July 12th, 2006
Liver - Two gentlemen will be over shortly to remove it.
Woke up and for the third day in a row, hit Le Sucherie for pastries (get the idea they ROCK?). Somehow, after visiting them nearly every day, I have failed to visit the Fitness spa upstairs. See belly, large. Then it was off for Pinel island, off the French Cul-De-Sac side of the island. Note to anyone who cares. The boats run over to Pinel every ½ hour, and return on the hour. Each boat holds 12 people, or 40 if you are on St Martin, and there is no Coast Guard. Hopefully, the water depth keeps fatalities to a minimum, because we were frightfully overloaded. Now, anyone good at math problems should be able to figure out that if the boats go over fully loaded at ten AM, and every ½ hour, and BACK to St MArttin t 1,2,3 and 4 PM, there’s a math issue here. We noticed at 2 PM it was time to get on the boat. With two more boats there were about 100+ people left on Pinel Island.
Anyway, Pinel was supposed to be good snorkeling, but LEFT of the boat pier, all the way around to the restaurants, it was DEVOID of marine life. Lots of SEA grass, but no real fish to see. The big draw here is the fact that the beach starts about 2” deep, and stays less than knee deep for 100-200 yards offshore in some places. That was cool. Not sure fi the really good snorkeling is RIGHT of the boat pier, but saw a tacky tourist type boat go there with a whole group.
Rented 2 chairs and an umbrella. They were nice, even though we moved them to get away form some of the people nearby. They start you like 1 foot apart, and the topless girl next to me was to big a distraction. (I kept spilling my beer). Once we dragged the chairs down 50’ and reset the umbrella, We had that end of the beach to ourselves.
About 2 PM, having had almost 5 hours of Pinel, we decided to leave and see a couple of east-side beaches before we went home. We headed the warning that the 4 PM boat was the last (The driver indicated that “if you miss the 4 PM boat, don’t worry, I’ll bring the coffee the next morning at 10 AM!”).
Left Pinel Island and went down to Dawn’s Beach, after parking at, and hitting the marina grocery store across from Mr. Busby’s, and asking permission to leave our car there. We walked through Mr. Busby’s, and talked briefly to the Owner(?) who was informative, said the Westin should provide 800 jobs, most from local, and provide much more security, and safety in that people will not be hanging around not working. I hope for the island’s sake he’s right. But having 1000 guests within walking distance won’t hurt his business. He was funny too, as when we were talking, a hawker came by and asked if I wanted Remy’s hair braided. He jumped in front of us, and started ranting to her, that HE was BALD, and had not hair to braid, and started “crying” that she was picking on him. It was pretty funny, as he didn’t let up yelling louder and louder until she was about 50 feet away. I asked him if he wanted to join us for the rest of the day.
I liked Dawn’s beach, and added it as a must do for more time next time. The Westin is coming along, seems to be 2 floors framed. Mr’s B’s is there, but we had eaten earlier, and passed, but did buy a beer, and tell her to keep up the good fight against “the man” (Hi Dale, your expression used here!). the corporate people have been trying to chase her off the beach.
Had a good visit to dawn’s, and the kids enjoyed the surf, which was second only to Guyana beach in size. We left and Minda got the idea that she wanted to go back to Philipsburg, and shop for more jewelry. Since she works hard at home, taking care of the house, kids dog, etc. and is the Thriftiest person I have ever met, I pulled off my dry bag wallet, handed her all my cash, and my platinum card and said, spend whatever you want.. Understand, Minda is not normal. I hesitate to say this, because it’ll sound bad, but dang it, if I gave anyone else say $600 in cash, and a Platinum card with a $100K limit, they’d do the right thing (You know, call me from Monaco 6 weeks later and ask for another card).
Minda spent the next hour or so in Philipsburg, alone, while I took the kids to the beach. I kept a $20 bill for beer and gave her the rest. In retrospect, I wasn’t really taking a chance, was I?
Went on to Guyana beach with the Kids. Met a really nice French lady and her three kids, who said I must live there, as I was out of the tourist path. She showed me where the kids could and couldn’t enter, and we talked for a while. As I was leaving, I met Cleveland, the owner of the Bar that sometimes opens on Guyana Beach (Mr B’s Jazz Club?). he said he just sold his business, and he hated the Cruise ships, who charged passengers $80 for a daily excursion, then paid him $12.50 a head to provide a drink, lunch, and chairs for the day. Then he indicated he waits 6 weeks for his money from the cruise ships. Ouch.
He seemed happy to have sold, and I thanked him for his parking lot, as it got me much closer. Went back to Philipsburg, picked up Minda nad found out the damage. She’s worth every penny I might add.
She jumped in and indicated she had found a ring for 850 and another for 1700. I was flabbergasted, and amazed that she would actually do it.. Very proud as a matter of fact, and she was happy.
Sidebar: Anyone who knows Minda has already jumped to the punch line, which was she meant $8.50 and $17.00. Married 15 years, I sat in stone cold silence for 10 minutes before realizing there was no way in the world she could have spend $2500.00, even with permission.. PS, she loves her sterling silver rings…
Haha.
Got back and had pasta, and shrimp, at the Pelican, and swam while Minda took a turn cooking.
Goodnight, and sleeeppp.
