Just returned on Tuesday night after 3 weeks in paradise - so sorry we missed all the snow <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Laugh.gif" alt="" />.
The weather was a little strange this year - lots of rain during the day and at night. In fact, we had 2 consecutive days of total clouds and cool air. We saw Cupecoy beach come and go twice so we spent most of our days at Orient. The beach is narrower than last year but still totally enjoyable. It got crowded early and if you weren't there by 10 - 10:30 all the chairs were taken. The Lemon Drop Gang has increased significantly to the point of breaking open a second bottle of Absolute Citron to make their 4:00 toast - lots of new faces <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />. Sorry we missed Contessa and her entourage but we'll catch you next year. Saw Clem and Paulette who displayed their TTOL flag - great folks and they took up the slack for Contessa.
Just as everyone has said, the traffic sucked big time. One day it took almost an hour to drive back from Orient to Terres Basses - I don't think I went over 30 km the whole way home. Lots of construction going on so there are dump trucks carting rocks and dirt all over the place - very slowly <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />. Two new condo complexes are going up near Cupecoy - the Cliffs and the Rainbow - both of which are almost totally sold out - lots of people out there with $$$$$$. La Samanna is also building right above the north end of Cupecoy beach. They're putting in over 600 units which will be a combination of hotel rooms, condos and houses. Being a real fan of Cupecoy beach I hope that they don't restrict access as they have done on Baie Long.
The road from Terres Basses down the hill to the Dutch side has been repaved and they did it right this time - very smooth and not just patched up. However, the road going toward the Butterfly Farm and Club Orient is a real disaster. The "paved" part is a crap shoot - which side of the road to take since both are bad. One day we saw a car in the ditch - guess he was trying to avoid the huge holes. The dirt road to Club O needs serious grading. We found that it was better to go fast since the car flew from one high spot to another and avoided the bottomless holes <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Rofl.gif" alt="" />.
The DWI thing is for real. We were told that it was between Grand Case and Marigot and usually from 12:00 am to 3:00 am. However, we did see them pulling people over into the parking lot at the Marina in Marigot at 10:00 pm. Be sure you have a designated driver on board <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/Cheers.gif" alt="" />.
We really did have a good time in spite of all the changes going on. We ended up buying time share at the Sapphire on a resale from friends so we will go into our 13th year there.
Susie
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