It was my intent to compile a trip report consisting of just a few pictures I took whiled I was on SXM from Oct. 31 to November 7, very similar to the underwater pictures I posted in the past. Since several individuals will not mentioned that I snorkel from Orient Beach to Green Kay, around Green Kay and back; therefore, here is a brief trip report and I hope I do not put you to sleep.

I must add that I feel what makes SXM so great to visit is the duty free shopping, variety of nightlife, water sports, pristine beaches, natural beauty of the island, year-round warm climate and the friendly, caring people that will charm you. This is what keeps people returning to this island year after year. The friends you meet on your trip will become lifelong friends.

THE TRIP REPORT

Oct 31.

Vickie and I arrived on SXM at 3:00 pm by US Air with no problems. An individual from Unity Car Rental was waiting for us at the exit and took us to pick up our car. Michael was courteous and polite and we were on our way in minutes. I would recommend him and will use his services in the future.

We arrived at our hotel, Alamanda on Orient Beach. Our check in was the most efficient I have seen in years. They were so organized and after I signed one piece of paper, we were on our way to our room. Sandy Molloy of Molloy Travel made all our arrangements for our room and flights. In fact, Sandy sent to me many emails and made a phone call to me to discuss options, ideas, and things she would recommend. I would recommend using her and she got me rates lower than I could have gotten using other sources. In fact, in the room was a bottle of champagne on ice with fresh flowers from Sandy. The room had a large terrace that overlooked the pool and you could see Pinel Island, Green Kay, and parts of Orient Beach.

While we were unpacking, an individual I met on TTOL was checking in on us to escort us down to one of the units at the south end of orient Beach to have dinner with a group of friends before going to the Halloween Party at Papagayo. We meet so many wonderful, supportive, and understanding individuals. They often make us feel that we are at home with friends and relatives and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them. Special thanks to Doug who kept in contact with us from SXM before we left home.

The Halloween Party at Papagayo was fun. There was live music, dancing, drinking, eating, and most important, a chance to meet others. We met a lot of new friends at this party and are keeping in touch by email. BTW, the three blind mice won the contest and the checkerboard people came in second.

Nov 1

Nov 1 is a holiday for St. Martin and most of the shops were closed in Marigot. I got up around 5:30 to see the sunrise and walk the entire length of Orient Beach. Vickie walked the beach with me. We also met people while walking and enjoyed their company. Since breakfast was included at our hotel, we ate breakfast at our hotel several times. Basically, we had toasted French bread, croissants, fresh fruit, coffee, tea, and juice.

We went to Friar’s Bay and Happy Bay and we were the only individuals at either location. What do you expect, we were there from7:30 to 8:45 am. We were waiting for Match Supermarket to open at 9:00. We picked up supplies and headed back to the south end of Orient Beach where we stayed for several hours.

In the afternoon, we went to Philipsburg to see Deepti Mohnani @ DK Gems. She was very friendly and helpful and she introduced us to her brother Jeff. We bought a few pieces of jewelry for our grandson. We walked along Front Street and I watched the construction workers placing the brick in the sidewalk areas and the pre-cast curb. The streetscape improvements will be a great improvement for this area. We also walked the boardwalk.

Since we are going on the Celine Pub Crawl Cruise, I wanted to check out the area near Turtle Pier. Since we had about one hour before we had to be on The Celine, Vickie and I went to Sunset Beach Bar to see the sunset. We saw a few people we met the previous night and had a drink with them. We saw Air France take off. Hard to believe that people would stand behind this plane while it is taking off.

We went back to Turtle Pier and had drinks with Dan and Dee, people we met that were also waiting to board the Celine. Later, we met other fellow TTOL members; (Carl and Jill; Grey and Judy )and had a great time going to three different restaurants where we sampled portions of their food and drinks. Neil, the captain of the Celine was fantastic. In fact, after the cruise, he invited us back on the boat for additional conversation and drinks. I was amazed at the problems he encountered while trying to make his dream a reality. Five couples agreed to go to Pinel Island together the next day and we agreed to meet at 10:00 am.

Nov 2

Vickie and I drove down to Orient Beach and parked at the visitor’s parking lot. Vickie and I walked the beach and spent several hours there before heading to Pinel Island. We met a couple at the pier and we snorkeled the far east end of Pinel, past the breaking water for about one hour. We saw lizard fish, grunts, trumpet fish, puffers, and a lot of hard and soft corals. After a few other couples arrived, we all went to the other side of the island to swim and just relax on the beach.

Reservations were made at the Peg Leg Pub for 13 people at 7:00 pm. Vickie and I arrived at 6:00 pm to enjoy the appetizers at 50% off. The coconut shrimp and tenderloin strips were excellent. The whole group was present by 7:00 pm and we were still there talking until after 11:00 pm. We had swordfish and it was the best swordfish we had eaten in a long time. In fact, my wife does not like swordfish but after sampling the fish while we were on the Celine Pub Crawl Cruise, she ordered the swordfish. Shawn took good care of us. Good friends, Carl and Jill) we had met over the last several days invited us to go with them at Cupecoy on Nov 3 and we agreed. We did not get to our hotel room until after midnight.


Nov 3

Only getting several hours of sleep in the past several days, Vickie and I anticipated sleeping in. We did not have to go to Cupecoy until 11:00 am. WRONG! I was up at 5:30 and was walking entire length of Orient Beach with others. I will not repeat what Vickie said to me when I asked her if she was going to walk with me. At 7:30 am, Vickie and I were on our way to shop at Marigot Market before going to Cupecoy to meet Carl and Jill. We had breakfast at Zee Best. Vickie found several pieces of clothing at Take Two where the market person buys at wholesale to resell at the market place. BTW, you can buy clothing and supplies at Rima in Philipsburg at wholesale prices.

We arrived at Cupecoy around 11:00 am and was greeted by Danny who rented to us chairs and an umbrella for about 15 dollars. It is worth the money just to have someone looking out for the rental car you parked just above Cupecoy Beach at the far west end of the beach (opposite end from the hotel and adjacent to the concrete wall). We had a great time with Carl and Jill, swimming together or just relaxing and talking. We were invited back to their condo to get dressed for the TTOL Party at Buccaneer Beach Bar. Otherwise, we would have spent 2 hours of traveling back and forth between Orient and Simpson Bay during rush hour. The party was within walking distance of their condo.

We met so many individuals at this party. It was nice to finally see a face with the reports or comments I have seen on TTOL. I am gathering pictures from several people to forward to Dave and Deepti. I would always recommend going to any TTOL party. You will meet a lot of fun and interesting individuals.

Later, our friends, Vickie, and I went to Jimbo’s for appetizers and to Lees for dinner. We had Wahoo and Mahi-Mahi. Our friends introduced us to Michael’s, (Unity car Rental) brother, Steve.

Nov 4

Vickie and I were invited by Doug and Julie to go snorkeling at Divi Resort, Little Bay. Once again, we were up early (5:30 am) and walked Orient Beach. We left OB and arrived at Divi around 9:15. We went snorkeling and saw cannons, wrecks, anemones, octopus, feather dusters, christmas tree worms, sea urchins, and several varieties of fish. I walked up to see the Fort Amsterdam. Later we went to Marigot for a short stay and later we were at Bay Rouge. The beach was long and we went to an area to the west end where we relaxed in the sand. I noticed to the north end of the beach that there was an opening in the cliffs where you could snorkel from one side to the other. It looked like an adventure to me and I had to do it. There is a very strong current inside the opening. You could be very easily pushed against the rocks if you do not pay attention to what you are doing. Our friends invited us up to their condo for drinks, appetizers, and cheese plates. We also picked up ribs from Lidos. You can buy a full rack of ribs for three dollars. Too good to be true but the ribs were fantastic. My eyes were getting very heavy and we had to leave around 10:30 pm. We had a good time with our friends and we decided to meet at south end of Orient Beach the next day.

Nov 5

Finally, I was able to sleep in. I got up around 6:00am and walked the entire length of Orient Beach several times. Vickie and I went to DK Gems to pick up our door prize (did I fail to mentioned that Vickie and I won a door prize and we had our choice of gifts and we picked a gift from Deepti). Vickie and I talked to Deepti for about one hour. Deepti asked if I would send to her pictures of the TTOL Party and I agreed. Vickie could not make up her mind about a ring. I told her to buy all three rings so that we could get back to the beach. Finally, Vickie will have Deepti make a ring for her and we will pick it up in January while we are visiting SXM from the Caribbean Princess. Now all of you know why I was not complaining about the cruise ships.

Finally, we got to Orient Beach around 11:00 am. We were looking for the TTOL flag or anyone we might know. We hear a voice come from the crowd and it was from the group we met at the TTOL and Halloween Party. Then we noticed all the couples we had met over the last few days.

OK now for the reason I am typing this trip report. I snorkeled to Green Kay from Orient Beach because I wanted to go on the sand beach on either side of Green Kay. I made it to the west side but the beach was occupied with a couple I did not want to disturb. I decided to snorkel to the other side. WOW! A ship wreck on the east shore of Green Kay. After cutting my feet and arms to get to shore to look at the boat, GREAT! There was another couple on the other side of the boat that I definitely did not want to disturb. I got back in the water started snorkeling back to OB and made it back in time for happy hour at the Perch. I noticed three stingrays, and brought back a large starfish to show to the others on the beach. I would suggest to others, just snorkel in front of the Perch where there are large rocks. You can see just as many fish in this area as you can see near Green Kay.

Vickie went with the girls to get fitted for a swim suit from Luis?? that is behind Pedros. It is a girl thing and she had a lot of fun. The others girls had just as much fun and laughter as she did. Vickie would recommend this to others; it is an experience you will never forget.

For dinner, we went with Chris and Paul; Dave and Ann; Pete; and Bob and Mitiz to eat at Johnny B under the Tree where we had lobster, ribs, and chicken. The food was great but the company was even better. We all had a great time. We later ended up at several condos where we continued our conversations

Nov 6

Vickie and I spent the day at the south end of Orient Beach and participated in a few games of volleyball with doctorj. I was voted the best player for the other side. We went to happy hour at Papagayo. We had dinner at Bikini Beach with several other couples and later had ice cream.

Nov 7

The day we had to leave SXM and go back to Ohio.
However, Vickie and I walked together on Orient Beach and had breakfast at our hotel. At 7:30, we walked to the south end of orient beach from our hotel and stayed on the beach until 11:00 am. On the way to the airport, we stopped at Lido and ordered two racks of ribs. We still had some time and we stopped at Sunset Beach Bar for a drink before taking the car back to Unity Car Rental.

Wake up! This is the end of the report.
We already miss the friends we meet on this trip. So many wonderful, supportive and interesting people were met that we cannot wait until next year to see them again. We have already made arrangements to meet several individuals within the next few months. In fact, there is one couple, Carl and Jill) that we feel we have known for years and became best of friends in a short period of time and we missed them as if we were away from family.

Regrets,
YES
Leaving great friends you met
Not eating at several restaurants that was on my list including Baywatch
TikoTiko not in service while we were there
Not having a Massage on Orient Beach
Not visiting Dawn Beach and Plum Bay
Not going on a day trip to Anguilla
Not parasailing on OB
Not snorkeling at Prickey Pear and Creole Rock
Not having coconut ice cream from the lady in Marigot(our friends gave to us CIC)

7 days is not long enough but am glad that we did not stay 14 days. Can you imagine the length of my trip report if I was in SXM for 14 days? I said this would be a brief report. SORRY
Writing this report brought back so many good memories! Thanks for the encouragement from others for me to write this report. If you did not like it, I will email to you the list of individuals who should accept blame.

I promise next year that I will have a short version and a web site for the long version for my trip report. The short version will be that we had a good trip. The longer version within my web page will state that we had a very good trip.