SXM Trip Part 3-2

We were enjoying a nice midday snack at Rosemary's when a horse with no rider casually walked right past our table. I asked our waitress if this was normal and she said "its master must be around somewhere!" After lunch we walked towards our car and I stopped and asked this fellow "what's with the long face?" heheee.....I guess its master finally found him!





We drove back to our villa at NBBC and quickly grabbed our swim suits and a few beers for the beach. I wasn't sure what to expect at Baie Rouge since it was our first time there. The beach is only a couple minutes from the villa. We lucked out and found a front row parking space and were immediately approached by a nice young gentleman who asked if we needed an umbrella and chairs. We told him we have never been to this beach and he took us down the steps for a brief tour. There's a couple nice bars side by side here with frozen drinks, food and $3 beers, nice! So much for lugging our bag-o-beers!





At first glance I thought this beach was a little more crowded than we prefer, but when the young man set our umbrella and chairs front and center on this beautiful beach my impressions quickly changed. This is an amazing beach! It's probably a mile and a half long and very wide. The sand was super soft and felt great on our bare feet. The surf was up a bit, but we enjoyed playing in the waves and once past the break it was comfortable to float around in the warm turquoise waters. Couple things that we really enjoyed on St Martin were the long beaches and the beach bars.




Of course we grabbed a couple ice cold Presidente's from the bar, then we chilled on our comfortable loungers for a while. Beer never tasted so good! It was truly great to be away from the snow and frigged temperatures back home in Virginia, I highly recommend a winter getaway, anywhere! We watched people of all ages frolic in the somewhat powerful surf, some would be seen getting slammed by the intermittent LARGE waves, great fun. Soon it would be our turn.











As I looked around I couldn't help but notice a wonderful rock outcropping to my right and it was calling my name. I left my wife to get her tan on contently lying on her water front lounger. I ventured over to the point where the rocks were and ascended some "private villa" stairs. Cautiously I navigated from the steps to the rocks around the point with the waves breaking beneath me. You really never know what's around the corner if you don't make the effort!



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We are never content to just sit in the same spot for very long, so after a while we grabbed the camera and started our walk. We never felt uneasy anywhere during this trip and we did leave our towels and small bag at our chairs figuring we could live without the stuff we left behind. Our goal was to walk the entire length of beach. Once past the first 200 yards we had the beach to ourselves, nice. The sand here really is nice and our feet sunk in as we walked. When we hit probably the mile mark we said "is it really necessary to walk the whole beach? Yes!", we trudged on. Wisely we took a bottle of water with us because it was a pretty decent workout in this sand. As we neared the magnificent towering cliff side supported by boulders at the far point we noticed that the tide must be coming in. We asked each other, "should we keep going, the waves are coming in?" Yes! we trudged on. There was a point where a lot of footprints stopped and turn around, but my wife continued on, must reach the end! This is perhaps my favorite photo from the trip because it shows her venturing on to see what's out there....

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So we accomplished our goal and proceeded back from whence we came. The sand had not firmed up and we were once again trudging along passing several beautiful villas along the way. The only person we saw along this stretch of amazing beach was a security guard diligently standing post near the tropical estates, nice job!

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Funny story, or not so funny for me! As we made it 2/3 back to our comfy loungers my right foot dove deep in the sand and my big toe hit squarely on a buried rock that was hidden deep below the surface. My big toe, nail specifically, hit with enough force that would make a lesser man cry out "Ffffffffffudge NOT AGAIN!" Ok....so I did cry out "Ffffffffudge NOT AGAIN!" My wife abruptly turned with a look of either deep concern or perhaps she was thinking "jeesh I'm married to a clutsy idiot!" If you get queazy now's the time to stop reading.... I looked down at my sand covered foot and could see the blood oozing from the top of my toe. I was certain it was a career ending blow, but I didn't want to look closely at it. If you read my BVI/BlueMoon trip reports you would know that I....time to stop reading again......hit the same big toe on a raised dock board and COMPLETELY dislodged my toenail. It took a year for that nail to grow back and it was a fine looking nail I might add! Once back at the loungers my wife asked "do you want to get something for your toe?" I shrugged and proceeded to the bar and grabbed a frozen colada and a Presidente! Yeah, whose crying now!!

After our drink and a quick survey of the trauma we packed up and headed for the nearest pharmacy. Porto Cupecoy was the nearest "real" store that we knew of so drove there. A security guard safely guided our vehicle into a parking space upon arrival. As we exited the vehicle he asked how we were and I said good except for this! he winced when I held up my toe with enthusiasm. He said "come see me when you get your supplies". I returned to the parking lot with peroxide, neosporin and band aids. He handed me some clippers and said "you gotta cut that nail out of there" Nice man. Long story short, only a huge corner of the nail was amputated and the rest of the nail is blue today, a nice tropical blue.

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Dinner would simply be leftover pizza and snacks at the villa, oh and copious amounts of red wine to lessen my pain!

To be continued...<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />