Wednesday, September 30, 2015
The days flow together on a Caribbean island
We have fallen in to a pattern for our days. I wake up 4-5 days a week alone because Tom has gone to the gym at our sister resort. The rest of the week are his days off. When he arrives home we have a frozen fruit smoothie for breakfast while we decide which beach to explore for the day. With 30+ beach choices, it's the most difficult decision of the day.
Each beach on the island has its own personality. The windward and leeward sides are vastly different of course, however even beaches side by side have their own unique shade and texture of sand, variety and condition of shells that wash up, and vegetation (or lack there of) that surrounds the beach. Some beaches have bold iguanas that saunter by as we sit in our beach chairs.
Most days we choose a beach somewhere else on the island, although there are days we stick close to home and enjoy "our beach" here at the resort. Whether we stay here or chose a beach further away, we end up on one of the two beaches at the resort for sunset.
We are very fortunate to have two such beautiful and well kept beaches right outside our door. One of the beaches is small and directly in front of the pool, the other is larger and is shared with the resort next door. Our balcony overlooks the larger beach.
Our beaches come equipped with two "chair guys", Raymond and Jolum, whom we have made friends with. They have become accustomed to us appearing in the late afternoon and staying until pretty much everyone else has gone to their rooms. The very best colors of the sunset appear after the sun has disappeared. Tom and I sit there, armed with our cameras, trying to capture the impossible..... The beauty and tranquility of a Caribbean sunset.
Carrie joins us
We have begun to find a rhythm for our days, choosing a beach and listening to reggae on the radio as we drive to it. (You've got to have a soundtrack for your travels!)
My sister Carrie decided last minute to join us for a portion of our trip. She is spending 10 days sleeping on our sofa bed and lounging on the local beaches with us. Like me, she is not one to pass up any opportunity to travel.
The mornings that Tom goes to the gym allow she and I time just to hang out together. We saw each other in June at our family reunion but so many other family members to visit with didn't allow any time for just the two of us to be together.
We share a love of beach combing so each new beach has been an opportunity to hunt for beach glass. We have found small bits of glass, predominantly green, on each beach. The Holy Grail of beach glass was Grand Case Beach, which is on the French side of the island. I told Carrie that it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Glass washed up with every wave and at the eastern end of the beach big chunks of glass sat like bits of shiny candy in the sand.
While I was looking for glass on Grand Case, a local girl named Sylvie, saw what I was doing and joined the search. She began to bring me handfuls and invited me to walk down the beach with her in search of more. She found the prize of the day for me, a chunk of cobalt blue... a color among the more rare. The best part for me was that she never asked what I was doing or why, she simply joined in the hunt and shared her bounty with me.
Saturday, September 12, 2015
Thursday, September 10, 2015
We spent the day hanging out at our beach, snorkeling and enjoying having nothing at all that we had to be doing.
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
We spent the day on the French side of the island in Marigot. It is the Capitol and main city on the French side of the island.
There is a market on Wednesday and Saturday and we wanted to buy some fresh fruit and veggies. The selection was small, as was the town, without a lot to recommend it. We wandered around unsuccessfully searching for an ATM that would take Tom's debit card. So far our credit union at home has not issued us cards with a chip, which is all the machines we have found accept.
After a fresh fruit bowl snack at a well known French pastry shop (nothing Gluten Free for me, and Tom was maintaining his weight loss pursuit) we returned to our car and left town.
On the way home we found the island's largest grocery store Le Grande Marche and filled in items that we couldn't get (or forgot) at the Costco-esque store a few days earlier. Another $120. 00 in groceries later, and a trip to the ATM that we finally found that would take a non chip debit card, and we headed back home to finish the day at our pool.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
We spent the better part of the day "beach shopping" today. I had a list of a few beaches fairly near our resort that we had decided to check out. The first bay wasn't in the list for the day but I was driving and it looked like an interesting side road. There were a bunch of cars in the "parking lot" ( term is used loosely to describe the rocky area where people turned off their engines at the second the fancy struck them). We followed the path through a forest area and stumbled on to the extremely gorgeous Mullet Bay. It was an organized multi row of beach chairs and umbrellas affair. We walked to the one end and took a few pictures, drinking in the beauty of the clear green Caribbean Sea and the saturated blue sky filled with bright white puffy clouds, before we headed back to the car in search of the next glorious view.
We were searching for Baie Aux Prunes, Baie Longe and Baie Rouges.
New to the island's signage we ended up further along our route than we expected to be. I pulled over to ask a neatly dressed man for directional assistance. Because I had forgotten we had passed from the Dutch side to the French side of the island I said Hello and asked in English if he spoke English. He approached the car and spoke to us in French. I told him we needed directions but we weren't communicating well due to the language barrier on both sides. He suddenly looked at my beach location notes in Tom' s hand ( the notes Tom had just commented that he couldn't read due to my handwriting) and said " Baie Rouges?" and proceeded to give us directions in French, which would have been amazing if either of us spoke French! I was able to pick up a few words here and there, enough to send us on our way.
We drove further than I thought we should based on the directions I thought I understood (!) so I decided to turn down an alley that headed toward the water. At this point let me just say that this island is in love with speed bumps. You won't encounter too many speed limit signs, your speed is mainly controlled by speed bumps, large and larger... Sometimes marked, sometimes lying in wait to launch you unexpectedly into the air. The alley I turned down was narrow, full of various sized vehicles and other obstacles with speed bumps that proudly rose with unexpected enthusiasm in the middle of the street. Oh, and they had a split down the middle just wide enough for a car tire to fit in if you were silly enough to allow that to happen. I, thankfully, was not. I decided to bust out the 11 words in French that I know and asked a woman on the roadside in French if she spoke English. She looked dazed and confused. I asked for Baie Rouge. More confusion. I said Merci and drove off. (It occurred to me later that she didn't speak French, but English instead! Oops!)
With hazard spotting support from my navigator (and an old gentleman sitting at his outdoor table taking in the spectacle as I negotiated his driveway) we made it safely out of that alley and I chose my next alley more carefully. This one took us to an actual paved road. After driving a few blocks I spotted the perfect person to try for directions again. I rolled down my window and said "Bon Jour", she said "hi". Oh! You speak English! Awesome!
Suddenly, the woman who had basically been alone on the street was suddenly joined by another boisterous woman and a man with 4 teeth. I asked for Baie Rouge. " Oh yes, that's nice" my new friends said as the three of them separately began to enthusiastically gesticulate and swing their arms giving us directions. The only problem was lady 1 was throwing her arms to the right "you go this way", man with 4 teeth was throwing his arms to the left indicating that we should go that direction, and lady "2? She was throwing her arms right and then left while she jumped up and down excitedly encouraging us to follow her directions!!! Suddenly, as all of this was transpiring, a preteen boy in a school uniform was leaning against my door taking it all in. Tom was in the passenger seat making frustrated noises while I thoroughly enjoyed the entire encounter! I have a higher tolerance for the absurd than he does I guess ;-) The absolute funniest part though was that all three of my new friends were telling me the same thing.... I was on a "dead road"... I needed to turn around and retrace my steps to the alley I came up, in order to continue the direction I had been headed ( left, then right.. Both directions like my friends were telling me!) I felt like I was in a SNL skit and I laugh out loud EVERY single time I think about this! ( and I wish I had video!)
We finally found Baie Rouge and walked down to the beach to take a few pictures and admire the rock cairns built on the beach.
After a few failed attempts to find the (non private) entrance to Baie Longe we gave up and headed toward our resort. We saw a crowd gathered at Maho Beach so we stopped to watch the action. Maho Beach is famous for being directly in the path of giant airline jets preparing to land. People are excited by the opportunity to have a jet scream 20-50 feet over their head as it lands or being blown over by the blast of the thrusters as a plane takes off. Valuing our hearing and life in general we watched the fun from a safe distance.
Monday, September 7, 2015
During my online research I found out there was a Costco like store on St. Maarten and that was our goal for the day... stock up on groceries to take us through the month we will be temporary locals.
We drove to Cul de Sac which involved turning right out of our street, 1st right on the round about, second right on the round about, right just past Le Grande Marche, on the left. Just perfect for our first trip on the local roads. We only missed one turn because we mistook a dirt road for an exit on the round about (mostly due to the fact that a lot of the roads are dirt and none of them are marked with silly annoyances like center lines).
Cost U Less $ 337.00
We happily returned to our place and made lunch with our new groceries. We had cobbled together a breakfast from some apples we had in my travel bag and yesterday was snacks on the plane and a late lunch/early dinner at the resort restaurant so having a fridge full of food was nice.
A little lounge time at the beach below our balcony, dinner on the BBQ, and then it was time to start relaxing!
Wednesday, September 9, 2015
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Monday, September 7, 2015
Sunday, September 6, 2015
36 hours with no sleep. We thought it would be easier than our usual trips to Europe. Not as far to fly, combined with only a 3 hour time difference would be easy...
We didn't factor in the 3.5 hour red eye flight (no sleep), 3 hour layover (sleep on the dirty floor without a sleep sack? No thanks), or the 3.5 hour flight into the morning sun (no sleep). Fortunately (?) cold airports and frigid planes helped to keep us awake. We will both be wearing our down jackets on the way home. Why do we both have down jackets packed to go to the Caribbean you might wonder? You'll have to ask Tom to tell you his story about the wife who scoffed at his idea of taking a packable down jacket to Illinois in June....
During the last few minutes of the flight we excitedly shared picture taking opportunities through the tiny airplane window with a young woman out of the U.S. for the first time. How can you not get excited as golden sand encrusted islands begin to appear where moments ago there was only water, water everywhere? Or trying to capture the iridescent, translucent green/blue shades of the Atlantic Ocean morphing into the Caribbean Sea?
Moments after de planing and wizzing through passport control, we were outside waiting for our ride to the car rental place. We passed the time spraying ourselves with the essential oil bug spray I made. We read that Mosquitos surround St. Maarten and require a serious blood offering in exchange for your stay. That and the fact that many people visiting here have become infected with a horrible mosquito borne illness over the last year or so had me researching "bug be gone remedies". Not willing to soak myself in a toxic chemical fog for 5 weeks, I hit up Pinterest for some essential oil bug spray recipes.
We survived the requisite rental car wrangling, and then we were off for the 5 minute drive to our timeshare. The 5 minutes which really was 20 in the end because we got excited when we saw McDonalds (we were supposed to be turning at Burger King) which took us to the wrong resort. Right brand, wrong branch.
Check in, pictures of the view for envious friends and family, unpack, down to the resort bar/ restaurant for a mahi mahi reuben for Tom and Lebanese salad and fries for me. I almost faint when I see the $65.00 check. For that simple lunch? Island prices are going to kill us! .... oh, wait... That's the bill in Dutch Guilder..... $32.00 US. Much better. Man, am I tired...Walk to the little local market for water and then home to shower and bed. Tom makes it until 8, I hang in until 10. The fourth time I almost drop my iPad (you know that feeling of falling as you start to fall asleep?) I know it's time to give in.
Surprise!!! We are going to the Caribbean!!! Happy retirement Tom!!!
After spending a week visiting with our Arizona kids and grandkids, Tom and I embarked on the second leg of our journey, a five week trip to Saint Maarten, Netherlands Antilles!
This five-week trip is a surprise for Tom as a retirement gift from me. I have been planning it for a year now and I can't believe the time is finally here and we have arrived on this beautiful island!l
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