Long Trip Report: November 30 to December 12, 2006

Another great trip to SXM for two baby boomers; fourth land vacation in SXM; well over ten visits as a port of call on cruise.

Sandy Molloy handled most of the arrangements for us and did a great job, as usual. We had to make some last minute changes in schedule and everything worked smoothly with her help. You have nothing to lose by checking prices with Sandy before you commit to anything.

Trip down on USAir was uneventful, as was return flight. Everything was on time – we arrived in SXM from CLT a little early. New airport is very nice and we do not miss the old one. I was missing a few minor items from suitcase on arrival, which I assume was courtesy of TSA. I wish all the post 9/11 air travel security stuff made me feel safer – unfortunately, it does not.

Sandy arranged car for us with Mohamed Hussein at Panoramic. As before, I just asked Sandy to arrange car for us and let her pick who to use. We were met at exit by fellow with the sign with our name who directed us to Mohamed who was working out of his “office” in parking lost. He quickly put us in a Getz as planned but as we started to drive away, we realized that the rear view mirror had broken off and was in the glove compartment. The more sensible of us took a rather firm position that I was not driving without a rear view mirror. We reported the mirror problem to Mohamed (who had not known of the problem) and after discussing the possibility of taking another car just for a day and then trading later (because he had no other Getz available then) we quickly agreed that we would upgrade to a Tucson at a small additional cost – so, we got a great deal! Although I had thought that I wanted a smaller car, we really liked having the bigger Tucson. Although a little bigger and thus not quite as easy to park or handle the tight spots, it was a much nicer, more comfortable drive. It took the road to Friar’s Bay Beach Resort, for example, and some of the other interesting road challenges, much better than a smaller car would have. We are very pleased with our experience with Mohamed.

First place to drive from airport parking lot was picking up phone from Sharon at Royal Palm – only problem was fact that this made us drive into horrible traffic – did get to see the open bridge, oh well. I used the phone a lot for business and calling family, buying and adding several hours of time. After the first couple days, the keyboard of the phone died – kind of strange but Sharon said it had happened before. I just came by Royal Palm and Sharon moved chip into new phone – no change in phone number or anything – very minor inconvenience. Sharon is great and getting phone from her is no brainer for us.

Stayed at Villa Modigliani #2 on Orient, which was very nice. A little excitement finding Carole to get us situated – and she was very nice given our late arrival – but no real problem as it turned out. No problem parking right across from door. First floor unit - full kitchen – large great room – nice lanai with a gas grill – the usual size safe. They supply all the towels you need (both for in unit and on beach) and provided a lot of other stuff if you needed it, such as insect repellent and a couple beach chairs. Maybe some of it was left by prior guests – and we left some stuff ourselves. Even had a washing machine, but we did not use it. It is on other side of Caribbean Princess from the beach, behind Waikiki. Couple hundred yards walk to water’s edge. Very quiet area – except for one night when party was going at Waikiki, but even that was not loud enough to bother us. I do not even know if you have beach privileges at one of places – we probably did but we never hang out at any beach other than Club O on Orient. We both walked down to Club O and drove down and parked back of Pedro’s – never a problem getting a place to park there. Incidentally, Club O appeared very quiet while we were there. We did not eat at Papagayo’s this trip. I did check sign up sheets for Pelos out of curiosity and I do not know that they ever did any trips while we were there. Apart from weather problems, it did not seem to be a very good deal ($75 per person – no lunch) and I was not surprised that there seemed to be zero interest in Pelos. When Philippe gets his new boat going, I am sure that he will get things going, again.

We never felt unsafe anywhere on island in any way and we had no personal experience with or knowledge of any criminal activity. We routinely left a couple towels in car and on a couple occasions left minor items. (Our rule generally remains to NEVER leave anything in car when neither of us is in it.) We did notice how many residents seem to carry stuff around in their car trunks, but perhaps the car trunk thieves know how to go after tourists and leave residents alone. In the area of Orient Bay in which we were located it seemed particularly quiet and safe, we never saw anyone who seemed out of place. We walked beach at night and never felt unsafe there. Two nights we walked from Waikiki to Club O – one night there was party at Waikiki and both nights there were people at Bikini. Saw a few other folks out on beach itself both times. Obviously, bad things can happen anywhere and you always need to keep aware of surroundings but I continue to think that Orient Beach at night is relatively safe, when compared to other spots. I should note that we were always back in our villa by 11 p.m. so when I say “night” I am not talking about being out in the very early morning hours.

Weather and sea conditions were not the greatest during our trip this year. Pretty windy and rough the entire time, although it got much better in the last few days that we were there. (Actually, first thing on our last day, December 12, there was virtually no wind and we were ferociously attacked by bugs before getting into water for swim to Green Cay; some wind is a necessity to keep the bugs away.)

First full day, Friday, December 1, even though we knew it was too rough, we swam over to Green Cay with stuff in a bag. Visibility over at Green Cay was virtually zero and there was no snorkeling. Took a good 40 minutes or maybe a little more to get over. (In good weather, it is easy 20 minutes or less.) Did have island to ourselves as no one else was silly enough to go over there that day.

On Saturday, Dec 2, we went over to Pinel. Still $6 per person round trip. We got chairs and umbrella at Yellow beach. Some guy almost managed to confuse me about who was the guy you pay for the chairs – a couple guys sort of interacted with people coming onto beach and moved a chair a little or something, when real beach guy was not there at the time. I wasn’t really paying attention at first and started to converse with him and then realized that he was not the guy and ignored him. Beach all along sand spit was perfectly calm, but snorkel area was stirred up and had very little visibility. We walked over to other side and the water there was quite rough and uninviting. Beach itself actually looked great on other side, but for the pile of garbage – no one was there when we were. We hiked up to top of high point on Pinel and enjoyed view. The Pirate Shack (or whatever that bar was called) is gone.

Saturday night was TTOL party at Los Gauchos and Vicki, Kathy, and Liesa were as superb hosts as they were last year. I cannot quite figure out how or why they put on such a wonderful party – but they do. Thanks to all three of you! We enjoyed talking with folks we already knew and meeting new folks. That party is a highlight of our trip. I do want to nominate Carol and Eric for having the least accurate picture of themselves as an avatar – this was the first time I had met them and I have to say that, in particular, I certainly could not recognize Eric from that picture. Very much enjoyed meeting both of you! Chatted briefly with Neil (Celine) – we never could put together day sail on Celine this year. Neil gave us report of how one of his sons was doing with Stone, the new restaurant. We planned on going to Stone, but never made it.

Sunday, Dec 3, it was still pretty windy and rough on Orient. We went over to Divi Little Bay and it was much better there, although visibility still was not great. We snorkeled in snorkel area and had a decent time snorkeling for first time since arrival. After snorkeling, we walked up to Fort Amsterdam and looked around. Just saw article in Daily Herald about Divi losing latest round to government in terms of preservation of the Fort Amsterdam area - I support the government on the issue although I certainly can understand Divi’s position. I would hope that at some point, someone is able to restore Fort Amsterdam.

Monday, Dec 4, we went to Bay Rouge. This is when phone stopped working or I was going to call and see if the ameless gang were around and see if I trick them into inviting us to see their villa. Although conditions were pretty rough, we went ahead with trying to snorkel. Devil’s hole was basically full of water and I was not crazy enough to try getting through it. We could not see a thing at the reef off the “private beach” but we still swam past Devil’s Hole to next point to see if we could see anything – which of course we could not. The wife thought I was nuts even to swim over there – but I often have a hard time not trying to do what I had wanted to do. We went over to Cupecoy in afternoon and got a couple chairs from Danny just below the ledge on left side of steps down. Much calmer there. Wife snorkeled and saw some fish, but I just relaxed. We were pretty much above where the waves were coming in, or maybe the water would come up to the bottom of our chairs, but when we were both on chairs one big wave came up and washed over us – hitting the wall behind us and then sweeping all our stuff back into the water to the left of the rock. My water wallet with the keys and money in it fortunately was strung on my chair at the time and it stayed put, but everything else, except the towel I was on, was in the water. Kind of exciting – we were momentarily a little stunned by it. Two couples sitting in chairs above us on the ledge jumped up and rushed down along with another guy who came from somewhere, and helped grab our stuff. They were really super nice and helpful. They congratulated me for focusing on the most important thing – my beer – which I had managed to hold on to and protect from the sea water – the survival instinct does kick-in. They also said that they had not wanted to see me leave with only a soaking wet towel to wear. (Not sure how I should take that, really.) Very nice people. We only lost a couple tangerines and other food in our bag – all our snorkel stuff, lotion, and other junk from bag was retrieved. We had left phone in car – which is a no-no, but it had not been working anyway and I had stuck it under front seat when trying it at Bay Rouge and had not thought to bring it down with us. We stopped by Royal Palm after Cupecoy on way back to Orient and got new phone from Sharon. We ate at Le Piment (spelling?) this night and it was good. This night I called and reserved a spot both on Tango and Scoobitoo for next two days, figuring that weather might be good on one of the next two days – or maybe both, what the heck.

Tuesday, Dec 5, we took a day sail to Prickly Pear (which is Anguilla) on the Tango ($75 each) out of Pelican marina. We had a very nice day, having the BBQ lunch on Prickly Pear. The snorkeling was much better than anything we had yet done this trip, but not as good as we had hoped. The crew of the Tango was extremely attentive and served very nice drinks both heading over to Prickly Pear and returning. The best feature of the Tango was the restrooms – very nice with flush toilets. We were quite impressed with them. Best heads we have seen on a boat, I think.

Wednesday, Dec 6, expecting at least somewhat better weather, we took another day sail to Prickly Pear, this time on Scoobitoo from Grand Case Beach Club (90 Euro each). We were extremely impressed with the Scoobitoo and being able to get on in Grand Case, and not having to deal with any significant traffic, was GREAT! We thought additional cost well worth it. The Scoobitoo is three years old and was built very specifically for these snorkel day sails. Chris the Captain and Eileen the hostess were wonderful – Eileen waited on the 17 pax on this day sail more than anyone we had seen on one of these type trips before. We again had BBQ lunch at Prickly Pair. We definitely will do trips on the Scoobitoo, again, and recommend it highly. They have a new boat – Scoobithree (? not sure of name) which apparently is just doing charters right now for $1500 a day (I think they said this in dollars). A pretty good price, really, when it can take 20 people very easily and many more very comfortably. The snorkeling at Prickly Pear was significantly better this day than the previous day when we had gone on Tango. Decent snorkeling. Great trip overall. Tango was good but we liked this better.

This Wednesday night was the party at Baywatch – and ameless sponsored a great party. Thanks, Amy! We had a very good dinner, Cheryl was as wonderful as always, Andy was Andy, and we enjoyed talking with many folks. Definitely a different atmosphere at Baywatch than Los Gauchos, that’s for sure. Meaning no offense, I will comment that we thought that some of the behavior (and I do not mean nudity itself) was too much – not sure that people should do things at such a gathering that (hopefully) they never would do on Club O beach during day (and that we have never seen on beach during day). Just our two cents and if you did not see behavior of which I speak – never mind.

Thursday, Dec 7, we drove over to Grand Case Beach Club and took a snorkel trip over to Creole Rock with Sebastian at Watersports. He works with Lawrence, who primarily handles the beach but also assists in getting us on boat and launching boat from beach that Sebastian uses to go over to Creole Rock. We had met Lawrence on the 6th when going out on Scoobitoo and had talked with him about doing snorkel trip with Sebastian. The weather and sea on 7th , still and again, were not the greatest, but Sebastian, after having asked if we were good swimmers, agreed to take us over to Creole Rock. It was great, although we were somewhat limited by conditions. Sebastian was a wonderful guide and I heartily recommend him to anyone for a nice trip to Creole Rock – especially if you have never had a real guide on a snorkel trip before. He showed us a lot of things that we never had really seen well before in all our years of snorkeling. He found various sea animals under rocks and in various spots and showed them to us. We snorkeled about one hour. After snorkeling, back in boat, we went over some charts he had on the boat and reviewed what we had seen. The wife actually is pretty knowledgeable about what is what and she really enjoyed discussing things with him and getting some things straight about what is what. I think he enjoyed the trip with us, as well. He charged $30 per person – it was just the two of us - and it was worth it; I tipped both Lawrence and Sebastian $5 each when we left. While at GCBC we also saw a woman who had been on Scoobitoo with us on 6th and we enjoyed talking with her, again. She was very happy with her room at GCBC. We talked about restaurants and things in Grand Case and how nice it was to be within walking distance of so many great places. In general, we thought that GCBC looked better this trip than it had in the last two years when we had been there. Overall, we were impressed with GCBC and will look into staying there. This trip we did not do the morning walks on Orient as much as before and as much as I in particular have enjoyed the morning walks, the closeness to Orient beach is just not as important to me anymore.

After the snorkel trip with Sebastian, we drove down to Friar’s Bay Beach Resort – what a road that is getting in – but hey, they do have a nice parking lot. Paid $10 for two nice padded chairs and umbrella - which we could have had free if we had eaten lunch there. Snorkeled right side all the way over to Happy Bay. After I was happy for awhile, we swam back. Maybe seven people were on the beach – two of whom had been on Scoobitoo with us day before – we also saw a family of five on Friar’s that had been on Scoobitoo with us – and one more person later – in all, on the next day after the day sail, we saw 9 of the 15 other people that had been on Scoobitoo with us – amazingly small world! There was one guy in bushes at Happy Bay who was apparently working on his happiness – his presence hindered everyone else’s enjoyment of beach, unfortunately. Snorkeling was not great – visibility not too good – but what we saw appeared similar to what we saw at Divi Little Bay – in both cases you primarily are seeing rocks along shoreline.
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After Friar’s/Happy we went to Grand Case and walked around some and ate at Talk of the Town, at which we never had eaten before. I had some great ribs and the wife had very good deviled crab. A good meal for a total of $26, including tip.

Friday, Dec 8, we swam over to Green Cay and had some decent visibility for snorkeling. This day, the banana boat cruise people were coming over to do the power snorkeling, but they stayed on sand spit (when done snorkeling) and we were at our cave on other side of rocks from spit when not in water. Had a good day on Green Cay. When swimming back, right before reaching beach, we both saw a big fish just off beach – had to be at least four feet. It was silvery but we did not think it was a barracuda – not sure what it was. It certainly startled us when we first saw it. We have never seen such a big fish just off beach there, before. The wife was pleased with herself for making the swim back in 15 minutes – I carried the bag over and back all the time this year and was not able to compete with her for time, she won the time trials this year.

Saturday, Dec 9, we drove to Bay of Prunes very early. We swam out on right side to Plum Point and beyond. We could tell that it was a good reef but visibility was not too good and we were pretty limited in what we could see. We definitely want to get back there on trip when conditions are better. After some snorkeling, we walked to left all the way around point to Long Bay – the point is continuous beach and it is a very easy walk around to Long. We peeked onto the grounds of many of the very fancy villas and got to smell the treatment plan at the point – you definitely know it is there before you see it.

After that, we drove to Bay Rouge for lunch at Raymond’s – great ribs! While we were eating lunch, a woman who was down to left on beach came up to Raymond’s and complained about a guy on ridge above beach who was showing a little too much interest in himself. The guy at Raymond’s (the guy who serves you other than the young French guy) immediately yelled for “Wendell” (I think that was what he said but I am not sure I caught name right) and a big guy who had been up in parking lot came right down and when he heard of problem he told the lady to walk down beach with him and to point the guy out – he asked her if she had a camera with her to take a picture of the guy. He, the lady, and the young French guy who works at Raymond’s walked down the beach, but they could not find the guy – it took at least five minutes for them to get back down to where she had seen him. “Wendell” hung out down the beach for a while and seemed very enthusiastic about going after the guy - I kind of wonder what he might have done if he had found the guy. The guy who was misbehaving presumably took off when he saw what was coming his way. Clearly, the regular guys who work at Bay Rouge do not want any jerks giving people at “their” beach a bad time and they seemed very eager to try to take care of any such problems in short order and to let people know to tell them about any such people making anyone uncomfortable.

On this day, the snorkeling on right side of Bay Rouge, before Devil’s Hole was best we ever have seen it. We actually were able to see the reef off the “private beach” for the first time. We were amazed at the things we were able to see that we had not even known were there. We swam through Devil’s Hole but the area beyond was still stirred up and we could not see much at next point. We hope to be able to go there when conditions are better and check out Paul’s advice re snorkeling there.

Sunday, Dec 10, we drove very early to Dawn Beach. It was very windy and rough; disappointing. At the main area at the buoy line in front of Ms. B’s you could see some things but it was breaking over us. We swam over to the Westin (my idea) and it was a tough swim with a current against us and waves breaking over us. It was interesting to see how far along they were – hard to believe that they were going to be having guests by the end of the week – we heard two stories about when they were opening – Wednesday the 13th and Friday the 15th. Either way, they really had a lot to do in a very short time! Actually, I have to admit that the finished project probably will look pretty good – I always will miss the old Dawn Beach Hotel because of memories of going there with our girls on ports of call when they were little – but hey, things change. On our plane coming to SXM we saw a lot of somewhat rough looking guys who were clearly traveling without female companions – they did not look like golfing or fishing buddies - I wondered if a coup was coming to the island. Found out that they were construction workers flying in to lend a hand at the Westin. We also sat next to a construction guy flying out of SXM. Apparently, as long as they do not stay longer than 30 days, these guys are coming in on “vacation” and while on “vacation” they just happen to pitch in and help out, working at least 10 hour days, seven days a week. Not sure if the government is just ignoring this or if it is legal or what. After the swim over to Westin and back, we ate breakfast at Mr. Busby’s – breakfast number 3 was great. We love sitting at Mr. Busby’s looking out at water.

After Dawn, we went back to Modigliani for shower and change, and then headed to P’burg. Stopped at Paradise View on way and enjoyed the view for awhile. Road to P’burg was pretty empty – first time we have seen that. Parked in free, relatively new lot next to salt pond and walked the few blocks down to Front Street. Went (of course) to DK Gems. Wife started with one of the guys but she was not making much progress. Then, Deepti came over and things started happening; my wife really likes to deal with Deepti, no offense to the guys but Deepti really knows how to talk with her about jewelry. The wife, having gone in to look for a watch, got a ring, a bracelet, and a new wedding band which sparkles pretty good – no watch. I got to drink two beers and sign the credit card slip. After DK Gems, we did a little more shopping on Front Street – got some linens among other general souvenir stuff - and then headed over to the Greenhouse for lunch. – which was good. We were somewhat entertained while at Greenhouse by a group waiting to board either the Legacy or Polynesia (the Windjammer ships) – some of whom clearly intended to board their ship quite drunk. After a good lunch, topped off with a hot fudge sundae, we walked through boatyard to see if the Animal Welfare shack was open – but it was not. Later in evening we went over to DVD store in Orient Village to use internet there – 5 Euro for one-half hour access. (I brought both dollars and Euros this trip and used Euros on French side when it was not 1 for 1 – I only did this because I still had several hundred euros left over from trip to Amsterdam earlier this year.)

Monday, December 11, we went back to Divi Little Bay and enjoyed the snorkeling, which was much better than it had been on first time there. We had a nice lunch at the Gingerbread Café at Belair.

Tuesday, December 12, was our last day – I have to fight off depression on last day in particular. Early in morning, we swam over to Green Cay and enjoyed decent snorkeling – it still was not all that great visibility but the best it had been this trip. Went back to unit to shower, change, and pack up and then got over to Cap Caraibes office about 11:15 to hand in keys. We drove to airport, stopping on way to turn in phone at Royal Palm. Traffic was usual mess into Simpson Bay. We checked in at airport, which was very easy because we were the only people at USAir counter at that time. After that, we drove to Raymond’s at Bay Rouge for one more lunch there. Ribs, again, of course. As I was walking back to car, while the wife was checking out the rest room facilities, a little yellow car, driven by an attractive young woman, pulled up and she said something like “good to see you again.” I said hello, but kept walking. I walked around back of the yellow car to get to ours. The woman then drove around the place the guys sit in the middle of the lot and stopped in back of our car. A short British (I think) fellow jumped out of passenger side front seat and started talking to me like he knew me. I was putting stuff into car (we had taken our carry-on stuff to table at Raymond’s not wanting to leave it in car). About this time, I realized that they were offering the scratch-off cards and were some kind of sales folks. Told them “no thanks” – about same time, wife walked up and was not happy to see them stopped behind our car, trying to give us a scratch-off card, and made her feelings plain. (In such situations, as she puts it, the New Yorker in her can come out pretty fast even after living in South for more about 30 years.) They quickly gave up and left. We then drove from Bay Rouge to SSBB and paid $6 for two Cokes as we watched some planes take off and land – the show was worth the $6. When an AA jet took off, it knocked down two young men who were holding onto an air mattress/raft thing and something else. The raft was blown back into the water several hundred yards. Not sure why people enjoy that. Saw the Air France 747 come in and that was something to see live and up close. After that, we drove over to airport, left car in lot as instructed, and headed on into airport.

SXM is as good as ever – we love the island and had a wonderful time. Yes, traffic from airport toward Simpson Bay is particularly horrible when you are arriving at 4:00 p.m. or so and traffic in that area generally is a real pain, but it is not that big a price to pay for a wonderful island. There is still so much that we want to do and experience on island and have not yet done – we will need to go MANY more times….

As usual, this back to reality thing really and truly annoys me.