Trip Report 7/23-8/07

I started out detailing all the events that happened and when I went back and read it, it was repetitious and boring. So here is an edited trip report with highlights from the our 2 weeks.

Restaurants: Pineapple Pete’s, Excellent as always. Spigas, a bit pricey, and service was less than expected. Il Netunnos, Awesome, we ate there 3 times. Café LaPlantation, excellent Lobster night (Mondays) and the last night we were there. Lolos, nice cheap meal, the service? Well, you know….

We left Miami in the midst of Tropical storm Bonnie. Plenty of rain, 40 minute delay getting off the ground. We arrived in SXM 20 minutes late, to partly cloudy skies and 86 degrees, much better weather than when we left. Immigration was a breeze as was meeting our Unity rental car at the airport. A quick meet up with Craig from Packlight and we were on our way. We decided no stops this trip and drove direct to LaPlantation and checked in by 4:00 pm. They gave us room 901 this year which was the same as the rest of them but all the way down near the end. Very nice, very private, didn’t have anyone on either side of us until the last 2 days. We landed on the beach by 4:30. Not a record and too late for Happy Hour at the Perch, but we were here non the less. We spent some time on the beach, then stopped at Tap 5 for essentials. 6 pack Heineken, half and half, some kind of French fruit juice, 20 bucks we were out. Funny how that worked out to exact change!
Up early, as we had gone to bed around 8PM. We did a walk on Orient, then breakfast at LaPlantation. Off to US Market that was not far from us here. First thing was the carts were 50 cents!!!, so we opted for a couple of baskets. Heineken, some kind of Polish Vodka, peanut butter, Ritz crackers, cheese, bottled water, Baileys for coffee, peanuts, bug spray, we dropped about $100.00, about what I thought, Joann thought more expensive than Grande Marche. 5 cents for bags, we got 2!!
We then headed to Orient Beach.. About 3 pm a group of 6 people came down and sat near us. They were drinking and partying pretty hard. They went in the water and a while later started removing their suits. They frolicked in the water and after a while, the last hold out went in and removed her suit. They all had a great time enjoying their first skinny dip experience. I had some beads left over from last years trip and presented each of them with a set of beads. They were all pleased to receive their beads. We all remember our first experience, and they will surely all remember theirs.
On Monday we headed to Phillipsburg to meet some friends visiting on a cruise ship, that I haven’t seen for 5 years. On the way we stopped at Zee Best, in Simpson Bay. Breakfast there was excellent as always. We met our friends outside the Blue Bitch Bar as previously arranged, and rented chairs on the beach. The water was beautiful, warm and calm. The beach vendors were relentless, with steady stream selling, Rima goods, massages, and hand made hats. Finally we just ignored them when they were talking to us. We ate some takeout from The Blue Bitch, which was better than I expected for beach food.
Monday nights are Lobster Night at LaPlantation. We enjoyed our lobster and the service was excellent.
Tuesday we took the first boat to Pinel after our morning walk and breakfast at our hotel. The boat was full. When I say full….60 or so people on a boat the probably was designed to hold 40. $7.00 each and we were on our way. Everyone rushed off the boat and headed to the different colored beaches, we headed to the backside. We hiked to the beach there, and on our way, we ran into a family of squatters camped on the beach. We snorkeled down towards the other end and found some sea glass and shells. We stayed a couple of hours and then decided to head back to Orient Beach. We got there before happy hour and stayed until almost 6 pm
Friday was the most interesting day of our vacation so far. We arrived in Oyster Pond and met Paul and Carol, for the Peggy and Paul Cruise. Together with 5 other couple we left Oyster Pond around 9:30 for our nude cruise around the island. It was rough coming out of the inlet there, but smoothed out some as we headed west towards Phillipsburg. No cruise ship today so we just buzzed the harbor and Paul showed us some sites. We stopped and snorkeled past Baie Rouge and then on to Happy Bay for lunch. We swam to the beach, enjoyed some rum punch, while Paul and Carol prepared our lunch. We had sandwiches on French bread, pasta salad, fruit salad, and some ribs and chicken made on the beach there by the resident cook. After lunch Paul mixed up the wonderful mud bath and we all had fun rubbing mud on ourselves and our spouses. Carol told a story about where the mud came from and how good it is for your skin. It was the highlight of the trip, for me anyway. We then headed back out to the boat and continued around the island. We stopped in 1 more spot and snorkeled for a bit more.. The last section of the ride was very rough, the seas had some large swells, and the wind had picked up. We all got a pretty good soaking before we got back to Oyster Bay. Paul is a great captain, and knows how to handle that boat, and Carol is a wonderful tour guide and a pleasure to be on board with.
The following Wednesday evening we did a Pub Crawl with Neil on the Celine. SkipJacks for appetizers, Uncle Harry’s for steak kabobs and 3 palms for dessert. We had a nice time with some great friends.
We took a brief visit to Baie Rouge one morning, but other than that, we spent most of our time on Orient. We did a lot of beach time with some great friends we have met in years past and spent a lot of time catching up. We never felt threatened, or intimidated at any point on “The Friendly Island” The lot in Grande Case now has lights which made me feel better. Plenty of Police presence too.

I read 5 books, The First Rule, Caught, The Concrete Blonde, The Last Coyote, and The Mangrove Coast. Enjoyed them all