Saba: Captain's Quarters Hotel Demolished

Many thanks to Lynn at Sea Saba for forwarding this final photo

which is probably from The Daily Herald in St. Maarten.

Its been almost 9 years since hurricane Georges destroyed most of Captain's Quarters - the historic landmark that I owned/managed with my cousin Calvin Holm from 1993-99.
The 12-room hotel had been built in 1965 and was one of the truly special small Caribbean hotels.
Although the building had serious structural problems and was impractical for a hotel even before the hurricane, I always hoped that it would be saved as a part of the island's Museum or Tourist Office - the hotel was always a 'signature photo' of Saba.
Having hosted Queens Beatrix & Juliana of The Netherlands several times, Room #2 with its vaulted ceiling and photo-op balcony was a favorite of dukes, princes, diplomats, celebrities, honeymooners & world travelers for decades.
It is reported to have been the inspiration for several of the antics in Herman Wouk's Don't Stop the Carnival which he wrote while based at the Passangrahn Hotel in St. Maarten - looking out toward Saba.
It was a privilege to have been a part of Captain's Quarters' history and very sad to see it become just one more memory of a lost Caribbean.

Captain's Quarters Resort & International Arts Center

before the arrival of Hurricane Georges in 1998.

Intra-Island Marketing

A brief look through today's El Nuevo Dia shows a nice variety of islands who are aggressively seeking the 'off-season' bonanza that Puerto Rico can deliver when the entire island goes on vacation in July.
With major holidays on July 4, 25 & 27 plus a few minor holidays in between - Puerto Rico has a tradition of taking the month of July for vacation before going back to school and business in August.
Since this is usually a very slow period for most islands - Caribbean Consulting has been an advocate for looking to Puerto Rico for summer business for years.
The Dominican Republic traditionally gets the majority of business, followed by Orlando.
However, Sunday's paper shows major ads and promotions for St. Maarten, Anguilla and Martinique (with better photos than previous ads - thanks to Club Med) in addition to the DR.
The BVI has a full-time marketing person in San Juan and has concentrated their efforts on radio spots with ads on WOSO's 'Live from Club Nautico' show since yachts are a major market and its an easy way to reach the non-boat crowd as well...
The USVI has concentrated on a sales blitz to island travel agents.
The smaller islands are promoted through 4Seasons Travel Puerto Rico Residents specials throughout the region.
Nice to see that many islands are recognizing this very large and very close market that loves to travel in summer!
Some day they might also discover that the French islands go on vacation in September after their own summer 'bonanza' season in August when St. Martin, St. Barths, Martinique and Guadeloupe are overbooked when all of France takes the month of August for their vacations.

Noche de San Juan - Reality Report

Well, its been a few weeks since Noche de San Juan and I waited a while to post this so I could see if there was anything in the Press about developing the event into a tourism attraction.
Nothing.
Noche de San Juan was very nice.
We walked over to Condado at about 10pm and people were starting to accumulate along the beach. At about 11pm, police were positioned at all the dead-end streets that go to the beach to keep cars from entering to search for parking.
By 11:30 - there was a steady stream of people going to the beach.
The center of activity seemed to be the Atlantic Beach Hotel which had lights on a small portion of the beach.
There was no activity at all at The Marriott or the La Ventana al Mar park on either end of Condado's beach.
At about 5 minutes til midnight, thousands of people ran into the waves and at the countdown to midnight threw themselves into the waves. There were fireworks for about 5 minutes that could be seen from Ultimo Trolley Beach in Ocean Park.
Everyone was well behaved, everyone had a great time..
Almost everyone was between 20 - 40 years old.
Some of the bathing suits were quite amazing for midnight!
How often do you get a mass gathering of that age group without music, dancing and drink?
By 12:30, everyone was headed home...
So - while it was a very nice local event - most tourists probably didn't even know it was going on... a major cultural event that probably went unnoticed by most of the world.
Could it be that people in the tourism industry don't see the potential?
How many other great local celebrations throughout the Caribbean are ignored by the tourism industry? Tourists I meet all over the Caribbean crave local culture within easy access of their hotel.