Chapter 5
Wed July 20th
Chapter 5
I woke up around 3am this morning as an early shower knocked heavy upon the roof at Mary’s Boon, hard and steady for about 20 minutes. We would travel to the French side of the island today and I wanted to get my rest. Interesting how the same sound of rain that awakens you can also put you back to sleep. Next thing I knew it was 7am. I decided to walk the beach again. The sun was growing bright and the clouds broke the beautifully blue sky with shades of cream, pink and yellow. Walking down to the farthest end of the beach I watched a couple smaller planes rise into the sky to the right. Breakfast this morning would consist of yogurt, cheese and French bread. We were looking forward to packing our suitcases and leaving early for the Orient Beach area and L’ Hoste hotel.
Normally a drive to Orient might take about half an hour, though I’ve never really been that concerned or even able to time it. My focus while driving in St. Martin is usually upon motorbikes, goats, bicyclers and weaving automobiles…not my watch. We were excited to head over to the French side, which we prefer over the Dutch, but we were not ready for the traffic delay that awaited us. Half way between the Simpson Bay area and Marigot it began to rain briefly, which probably contributed somewhat to the traffic jam we were sitting in. It took an hour to get to Marigot, much longer than the usual 10-15 minutes. As we sat there in our car watching the rain run down the bumper of the car ahead of us we thought “poor us”. It was never clear what caused the traffic jam but once we were through and past Marigot good time was made driving north to Grand Case and then east and south east toward Orient Beach. This would be the only occasion of heavy traffic during our entire trip.
We turned left into the Orient Beach resort area, past the guardhouse and weaved toward our hotel where we’d stay for the remaining 14 days. The drive through the resort area is lush with tropical trees and vegetation. Villas and homes line the road and dominate the landscape but are soon replaced with resorts as you draw closer to Orient Beach. Just short of Orient Village is a turnabout which we drove almost entirely around but then turned right, onto the drive leading to the L’ Hoste parking lot; we found it to be not even half full. Grabbing our carry on luggage and handbags we looked for the check-in desk. It was only a short walk from the parking lot and was surrounded by luxuriant greenery, palm trees and tropical plants. A nice size pool was to our right as well as an open dining area where we shared many continental breakfasts during our stay.
Check-in was effortless and we were particularly thankful that our room was ready even though we arrived much earlier than the usual check-in time. We small-talked with the young woman working the desk about beach towels, establishments that we could charge to our room, time table for our continental breakfast and then walked to our bamboo suite, which was modest and comfortable. Last year we stayed at Green Cay Villas, which is a world apart from L’Hoste, so we tried not to make too many comparisons. This year we opted for a less expensive but longer vacation, and we were glad we did. The theme of the room is indeed bamboo with a four-poster king size bed framed in bamboo which would prove a challenge at times. In order to enter or exit our bed we had to negotiate the bamboo framing the mattress. Late night trips to the bathroom were often accompanied by a bumped shin or knee and obligatory mild expletive.
By this time we were hungry, so we walked down the stairs from our second floor suite and to the left found the partially paved but mostly sandy walkways leading to La Playa and Bikini Beach Bar. If L’Hoste is anything, it gives you the feeling that you are definitely staying in a tropical paradise. As you walk closer to the restaurants and the beach, along the pathways there are places where I had to duck a bit to avoid green leafy branches. Lizards will scurry across in front of you and then hide away under the brush. The hotel grounds also has its share of cats that lazily wander around during the day.
We choose to eat at Bikini Beach Bar today and enjoyed some very excellent salads. Mine was one of the best Chicken Caesars I ever had, though glancing out toward Orient Beach, sun worshippers, swimmers and waves crashing in from the sea might have had something to do with that. While eating we met a really nice couple, Jeff and Linda, who sat nearby and talked with us during the remainder of our meal. Little did we know at the time that the four of us would share a couple enjoyable dining experiences together later in our vacation and times just laying on the beach.
After lunch we debated whether to put in some beach time or fill our bare cupboards with staples for the week. The latter won out and off we were to Marigot and Match. Match is a supermarket reminding one of any you might find in the states. A major difference being that you have to pay a small fee in order to get a shopping cart. We were not going to buy many things today so we availed ourselves of a couple free hand baskets. French bread, cheeses, salami, chocolate, bottles of water, French chocolate cookies, a six pack of Carib, apples and paper towels filled our baskets; a modest shopping spree designed to provide a snack at night or lunch during the day. It would last us well into our stay and amazingly, we never did drink the Caribs…at least the ones we purchased at Match. Another goal we had while shopping was to purchase two noodles for the ocean. We had used these last year on an excursion and thought how much fun we’d have floating together in the warm but refreshing waters off Orient Beach. There is a shop near Match that sells among other things toys and beach items. Noodles were 5 Euro each, exorbitant we thought when you can buy them in the states for $1….poor us. We rationalize that they would be well worth the expense for the use we planned to put them to, and they were.
We arrived back at L’Hoste, put away our groceries and immediately changed into our bathing suits, grabbed our noodles (doesn’t quite sound right does it), beach bag and trekked down to Orient Beach; but not before swathing each other with suntan lotion. This would be a ritual we practiced daily only differing each day in regard to the intensity of SPF we applied. At the beginning of the week it was 30, by the end we were using mostly 8 and some 15…depending on which parts of the body were in need and not quite tanned enough.
We so looked forward to being back on Orient again. “It has been a year”, I said, “Lets enjoy every minute we’re here.” Orient Beach is nothing like the beach at Mary’s Boon. It is dotted with hundreds of blue, green, white, red and of course yellow beach umbrellas placed so perfectly along the course of the sand, which stretches for a mile and a half. Up and down there are any number of restaurants where you can enjoy an amazing variety of cuisine ranging from Creole, French and of course your main stay burgers and fries. Water sports are easily available for a fee and though we did not participate we enjoyed watching those who rode the parasail, jet skis and banana boat. It seemed a bit more windy than last year but not overly so and I am always surprised that the sand does not burn your feet even though the hot, bright sun beats down upon it for most of the day.
After an afternoon of beach time and noodle floating, we took a brief nap and then walked over to Tap Five for pizza and Merlot. Sitting outside in front of the restaurant in the mild breeze that was blowing was preferable to being inside, which looked to us warm and stuffy. Our margarita pizza was very good and the wine worthy of two glasses each. The tables, which were few, filled while we ate and as the breeze intensified the waiter had to let down an awning so the rain that began to fall would not dampen the dining of several patrons nearby. As on a previous night, this storm would be short lived but accompanied by lightning and thunder. I do love the rain and especially while dining; something that I would get my fill of during a dining experience later into our time at French St. Martin.
To be continued…..
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