SXM Day 3

After all we had read about Zee Best, we just had to go there. We knew it was close to where we hit the main drag out of Billy Folly Rd. but we

didn't see it right off the bat. On our travels on Monday, we saw the sign, almost right across from where Billy Folly let out. They brought out a

basket of tarts, crossants, and turnovers to tempt you before you decided what you wanted from the menu. You paid for what you ate out of the

basket. I'm not a big breakfast guy, but I had a cherry tart and a pear tart that were out of this world, along with some French coffee. Lynn had a

chicken crepe that was delectable. Cool place, European feel, and little yellow birds flitting about. We decided that we'll be back.

On the recommendation of Linda's Mike, we headed to Baie Rouge. Drove through the Mullet Bay area and the golf course, with the bombed

out-looking ex-acommodations ( I guess blown out by Luis and never rebuilt ), and saw a sign for Baie Rouge, but looking at the map, it looked

like a more substantial road was dictated, so we drove on towards Marigot, before I decided we had gone too far. We stopped at a shopping

area to check the map, and turned around and went back to the sign. We drove down the short dirt road and encountered a parking area with 2

guys sitting under a covered area, and asked them how to get to Baie Rouge - they said that we were there, to park to the left. It's funny now, but

at first, I didn't believe them, thought that maybe we were getting scammed. The map was very misleading.

These guys directed us to the beach, set us up with 2 chairs and an umbrella for $14 and we were set for the day. Baie Rouge was beautiful, a

long stretch of sand with almost perfectly calm, crystal clear water, book-ended by large cliffs looking towards Anguilla.. We were closest to the

right side of the beach, with a rock cliff filled with flowering plants and a multitude of little white and pale yellow butterflies everywhere.

The beach was beautiful, calm and clear - and hot. Not much of a breeze on the west side of the island. After some time sizzling on the front side,

I decided to walk the beach. It was surrounded by cliffs, with some very desirable residences looking over the area. The sand beach eventually

gave way to a flat, rocky shore that was subtlely colorful. The sand heading back was scorching hot in places, had to keep towards the shore.

Looking back towards our outpost, Devil's Hole, a natural rock outcropping from the cliffs with a hole in it became evident. I took many pictures of

this beautiful sight.

Went snorkeling along the rocks towards Devil's Hole, hoping to dive through the Hole. The snorkeling was fantastic, a wide array of fishes and

coral within easy swimming reach. I followed a large school of about 50 blue fish that were about 6 inches in diameter feed along the coral reef

for about 30 minutes. Headed towards Devil's Hole at a leisurely pace, taking in all the scenery along the way. Once I got within 100 yards of the

Hole, the water got much rockier, shallower, and inundated with huge, black spiny sea urchins. WOAH! I was big time worried I'd get washed into

the urchins, so I started looking for an escape route. It took a while to navigate my way out of there, as it was much easier to get there than to get

out of there. The trip back to the beach was nice, a plethera of fish, coral, lots of color, a very convenient dive spot.

We had lunch at one of the beach bar and grills there, good food, reasonably priced. We spent the next few hours lounging in the sun. The water

was calm and beautiful and we spent plenty of time in it, as there wasn't much of a breeze all day. We stopped at the Cliffhanger bar at Cupecoy,

and it was a pretty neat place. It was our 1st trip to the island, but it was easy to see that the development on top of the cliffs there had ruined what

must have been a very nice beach. The cliffs and caves were very interesting.

From the Cliffhanger, we went to the SSBB and took in a few takeoffs and landings - unfortunately, no really big jets, but we enjoyed about an

hour there. Then we headed back to the Flamingo, took in the sunset and got ready for dinner at Pineapple Pete's. We had heard alot about the

Lobster Thermador, and that's what we both had for dinner. We found, over the course of our stay, that the Caribbean lobster is not as sweet as

Maine lobster. The Thermador was good, not great, but we thoroughly enjoyed the meal, the service and the ambience. "Ragan 'n Blues" was the

band that night, and they played everything from reggae to Clapton to Santana, even a little Hendrix. We stayed about an hour after the meal was

finished enjoying the band. Went back to the studio exhausted and ready for Day 4.





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