Instead of running around to visit all the relatives for Christmas this year, we decided to visit SXM with Sue’s mother and father-in-law over the holidays. We ended up going down from Dec 15th to 23rd, as my work demanded my being back by Tuesday and we didn’t want to fly on Christmas Day, but it was still great to spend the holiday on the island.

We stayed at Club O (this was our 5th time) on the island, and we spent most of our time on the beach so I don’t have that much to report. Just a couple highlights:

- Airfares had dropped between the time we booked and left, so I called US Airways and, after a few phone bounces, was able to get vouchers for about $125 a person. They just arrived in the mail; if anyone has used these before and knows the best way for me to redeem them, your advice would be appreciated.

- Immigration and baggage claim at the new airport went quickly with no issues. The old airport is almost completely demolished.

- We rented the car from Mohammed, which was very flawless and affordable. It seemed a little odd filling out paperwork in a car in the airport parking lot rather than at an ‘office’, but the car met our needs and pickup and return were uneventful.

- We had the car by 5:30 pm on Friday, headed toward Simpson Bay, and moved about 50 feet in 20 minutes. We then did a U-turn, headed out via Maho and Mullet, and reached Marigot about 45 minutes later. In all it took about 1h 45m to get to Club O. Our return drive on Saturday was uneventful, fortunately.

- We did the Tiko Tiko tour (on the alternate boat) on Monday and it was quite nice. They have returned to doing the traditional all-day on Tintamarre, and just serve cold chicken or beef on the boat instead of warming it. The trip is also a little shorter, returning to Club O by 4:30 so that the owner can return the boat to Marigot before it gets dark. Still a wonderful day as always.

- I was pleasantly surprised by the restaurants now available in Orient Village. There’s now both a sushi / Asian place as well as a Sports Bar where we were able to watch the NFL games on Sunday. We ended up there many evenings.

- Staying at Club O went pretty well, although they now give you tags to attach to your beach chairs which seemed a little odd. (You could return them to the office and get new ones if you wanted to move during the week, but it still seemed a little rigid.) We also didn’t understand the billing at Papagayo’s / the Perch. We had to carry a paper sheet to Papagayo’s the first night that they wrote our food charges on during the week, and had to have them total it at the end and return it to the office. But the office ignored the sheet of paper and charged us the computer total anyway. Of course the numbers didn’t match -- I trusted the computer more so it wasn’t a big deal; but just didn’t understand the need for all the manual work.


That’s about it. Overall another wonderful trip; Looking forward to planning visit #6.

Jim and Sue