrat Volcano observatory. There I met a couple of nice Americans that invited me to Plymouth – all I had to do was add my name to the police registry when passing the no-travel zone!

A building still visible in Plymouth

We saw an abandoned hotel, what was left of the grocery store, and the new harbour they´ve built to export sand. The economy still relies heavily on British aid, but the future is bright: green energy from Icelandic technology should tap into the island´s geothermal power by 2024, and tourism has started increasing again. The mountainous hiking and black beaches around the island are still an attraction, although Soufriere is still an active volcano. Some daredevils have even rebuilt their homes in the no-go zone, because who knows, maybe it will be dormant for another 2 or 3 hundred years, as it was before 1995.

February 1, 2020

St. Martin & Sint Maarten

I lucked out more than once with accommodation on the island. First, I found an amazing couchsurf host on the French side that had a car and an interest in running on beaches, dining out and gambling for free drinks. I stayed with him at the start and end of my trip, and only had to pay for one night in a hostel which turned out not to be a hostel, but a crew base for yachtees. If I wasn’t working boats, I was a tourist, and was supposed to pay for the expensive hotels and resorts, but I accidentally snuck thru the cracks to pay $40 a night for a bed instead.

feasting on the beach

I did a bit of kayaking, beach lazing, swam with horses, watched planes land and take off at SXM and got lost amongst the cruise ship crowds every once in a while. I tasted some rum, rented a few beach chairs, and enjoyed pampering myself without having to drive anywhere (the island has great public transportation).

Great Bay beach, where the big cruise ships dock

I wanted a manicure and pedicure at the same time, and found a salon in Philipsburg where two latina girls were free to do both at the same time. I cringed in my seat as the cut, shaped, filed and exfoliated every digit, drawing blood a couple of times, but they were so into singing along with the Spanish gospel music playing from their phone that they didn’t notice me holding my breath.

swimming with horses

Whether you’re on the Dutch or French side, it’s a hit or miss what language to approach people in. Most spoke to me in English, Spanish or French, but drivers would also answer in Dutch and Creole, so it’s a wonder how much must get lost in translation, or never said at all. The French side had more exclusive Frenchies, white and wrinkled, sunkissed Metropoles who can’t speak a word of English and never let a dollar pass thru their hand – they live in a mini France, in French, with Euros and their Carrefour supermarkets, filled with delicacies and wines only from France.

Maho beach under the airplanes

The island is still re-developing from the disaster of Hurricane Irma, and dozens of buildings remain roofless and abandoned. Entire hotels have literally blown away, at least substantial bits of them, and parts of the facades or building frames stand like haunting reminders of the power of mother nature. Debris and dirt are still scattered anywhere that doesn’t matter, since people have seemingly given up trying to clean up all the mess – it barely seems possible, especially knowing the hurricane season will come back again and again.