July 6th, 2006
Dude, the liver is a government conspiracy, like Indiana. Have you ever seen your liver?
Woke up early and Hit Pastries from Le Sucriere. They rocked, and I ended up getting both Sweet and non-sweet ones. Le Sucriere is the home of the French bakery downstairs, and the Slender Spa upstairs. I think they should switch places, as every calorie counts here. Bought Coconut Macaroons, and French Brest Almond Crème Pastries (insert body-part joke here). Stopped by McDonald’s for free WIFI, but it doesn’t count as I only had a coke! Updated blog and sent a trip report to TTOL.
We decided to go to Cupecoy, home of what was once heralded as the best beach in the Carribean. At the risk of getting flamed, I thought it was pretty, but anyone who thinks it’s in the top ten, should see Megan’s Bay, USVI, Jost Van Dyke, Foxy’s under the tree, or Soggy Dollar bar, The Baths, Virgin Gorda, BVI, Trunk, or any beach on the north side of St John, USVI, or for that matter 7 mile beach in Grand Cayman.
Back to our story. Cupecoy had “a lot” of sand according to visitors. It’s my first visit, so I could not compare. I liked the beach until the 13th person showed up, about 2 hours after we arrived, and we decided to set out to Braie Longue. The toplessness/nudity at Cupecoy was no problem, but with the size of the beach, we felt we were sharing it too much. That, combined with no less than 20-25 people sitting up at the top of the hill, just enjoying the day, made us feel claustrophobic. We did meet Danny, and although we were self sufficient with cooler, chairs, etc. He was nice and we chatted a bit. We didn’t stay long enough to eat, but he offered. Nice guy, and he watched our car, which was unlocked and empty.
Sidebar: I find it interesting that with all the crime relating to car break-ins, that the lady selling t-shirts had her entire inventory covered in the back of her pick-up truck, in about 8 suitcases, and covered poorly with a blanket. It brings up the obvious question of who is doing the break-ins.
Anyway, we decided to move on, and drove through Maho, Easily spotting Cheri’s, Atlantis, Temptation and Rare, all places we’ll probably hit next week. Missed the beach access to Mullet Bay Beach, and entered Terre Bases, and immediately realized why I would not be caught dead there after dark. Regardless of what anyone might say, I’d not travel there after dark, simply because it’s too dark, too remote, and way to easy to block the road around a blind curve. I’m sure it’s nice, but not for me.. AT NIGHT. I had no problem during the day, and found the entrance to Baie Longue just before Villa #77 (The Owl’s Nest).
Note: For those people who do not live where beach access is dictated by law, you may pass a lot of entrances here. While unloading the car, no less than 4 cars stopped to ask how to get to the beach. Beach access is typically cut between two properties, and rarely marked. If you live in California, etc, you will recognize these easily. Best directions to Baie Longue? Head down the street past Maho, go through golf course of Mullit, look for sign that says LA SAMANNA hotel. Turn left there and go to the Gated part of LA SAMANNA. Just before the guard asks you, hang a quick RIGHT down that road, and go several hundred yards to the first palce you can park on the left. You see the beach access I describe above, and it’s just Before “THE OWL’S NEST (Villa #77).
Once you get these numbers down, finding Plum Bay is easy. Keep following that road around until you get just past Villa 42A. Beach access is on the left, between two fences, on a path covered over the top with Sea Grape.
Wow, enough boring directions. We went to Plum bay just long enough to see we wanted to come back later. On Bay Longue, we snorkled, and spent almost the entire day in the water. Note that the wind and a 1-2 mph current AWAY from LA Samanna makes this an advanced beach. I snorkled about ¼ mile at a time, holding hands with my 6 or 8 year old, then exiting and walking back. They could not safely swim the current back. Not dangerous, but we did send an errant intertube to SABA. Remy fell of, swam once to it, and the wind pulled it away from her, about 5 ffet away., By the time she took another stroke, it was 10’ away. I told her to leave it and exit the water, took two strokes toward it, and lost another ten feet. In less than 10 minutes, it disappeared over the horizon. WOW!
Would not take the littlest ones to this beach, unless I was RIGHT against the hotel. I felt fine otherwise, as I simply positioned myself between them and the down-current side. It was not bad really. Other than the lost intertube, it was not as dramitc as long as you understand what you have..
The beach itself was deserted.. Let me explain deserted. We had 2 people on the beach, and 2 pass our spot, in the 5-6 hours we were there. On a beach over a mile long. WOW.
Came home and cleaned up, then went to BBB and met the TTOL gang. There must have been 4-50 people if I counted right. Thanks Neil for your hospitality (for the fourth time this week, I have missed you at the bar). Met BeachBum, Larry, Bill and Laurie and talked to Lynda and Bob again, as we met them a couple times this week. Deepest apologies to all that I spoke with, but forgot names, as frankly, I’m drunk as I type.. Haha. Pizza’s provided, 2 for 1 Carib, and a great time was had by all. It was great to meet everyone. Came home and ate, and drifted off quickly. I wonder what’s in the air here, We seem to be doing that a lot.
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