Day 3 (Sunday 7/1)
After a good night's rest we got up and went to breakfast at the Sunset Café. Continental breakfast is included with the room, which consists of a basket of breads (2 pieces each of french bread, croissant, and chocolate mini croissant), a glass of orange juice and coffee. A couple of times we just stuck to the continental breakfast, but usually we ordered 2 eggs ($4) or smoked fish ($6.50) to go with it. It's a wonderful setting to start the day. The fist couple days on the island were very hot and humid but as the week wore on, it became much more comfortable, with a nice cool breeze.
With our first stress-free day of vacation ahead of us, we decided to head over to Maho beach to watch the planes land, have lunch at the SSBB, and maybe head go to Baie Rouge for some snorkeling. When we got there we actually set up closer to the Driftwood Bar, and watched the planes land/take off. It was a very interesting experience. Definitely not your average day at the beach. As for the beach itself, there pretty much wasn't any. Just a high walkway of sand, and a drop-off to the water. Didn't really matter though… it was an interesting experience. We decided to have lunch at the Driftwood, as this little boat turned bar looked pretty neat. The truck next to the bar which serves the food didn't have any ribs at that time, so I had a grilled chicken sandwich and my wife had a grilled chicken salad. It was all pretty good.
On the way back to the car, we decided to have a look at the timeshare at the Caravanserai. I've been contemplating the idea of a timeshare for a while, and decided to take a look, with no real expectations. The place was obviously in shambles, with all the construction going on. However, the presentation by Brian with RCI was very good, and I really liked the RCI concept of "points", which you can apply to any size room or length of stay at any RCI affiliated property, as opposed to just buying a week or so at a resort. The area and resort itself (looking at plans anyway) looked very impressive, but we really liked the flexibility to be able to travel just about anywhere, so we decided to go for it. I know a lot of TTOLers are opposed to timeshares, but I just felt that we were buying "points" from RCI, and may or may not even stay at the Caravanserai. We'll see how it works out in the future.
Since the presentation took a while, we decided to save Baie Rouge for another day and meet Brian and his wife Jen at the Driftwood for a relaxing swim and a drink at the bar. After a little bit, we returned to the GCBC and decided to relax that evening. My wife was a little tired (being pregnant her energy comes and goes) so we decided to stay local and check out one of the lolos. Based on TTOL reviews, we chose Skies the Limit, and were not disappointed! I really wanted lobster, but the smallest size they had was $30. I decided to go for it anyway and man was it worth it! My wife had the ribs, and they were excellent also. Very meaty and slightly crisp. We also had beans and rice, mac and cheese, a bottle of water, a beer and a glass of wine. The total was $44, E 1 for $1, and that's with a $30 lobster! The beer and the wine were $1 a piece. Can't argue with that! We came back and relaxed at the GCBC for the evening.
Day 4 (Mon 7/2)
We awoke early again and went to the Sunset Café for breakfast. It's funny but this is the first vacation in my life where I actually got up every morning in time for breakfast! Usually, I'm a late night partier and sleep until about 11, but like I said with this was going to be a different type of vacation, and I actually enjoyed the early to bed, early to rise routine. I guess I'm getting old! Ha ha.
Anyway, this was the day we decided to venture over to Pinel. We took the first ferry at 10:00 am had time to watch them load the supply boats for Karibuni. All I can say is that Pinel is amazing! We met a very nice retired couple (his name was also Len, but unfortunately I can't recall her name) from Toronto on the ferry and Len agreed to let me tag along with him as he went snorkeling. It was a good plan. I was a novice snorkeler and I would keep him company so his wife didn't have to go. Nice arrangement!
We snorkeled the east point of the island, and you could tell when you got to the Atlantic side. The water was cooler and more rough (although relatively speaking it was calm… just nothing like the "pool" over by beach chairs.) There were lots of fish to see that day. Len had a bag of frozen peas and when he released them the fish absolutely swarmed. He made a LOT of little friends! We returned and relaxed on the beach. My wife and I then hiked over to the north end of the island and, with the exception of one very incognito couple who sailed over and set up in a cozy corner by the rocks, had the beach to ourselves. After we returned we had lunch at Karibuni. We had the large ribs tapas and the small cod fritters tapas. I must say the ribs were excellent here also. I can get used to this island life very quickly! After complimentary shots of MaDouDou banana-vanilla, (I got to drink both - a plus when you're traveling with a pregnant wife!) we returned to our beach chairs and enjoyed some more of the beautiful beach.
We planned to catch the 3:00 ferry so at 2:30 I figured I'd snorkel off the main beach for a bit before leaving. There is a coral right off the beach so I just floated above in the calm water and viewed the lovely tropical sea world beneath me. I spotted a barren patch of sand and figured it'd be a good spot to stop and clean my mask (I wasn't wearing flippers). While standing there, I noticed my wife waving me in so I assumed the ferry was getting ready to leave. I cleaned my mask, put it on and forgetting where I was, pushed off to head back in when I felt my foot hit something which could be nothing other than coral. I checked my foot and found a blood coming out of a jagged wound. Not deep enough to require stitches, but enough to continually bleed and of course run the risk of infection.
When I got to the beach, we quickly assembled our things and made it on the ferry. Some kind people gave me some bandages and disinfectant wipes, and I was able to put enough pressure on it to stop the bleeding enough to put a bandage on it by the time the ferry landed back at the dock. As I limped onto the dock, another friendly gentleman noticed and asked me what happened. Turns out he was a doctor and wrote me a prescription for a triple antibiotic ointment, which I quickly filled at the pharmacy on the road there for a whopping $1.90. Wonder what that would have cost in the states without a prescription plan! Anyway, other than having to change the bandage twice a day, the cut throbbed a bit, but never got infected and didn't hamper the vacation.
On the way back we stopped at the MaDouDou factory, only to find no one there, even though the sign posted said it should be open. We would return another day, staying so close by. All in all it was a very fun day. My wife absolutely adored Pinel. She would have been happy spending every day of the vacation there.
For happy hour we went to the manager's welcoming party on the landing above the Sunset Café. This was a very nice touch. Drinks and delicious hors d'eurves where served in a beautiful setting. A nice cool breeze was blowing as the heat and haziness was beginning to depart the island. We met another very nice couple when I overheard someone saying he was from Philadelphia. Barry and Valentine were also honeymooning at GCBC and we had a very nice conversation. The party was cut a bit short for us, however, as we had to leave to make our dinner reservation at Tabba Khady. We planned to get together and do something with them at another time.
Tabba Khady is just as magnificent everyone here describes it. We were seated by Bill and enjoyed the wonderful ambiance, including the swimming pool in the center of the restaurant. For starters we ordered a bottle of semillon/chardonnay (E 26) and the escargots with a pastry on top. The escargots were fantastic. For her main course my wife ordered salmon with a russian sauce, and I ordered the scallops and shrimp with the catch of the day (tilapia and grouper) in a tomato/cream broth with vegetables. The flavor of the broth was absolutely wonderful, as was the entire entrée. The salmon was also very good, as the russian sauce, which I'd never heard of, was light and creamy.
A funny story as we were having dinner: I never wear sandals back home but I bought a pair of dress sandals for our vacation. My wife claims that I have "bad feet" and insisted I buy the closed toe kind. Anyway, I was wearing these sandals that evening and as I was enjoying my entrée, I felt a sharp, intense pain in my foot, right about where the wound from the coral was located. I immediately thought it had something to do with the wound until I felt some movement in my sandal. I took the sandal off to find small, maybe 3/8 inch bug! I didn't get a good look at the bug, but man it hurt like hell! It got me right between my middle toes. Bill came over and asked what had happened. When I described the incident he said it was a small water bug, and it was it's barbed leg which caused my troubles. Yeeooww! The darn thing throbbed all evening, even as I lay in bed that night. Thankfully it was gone in the morning. I knew there was a reason I never liked sandals! They are now retired from my wardrobe after one appearance.
After (but not because of!) the foot fiasco we decided to share a dessert. The chocolate cake with chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and mandarin was absolute heaven! All of this, with a bottle of water and a double espresso came to E 106, $128. One thing I would like to note is that the double espresso cost 6 Euro. Now, everything was excellent and well worth every penny, but I have to mention when I pay almost 8 American dollars for a small cup of nothing but coffee! I wonder if it was a mistake. Of course, in the big picture of the entire meal, it was very small and I didn't even mention it to Bill. The service was extremely friendly and welcoming. I would definitely recommend the restaurant.
We headed home and had a drink and listened to a little music in the room before turning in for the evening. Tomorrow's loosely based plan was to get up early, (my new vacation mantra) hit Phillipsburg early, and end the day at a yet to be selected beach.
