Left Wednesday, 5/23 and returned Sunday, 6/3 from our annual spiritual rejuvenation trip to SXM. It sucks to come home to rain and 60 degrees after spending 10 days on the beach, where the sun’s shinin’, the liquor’s flowin’, and friends are all around. <br><br>We arrived Wednesday around 6:30pm on American Eagle after an uneventful flight from Kansas City. To our dismay, our luggage didn’t. Oh, well. The AA rep. said it might come in on the 7:30 AE flight, so we had time to pick up the rental car from Harry at Best Deal and a six pack of Wendell’s favorite libation. Unfortunately, the libation opener was in the aforementioned missing luggage. Not to be denied, we bought a beer at the airport lounge and waited patiently for the luggage, which did indeed arrive on the 7:30 flight. Woo-hoo!! Off to Club O!! <br><br><br>We booked three nights at Club Orient through Jim and Mary Ruos at Caribbean Islands Travel Service (TTOL Sponsor) before moving on Saturday to our timeshare at the Atrium. Jim and Mary managed to get us in the very end unit (#40) recommended by Carol and Eric. What a great spot! Many people who have stayed at Club O have their favorite units, and this is now ours, too. Quiet, easy parking, 10 steps to the beach, 30 to Papaguyo’s, and all the room we need. Arrived around 8:30 and met several friends who were just finishing dinner in Papaguyo’s for after dinner drinks and welcomes. [img]/images/icons/kiss.gif[/img] The great part about going during the same time period each year is meeting up with all the folks from previous trips. In our group, there are 15-20 couples that try to coordinate dates and schedules to overlap for at least a few days each year. We’re closer to these people than we are to the neighbors we’ve lived next door to for 13 years! <br><br>Rather than drone on with daily tales of OB sand gravity and Carib consumption, [img]/images/icons/hangover.gif[/img][img]/images/icons/yikes.gif[/img][img]/images/icons/hairy.gif[/img] I’ll try to hit some of the highlights. <br><br>Capt. Steve and First Mate Barb of the sailboat Realite brought a new game back from Trinidad and Tobago this year: beach bocce ball. After several grueling rounds in the double elimination tournament, Tom and Betsy won the championship in a hard fought battle with Richard and Maria.<br><br>My snorkeling buddy Gary and I did some exploring on the basis of board recommendations. We first went to our old standby, the west side of Green Key. A decent site, but it helps if you’re willing to dive below the surface to see some the coral, fish and lobster. We also went to Creole Rock and were pretty happy with that trip as well. We took the jet ski over from the water sports shack at Grand Case Beach Club for $10 per. They dropped us off near the middle of the rock, and we swam all the way around. On the right side of the Rock (as you’re facing it from GC Beach) is a lot of very pretty soft coral – as much as we’ve seen anywhere in SXM. The left side and around the back is deeper with a few more fish. The water gets a little rough as you come around the north point, so be prepared for that. Again, diving down gives better views, as the water was a little stirred up when we were there. They have a “pet” barracuda near the beach on the side away from the restaurant, so be sure to ask about him. We also did the “park at the dump and hike over the hill” trip mentioned by Mike M. [img]/images/icons/yikes.gif[/img] This one is not for the faint of heart. The hike was at least 25 minutes, over some rough terrain and about 800 yards of platter-sized pieces of washed up coral. The best place we found to get in the water was a small beach just before a large rock formation. There were 3 surfers there the day we went, but we were past them down the shore and didn’t get in their way. At some point in the past, based on the amount of coral on the beach, this was a huge coral field. It has been devastated by hurricanes, but there are still some very interesting formations, valleys, alleys and coral heads. There is also a 4 foot black speckled moray eel residing near a lobster trap full of fish that scared the living bejesus out of Gary as he dove down to look at the trap. I wasn’t aware a man could swim backwards so fast! [img]/images/icons/rofl.gif[/img][img]/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img][img]/images/icons/rofl.gif[/img]<br><br>The Mrs. and I took off a couple of days from Orient to bum around a little. Went to Friars Beach and Cupecoy one day, and Sunset Beach Bar 2 or 3 times. Neil Rooney is the Grand Master of Hospitality on the Dutch side of the island, and serves up the best hamburgers we had this trip. Kudos to Neil and his staff, especially the chef. <br><br>We ate lunch at Friars Bay Beach Cafe the day we were there. Our recommendation: don’t. [img]/images/icons/thumbsdown.gif[/img] Probably the worst meal we had on the island this time. It didn’t help that an occasional whiff of the salt pond would waft through the café while we were eating either. I snorkeled off to the right, around the point to Happy Bay. If you like sand covered rocks and want to see the mother of all breeding grounds for spiny sea urchins, this is the snorkel trip for you. You will not be disappointed. [img]/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img] Happy Bay was absolutely gorgeous. [img]/images/icons/love.gif[/img] It looked like something straight out of the Tourism Dept. propaganda office. Wish we could (or would) have spent some time there. <br><br>We had several nights out with the “Group”, dining at Le Pinel, Dingy Dock, Lees, Portofino's, and had a specially arranged party for 25 – 30 couples one night at Andy and Sheryl’s Baywatch. They opened back up for our group around 6:30 and went until about midnight with food, drinks, music and merriment. I’d be surprised if Baywatch ever had so many nekked people in it at one time before! [img]/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img][img]/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Food at all the places we went with the group was very good. Since we average 8 to 12 couples when we go out, we can sometimes overwhelm the unsuspecting, so we try to call ahead and give them warning. This year, every place we went did a great job, overall. [img]/images/icons/thumbsup.gif[/img] <br><br>I had the good fortune to meet TTOLers DaveS and Terry (again), Robin and Bobbe, and Steve and Barb this trip. It’s nice to be able to put faces with names, and these are great [img]/images/icons/cool.gif[/img] folks.<br><br>Two couples in our group experienced an “incident” [img]/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] at about 10:30 pm driving back to Club O through Orleans Quarter after dinner at Lee’s Friday night. PM me if you want the details, but in this case, all’s well that ends well. <br><br>We left on Sunday, 6/3, booked through SJU and Dallas. When we got to San Juan, the next leg to Dallas was oversold. Bottom line is that we waited 3 hours for the next connection, flew first class from SJU to Chicago, and AA will pay for 90% of our next flight to SXM. Life is good. [img]/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]<br><br>A few random thoughts: <br>-the island is cleaner and greener than past years, on both sides;<br>-I was dismayed to see such a scarcity of conch in Orient Bay. It appears to have been fished out, as I saw only 3 or 4 live conch in several trips out through different areas;<br>-even though others had stated so in their trip reports, I was not prepared for how narrow Orient Beach was from Pedro’s through Kon-Tiki. There was only about 15’ of sand between the entrance to Kon-Tiki and the water line;<br>-the beach on Green Cay moved! It’s no longer a thumb out into the bay, now it hugs the shoreline on the west side of the island, and it’s a beautiful little beach!<br>-Police and security presence was increased and visible everywhere on the island. This was a welcome and reassuring sight. Both governments and private sector business seem to be taking the crime issue seriously;<br>-saw virtually no stray dogs and only a very few stray cats. Most of the strays we saw appeared to be Solange’s stray goats that ate up the landscaped roundabouts.<br><br>It sucks to come home to rain and 60 degrees after spending 10 days on the beach, where the sun’s shinin’, the liquor’s flowin’, and friends are all around, but laying on the beach don’t make the house payment. Less than a year and counting.<br><br><br>[color:448800]dave</font color=448800><br>If we weren't all crazy, we would go insane.<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 6/5/01 02:09 PM.</EM></FONT></P>