So it’s April 27 and Jouvert was last night, or this morning depending on how you look at it. I’m not exactly sure what the intention or reason for Jouvert but it’s a very integral part of Carnival on Dutch Sint Maarten and also the opening event, more or less. People gather in the very wee hours of the morning and they parade in the streets, dancing and partying like no tomorrow. We come every year at this time and every year I ask what it’s all about and the answers are all over the place but the bottom line seems to be, if you participate in Jouvert you will have one awesome experience that you will never forget, and the next day possibly a big head and a huge hang-over. But the really odd thing to me, is we seem to talk to more ‘oldsters’ participating than the age brackets you’d think would be joining in.

Anyhow, this was moving day for us and after two lovely weeks at Royal Islander Club La Plage we’re now ensconced in our hacienda at Beachside Villas. God, how I love this place, but then, everyone does, and for good reason. The Mascarin family has a top shelf property here and they’ve thought of everything to make your stay enjoyable. After discovering it ourselves a few years back we’ve introduced about a half dozen families to it and each one feels exactly as we do.

RILP, a timeshare resort located on the beach in Maho Bay, was wonderful and they’ve got about everything there you could possibly ask for in a vacation destination. I’ve thought this was the case for years but now I can state it as fact from first hand experience. The staff were all lovely and helpful and they really do seem to care that you enjoy your stay. The only down-side of RI that we can comment about is the street noise but I tend to be a very light sleeper. I know now we were just on the wrong side of the property and should we ever stay there again, I’d be certain to book the Ocean Point side rather than the Maho side. But in the end, it was all good and I’d go back if the need for alternate accommodations arose.

We really haven’t done much of anything the past two days. We ate a few breakfasts and/or lunches at The Tortuga Restaurant at RI and we even hauled our sorry butts up off our lounges and played Bingo again yesterday. Dinner? Another pizza at Fat Tony’s since yesterday afternoon we were packing up to make the big move and we really didn’t feel like going anywhere special. And we topped off our evening doing something on SXM that in all our many trips over the past 45+ years we had never done before........laundry! Woo hoo!! How’s that for an exciting evening.

This morning we checked out of RILP and into BSV, but we only stayed just long enough to drop our bags for storage since we knew our room wouldn’t be quite ready that early. We had some business to attend to in town and what kind of fools were we?! The traffic was horrendous and parking was a joke but we managed to get things done. The dessert portion of the trip into P’berg was another chance to lunch at a Touch of French on Old Street. What fun and it was good to see our friend doing a very nice little business there. I had an omelet and J had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich on baguette - very nice, along with being able to chat with some lovely first-timers from England who were off one of the three ships in town and had already taken a great liking to what little of SXM they’d seen.

Chores in town done, we headed back to BSV and did the actual check-in here at which point we debated on either a walk down to the pool or a nap and I guess you know which one won. Actually slept a bit and made piña coladas before heading up to Bar Code for a light dinner and here we are, home and ready for lalaland and it’s not even 10:00 p.m.