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.
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