Trip report 7/20

AA flight from Miami uneventful. Left on time, arrived on time 2:15. However, upon arrival, we proceeded to immigration to find out we had 400 or so people in front of us from 2 previous flights. 45 minutes later we made it through customs and retrieved or bags, which due to the customs line, were waiting for us on the carousel. We got picked up by Unity rent-a Car and whisked to the rental facility which took 10 minutes. Off we went, first stop, Grande Marche. 2 cases of beer, 1 bottle each of Baileys, Sky Vodka and Hypnotiq, some snacks, and bug spray and bottled water, $120.00 later, we were on our way. Arrived at LaPlantation, and since we had been here before, she gave us the keys and sent us on to our room on our own. We went to the room, unpacked, put groceries away, and made it to Orient Beach by 4:32, not bad I thought. The beach there was much shorter than it has been in past years. Papagayuos was not passable in front as the water was right up to the foundation.
Later that evening we went to Calmos Café in Grande Case for our TTOL party. We met some friends we had seen here before including Wendi, Jean and Joe. After that party split up, we ate at Sky’s the Limit with Wendi and had some great ribs and shrimp dinners.
Saturday:
Our first full day here, we spent at Orient Beach. We saw Andy at Baywatch and promised to see him for lunch later on in our stay. A beautiful beach day, we just tried to get into our vacation mode. Made it to happy hour at Club Orient, a couple of drinks and worked on the all over tan. Dinner at Spigas was awesome as usual. $100.00 and well worth it.
Sunday:
Breakfast at La Plantation again. Went to Orient, wind was honkin’ about 25 mph. When the rains started we left and went to Baie Roughe. Water was much calmer, although I thought they lost a bunch of beach there too. We saw the sign that read “No Nudity” but that didn’t seem to affect anyone as there were several sun worshippers there when we arrived. We stayed until lunch, and then decided to take a drive. We drove through Mullet Bay and Cupecoy, Incredible what has happened there in the past year. Construction everywhere. We visited Mary’s Boon on Simpson Bay. The bar there is an Honor Bar, make your own drinks, pay when you go. Worked for us, couple of drinks, a little walk on the beach and we were off. Our next stop was Mr. Busbys at Dawn Beach. Just like Cupecoy, construction everywhere, I hardly recognized it from last year. So we had enough of that, it was getting late so we headed back to Orient for an afternoon siesta. Dinner tonight was at Talk of the Town, another Lolo in Grande Case. This place was voted best fast food in the Caribbean by some local food magazine. We met some nice people there on our “double date”. 2 Dinners, 2 beers, 1 Ting and a Vodka shot, $21.50, not bad.
Monday:
Proved to be yet another glorious beach day. After our morning walk and breakfast at LaPlantation, we hit the beach by 9:15 am. It was still breezy but not near as bad as the day before. I don’t have to tell you the sun and sand is just perfect although a lot of beach has been lost compared to last year. I had my first real massage ever at Waikiki. Fabian was my masseur, and she did a wonderful 30 minute massage for $35.00. We then went to Club O for happy hour. We returned to Waikiki and stayed until after 4:30.
For dinner we drove to Simpson Bay and ate at the Lady C. 10.99 all you can eat ribs and half price happy hour until 7pm. Ribs were great service was excellent, parking however is tight.

Tuesday:
Another beautiful day on Orient. We started our day getting reacquainted with Andy at Baywatch. We then did the shopping tour of Marigot. After breakfast at Sarrafinos, we walked several streets before heading to Phillipsburg. In Phillipsburg, we went to Rimas and picked up some hats, shirts and some jewelry before heading back to OB for happy hour at the Perch. After, We headed over to Andy’s at Baywatch, Joann had garlic shrimp Caesar salad and I had Andy’s backed ziti, couple of drinks…..$40.00. We then headed back to Club Orient, We met some nice folks from Nebraska and clued them in on TTOL. For dinner we picked up a pizza at Tap 5 (13.00) and brought it back to the room. By 7 we were whipped and called it a night!!!

Wednesday:
Breakfast at LaPlantation again, and then off to Club Orient for the Tiko Tiko cruise. Another glorious St. Martin day. Seas were rough but I managed to not get seasick. We arrived at Tintamarre, and there was barely a place to drop anchor. There were so many boats it was hard for us to find a spot. We did anchor and Phillipe and Fredericka were the perfect hosts. They took all our gear ashore and set up umbrellas for us. We swam and snorkeled and after a while we returned to the boat and had a wonderful lunch. After lunch we explored some trails on the west side of the island. That took us to 2 small secluded beaches. It was very windy and rough there so we returned to the main beach where Phillipe and Fredericka gathered some mud and made a great mud bath. We all partook and if you have never done this, it is worth the price of admission!! It was great fun and we made some new friends.
The sun took its toll on us and we returned around 5:30 and said “thanks to our hosts” and “Good bye” to all those we enjoyed the day with. The ride back was not near as rough as it was going over.
We did dinner at the LoLos, again, very reasonable…$24.00 for ribs and chicken dinner.

Thursday:
Breakfast at LaPlantation and then off to the beach. Today we decided to rent chairs at Club O. $18.00 for 2 chairs and an umbrella. Beach was crowded, weather was perfect. We spent the entire day, reading and relaxing. After a long beach day we went to Lady C for dinner. Great burgers, great spot. After dinner we went to Casino Royale in Maho. The craps tables didn’t open until 9:00 so we walked around, and played some slots. Soon I played what my budget allotted and we headed home. Travelers be warned: The road between Marigot and Grand Case is being repaved, lane closures held us up for almost one hour. The roads are so awful here its time they were all repaved, and I guess nighttime in the summer is the time to do it.

Friday

Friday was the first day we missed our sunrise beach walk. We actually slept in after staying out late the night before. Another sightseeing day as JoAnn was still burned from the days before. We headed to Marigot, picked up a nice breakfast sandwich and 2 croissants to go at Sarrafinas bakery. We cruised the market and JoAnn got two nice tie-die shirts and a pareo. We then headed up to Fort Louis, took some great pictures from the top. What a view of Marigot and the surrounding villages. The steps have a railing now so coming down is a little easier, well worth the hike.
We then headed back to Maho, and the Sunset Beach Bar. The idea was to get online and post this half of the trip report. I also needed to charge the battery, as we only have 220 on the French side. We sat and had a few beers and some wings, however SSBB’s internet server was not working as well as it should have. I managed to get to the TTOL website for like, two minutes, before it was lost. We did stay long enough to charge the battery and see some planes land. We headed back towards Mullett Bay and decided to look for the road to Cupecoy. We had stopped here last year and could not find a way down the cliffs. We talked about it on the Tiko Tiko cruise and someone told us how to get there. Just past the Cove condo development turn in towards the water. There is a dirt path less than ¼ of a mile that runs along the top of the cliff. Soon you come to a clearing where Danny Boy has set up is concession. There he rents chairs and sells ribs and chicken and cold beers. Since we had just eaten, we grabbed a beer and a Ting and stayed and took some pictures and chatted with Danny. We decided we would come back maybe on Saturday or Sunday when there was no construction going on. It is a shame what they have done to the cliffs there, and it’s just a matter of time until the path we rode in on is developed and there will be no more public access to that beautiful beach. Times are changing for St. Martin. We made a quick stop at the Grande Marche to stock up on a few items, and then headed back to Orient. After a stop at the room, we returned to our favorite beach, and grabbed some chairs and umbrella at Waikiki. We promptly took our afternoon nap as all that sightseeing took its toll on us. We didn’t even walk down to Club O this day.
After a tough afternoon at the beach, we went back to the room and got cleaned up. We headed to Grande Case for dinner. JoAnn had a craving for lobster, so we went to Talk of the Town, voted best Caribbean fast food on the island. We each had one lobster, split perfectly grilled and served with a side of potato salad and Cole slaw. Not flamboyant but nice, and reasonably priced too ($57.00) with 2 drinks.

Saturday

Today we slept in and then went to Andy’s Baywatch for breakfast. JoAnn had Italian Omelet and I had chili cheese omelet. Both were excellent, $25.00 with coffee and tip included. Andy’s company was worth the trip as usual. We then headed off to Cupecoy, now that we new where it was. Danny Boy set us up with some chairs and umbrellas, we had our choice as we were the first ones there. The beach was beautiful, the water was nice with large swells. The construction has about ruined Cupecoy and I wonder if we will even be able to get to this beach by next year. We had some of Danny’s ribs for lunch, with two Tings and Two Heinekens, $16.00. We watched a number of airplanes come in including at least six large aircraft. Then we saw a strange thing happen, a very large United Airlines airplane took off out over the water. I knew sometimes they took off in that direction but had never seen it. What a great afternoon to have been at Sunset Beach Bar. We squared up with Danny and headed home. I went down to Tap 5 and picked up pizza for dinner. Another early night, started a new book I picked up at Grande Marche on Friday.

Sunday
A beautiful sunrise this morning. No clouds, too bad I slept through it!! We headed down to Orient around 6:30 for our morning walk. After breakfast at LaPlantation, we headed back to the beach. Today we tried a different spot on Orient. We went to KonTiki. Much narrower beach there and the sun was at a different angle than Waikiki. We spent most of the day there, with the exception of Happy Hour, we went to the Perch. We enjoyed the beach there for a while before returning to KonTiki for an afternoon nap. Rested and ready to go, we went to Il Natunos restaurant in Grande Case. Wonderful dinner with a great view of Grande Case harbor. Excellent Italian food with superb service, We enjoyed Carpaccio, lobster ravioli, and a wonderful house special pasta seafood dish that JoAnn took half of it home. Coffee and Sambuca, ($108.00).

Monday
Another beautiful sunrise saw this one from the room. Walk on Orient, and breakfast again at LaPlantation. Today was probably the clearest day we have had since we have been here, with the least wind. Truly a Chamber of Commerce day!! This morning we headed out to Cul de Sac to catch the boat to Pinel Island. We arrived promptly at 8:45 only to find out the first boat didn’t go until 10.00!! We hung around and watched the local fishermen and did some reading. Soon the boat came and we headed over to the island. When we arrived, we immediately headed for the backside beach. I have never seen it so calm on that side. There was a slight breeze but the water was not rough at all. St. Barts was clearly visible in the distance. I had never seen it that clear. We snorkeled some and enjoyed the beach to our selves for several hours. Around 1:00, a shower appeared to be coming our way, so we headed over the island to catch the ferry back to Cul de Sac. We missed happy hour, but we did return to Club O for a couple hours of sun. The water was perfect there with just a little breeze. For the evening, we had planned to go on the Celine’s Pub Crawl. When we arrived at Skipjacks Neil told us we were the only two signed up. He and Niki sat with us for a short time and we learned a lot about the both of them and the island. We had a couple of drinks together, and Neil introduced us to Brad, the owner of Skipjacks. We decided to stay for dinner since the cruise was canceled. JoAnn ordered the special soup of the day, mussel soup. It was so good, after tasting it I ordered one too. For the main course, JoAnn had the stuffed shrimp, and I had the blackened tuna. Both were awesome, we shared!! Very reasonable $68.00 with a couple of drinks. We tried again to head to the casino, but my better sense took hold of me and we headed home. Again it was past our bedtime!!

Tuesday:
Missed sunrise again. Looks like another perfect day though. We took another trip to Baie Rouge. Very little wind on the beach. Waves were small, although a lot of current there. We snorkeled, and laid in the sun for a couple of hours. We returned after lunch time and went to Club O, but we missed happy hour! After returning to our room, and taking a nap, we headed out to Stone restaurant in Simpson Bay. This restaurant is owned by Neil’s son and he spoke very highly of it. We negotiated our way very well through the St. Martin traffic, and when we arrived we found it was closed. So we headed to Lady C where we at least knew the food would be good there. Alas, Lady C was closed so we went back to Skipjacks, just a couple of doors down. No mussel soup, but we had shrimp appetizer, JoAnn had blackened grouper and I had a steak. All cooked excellent, and with a few drinks, $75.00. We went to Maho and back to the Casino Royale where I gave them the rest of my allotted gambling budget.

Wednesday:
Slept in. went for late walk on the beach before breakfast at LaPlantation. We then decided to rent chairs at Club O. It was windy and the water was rough near Waikiki. It was windy all day but we used this day to relax and read. Later in the afternoon, I returned to Waikiki for another massage. Anna was my masseur and a fine job she did. The highlight of the day was the Pub Crawl on the Celine. We met Neil and Nikki at the dock at Skipjacks at 6:30. We also met the other guests, Mary and Cheryl, Paula and Mark, who had done this trip before. Gwen and Laura were new to this trip as were JoAnn and I. Neil and Nikki were the perfect hosts. We shoved off at 7:00 and drinks were served on board. We all chatted and got to know each other as we stopped and had appetizers at 3 different restaurants. First stop was Peg Leg Pub, steak tips and swordfish was the appetizer. We listened to some live music for a short time and then headed back on board the Celine for our next stop. At Shrimpy’s we had fried grouper with home made tarter sauce. We then headed back Skipjacks where we had Mahi Mahi kabobs and chicken wings that were very good. Neil was a great host and was having so much fun with us, he took us to Stone for another drink. We sat at Stone until 11:30 and then made our good byes and headed home.
Thursday:
We got up early, slightly hung-over and headed to Marigot for our day trip to Anguilla. A quick breakfast at Sarafinos and off to the boat. We met our guide, Marianna at 8:45 who was from Holland but spoke very good English. The trip over was frightful as we had 5-7 foot seas, strong winds, and I am one who gets seasick pretty easy. However, I hung on for the 18 minute boat ride that lasted more than 30. We then boarded a tour bus that took us to Shoal Bay, a beautiful beach on the other side of the island. We snorkeled some, and mostly relaxed on the beach. Five o’clock came and we headed back to the ferry. We later ate at Sky’s the Limit as it was on our way home. JoAnn had ribs, I had snapper filet. Couple of beers, couple of Tings, twenty bucks, deal of the day.
Friday:
Oh crap….our last full day on the island. It was cloudy and very windy, but we went for our morning walk. Many Man-of-war on the beach this morning. The wind must have drove them in. After returning for breakfast at LaPlantation, we headed to Club O where we knew the water would be much calmer then at Waikiki. The wind was still strong but we enjoyed our stay and what the heck, we were close by for happy hour. We stayed late, until after 5 pm, and saw some friends we had made earlier in the week. For dinner we went to Sol e Luna in Cul de Sac. A wonderful atmosphere and beautifully decorated, no wonder it was awarded number most romantic restaurant in the Caribbean. The French waitress was the owners daughter of this family run restaurant and bed and breakfast. The food was excellent and the service perfect. However I felt it was a bit pricey, and Euro did not equal 1 to 1 with the dollar. JoAnn had a lobster bisque soup and I had mussels for appetizer. For dinner she had four very large shrimp and I had lobster ravioli, I felt the portion was rather small for 25 Euros. Coffee, espresso a drink each, $147.00.

Saturday
Slept in, headed to beach around 7:30 after getting some of our things organized. The plan was to head to Andy’s Baywatch but he was closed when we got there. So we headed back to a final LaPlantation breakfast, finished packing and headed to the airport at 10:30. I fueled the car for the last time. We stuck in some heavy traffic in Marigot and it took us an hour to get to Unity. We were then whisked off to the airport, checked our baggage for our 3 PM flight and got our boarding passes. We then went outside and grabbed an $8.00 cab ride to Sunset Beach Bar. We stayed for about an hour and a half, watched the big Air France jet land and checked in with TTOL on their free Internet service. Several beers later ($4.00 each) and a couple burgers, we reluctantly grabbed a cab back to Jullianna Airport. Rest of the day was uneventful. The new airport is much nicer and well organized although it still runs on island time. We grabbed our AA flight and sadly arrived in Miami on time at 6:00 pm.




AFTERTHOUGHTS
The good: Beaches, still beautiful, every one. The weather: Perfect, everyday. The food, never had a bad meal or poor service, no matter what the cost. Rental car: perfect, got free upgrade because they were out of the cheapies. A/C, Auto, 4 cylinder, plenty of power and good mileage, we drove the wheels off it! We put 650 KM on this little Corolla, and spent about $80.00 on gas. The people we met: We met more people this year then in years past. We met some wonderful people on the Tiko Tiko, and the Celine Pub Crawl. We met some nice people on Orient Beach with nothing in common except they too were on vacation.
The bad: Obnoxious Americans. You would think since they are in a foreign country they would respect and accept the ways of the island. One night at one of the finer, quiet, romantic restaurants, a family of five came in. Honestly, they all should have learned some manners before they went out to eat, and of course they were right next to us. They all acted as though they were in Roy Rogers or some thing. Then there is the beach. It’s ok if you look at the topless or naked woman there, but you don’t have to point and be so obvious about it. I was embarrassed to be an American at times.
The island: I had never seen so much liter or junk cars as I did this year. The nice sections are nice, but the bad sections are worse then ever, and unemployment must be high. The Roads, although they seem to be working on them, are as bad as they have ever been, with still only two traffic lights in the entire place. The drivers here are crazy. Motorcyclists constantly ride the center line. Brake lights and headlamps seem to be an option. However, as bad as the drivers are here, and as crowded as it is, never saw one accident.
Most exciting Kodak Moment: While at Pinel Island, on the backside beach, I spotted lots of tiny tropical fish in the water. I went and put my snorkel mask on and put me head under the water. Looking straight out towards the Atlantic, there were literally thousands of fish swimming around in 3 feet of water. As far as I could see in every direction.
Books read: finished The Presidents Assassins, read Invisible Prey, The Overlook, The Broker, and Echo Park (excellent).
Overall, a wonderful trip. Returned relaxed, tanned and ready to face the real world again. Already making plans for next year and will soon start the countdown again. I hope I didn’t bore anyone with my report. I will post some pictures soon and add the link so you all can enjoy.
Thanks for reading this far!!!
Richie Weber, Jupiter FL……..Soontobenude