Feb 12 - 21st Trip Report<br>MONDAY <br>Non stop flight #667 8:00 AM JFK to SXM only 1/2 full so had plenty of room to spread out. Uneventful flight arrived a few minutes early. No problems at immigration and claimed luggage rather quickly, through airport in about 10 minutes. Outside Myra from AAA car rental was there as everyone told me with our name on a card. We got into her car and she drove us to their lot to do 3 minutes of paperwork and pick up our rental. Myra appologized because when we reserved with Alain he said we were going to get a new car but it was going to be returned late. The car they gave us was just fine. Asked Myra about the weather and she said the last few days have not been so good. It was a bit cloudy and rather windy but no rain. <br>Arrived at Esmeralda about 20 minutes later checked in and Chris had us in the room in about 5 minutes. We decided to unpack later so we put on some beach coverups and were on the beach by about 2:00 PM WOW!!<br>Joseph had a day off that day and Laurent was no longer working there. Our beach guy was Pablo an Engineering student from Columbia he was the nephew of one of the massage ladies, and he was there since January on a break to pick up a few bucks before returning to school the following week.<br>Spent the afternoon at Coco beach it was OK a bit windy and water was quite rough. Enjoyed our fair share of tropical drinks and a few shots of Vanilla Rum and we were back by the room about 4:30 Had a dip in the pool and enjoyed the last hour of sun there nude of course. Had a room in the bldg directly behind the restaurant and Chris had explained that these 3 buildings had the most privacy which we had asked for. It was great, only problem the pool had no early morning sun and last year I enjoyed climbing out of bed and going for my skinny dip and sipping my morning coffee on the lounge before the wife would get up.<br>Went to Cheri's for dinner that night which was good but they have cut back a bit on their menu choices. Didn't see the entertainment since we were tired and ate very early. Went back to the hotel and had a few drinks by the pool and called it a night.<br>TUESDAY<br>8:00 AM Breakfeast at the restaurant<br>9:00 AM decided to try to beat the boat people to the Butterfly Farm...WRONG...there was one huge bus there already. Not too many people inside so went in anyway. Very beautiful and interesting.<br>Back to Coco beach about noon for an afternoon of sunning swimming drinking and dozing. Saw Joseph today he says he remembered us but sometimes I think people that say that are just polite.<br>4:00 PM back to the room for a dip in the pool and relax with a few drinks and watch sunset.<br>Had dinner at CoCo beach that night had the beef, chicken and ribs combo which was very good<br>Did not go out that night.<br>WEDNESDAY<br>Breakfeast as usual<br>Decided to drive over to the beach by the old LeGallion since I love the calm waters there. It has been a while since we were there last, so I forgot that if we would have gone way to the right I could have enjoyed the beach Au Natural. As it was we were only there about an hour before it began to rain so we left.<br>Back to Coco beach at about 11 AM for the usual <br>Did Cheri's for dinner <br>Spent about an hour at Pellican Casino won $355<br>Called it a night<br>By now I guess you all can see a pattern developing here so I will try not to bore you with trivial details. I will try to give highlights only.<br>Visited a new place called "The Old House" on the road above Orient, it is a museum of sorts. The owner sure knows how to tell a story. Worth the $5 admission<br>Visited Dolphin Casino another night for about an hour and won $900 WOW , after all the years making my contribution to the casinos there it was great to win both times.<br>Enjoyed the entertainment at Cheri's another night.<br>Had dinner at L'Astrolabe 2 nights which we enjoyed very much.<br>Had Lunch 2 days at Coco beach shared a pizza first time I ever saw Pizza referred to as a Margarita DAA!! I guess it is just me.<br>Spent a morning at Dawn Beach, it was very un-crowded was able to go nude along with a couple of other people.<br>Did the shopping thing in Philipsburgh one morning had to get the mandatory ‘T' shirts for the grandkids.<br>Met some very nice people on Coco beach, one couple we remember from last year, they go to SXM for like 3 months. Tried to convince them to register for the TTOL<br>Their names are Bob and Jeannie<br>I think it is great how the cluster of c/o people at Coco's like to converse with one another. One of the couples were staying in the room right next to ours.<br>As usual I thoroughly enjoyed the tolerence that everyone at Esmeralda has toward nudity. I have a question for others here....has anyone ever seen people transversing between the beach and room nude, I was going to try it as I think it would not bother anyone. Saw a great deal of nudity by all the pools. Much more than last year.<br>Weather in general was excellent. When it rained it was only briefly. It was more windy than usual but not a big deal.<br>Construction still going on next door at the other hotel.<br>Had dinner 1 night at LaPlantation very good but I was disappointed that they did not have the Filet Mignon with Fois Gras as I had last year. Anyone know where I can get a recipet??<br>Visisted the MaDouDou factory. Brought back 5 bottles (4 vanilla and 1ginger) Learned how to make it from the owner of "The Old House"<br>Roads and driving was not bad at all. Elimination of the traffic light at the bottom of Cole Bay Hill seemed to help. <br>On the way to the airport on the day we left we saw an Ostrich Farm of sorts (we saw 2 birds, there may be more) this was in Cole Bay. I almost drove off the road when I saw it and we were running late so I couldn't stop to take pictures.<br>Well I think I covered everything, sorry about the poor spelling and grammar. Now I will try to get this thing copied and pasted to TTOL<br>BOB<br><br><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Administrator on 3/4/01 04:23 PM.</EM></FONT></P>