We spent a wonderful 12 days in St. Martin. I will try to keep this brief. The airport is functioning well with temporary buildings. We stayed in Orient Bay in an apartment called Birdie 2 which we found on VRBO. It was walking distance to Orient Beach and the restaurants in Orient Bay. Cote Plage and Sao were our favorites in the village and we had a great dinner at Bistro Caribe in Grand Case. The island took a big hit and the devastation is everywhere. Club O is cleaning up but was heartbreaking to see the enormity of the damage.
Our vacations however are about friends, both those we know on the beach, and the friends that call St. Martin home.
We had lunches daily at Perch Lite and Chez Leandra. Eight of our friends joined us on the beach daily. It was great to see many familiar May faces.
We ran into Stephen,Carlos, Mimi, Patou, Corinne, Alan, and found The Club O office at La Chapelle in the village.
Club O will really begin rebuilding in June. It is anticipated that 30 units will be ready by winter. Papagayo will not be ready at that time and that is very understandable. Club O will be back stronger than ever.
Bikini was rebuilding and Orient Village was alive with the sounds of reconstruction.
Beach Ball races ran one day. It was a windy stay. Quite unusual for May.
The new Care Four Supermarket is very modern and well stocked at the round about on the Dutch side,
To capsulize:
We had a blast on our favorite Island, It is not the way you left it, It will be back and better, and it needs our support.
carib cheers
doctorj