I am going to start by thanking Hurricane Tomas for keeping the island very green, the roads even more full of pot holes and keeping the mosquitoes plentiful. In 13 days of vacation….we had two total days of sunshine. Lots of rain mid afternoon but that being said…….vacation on island was as great as always!!!! Enough fussing now on with the trip report.
Flights;
Arrival- US Air leaving MCI at 5:30 AM thru CLT and on to SXM by 12:30…great flights, left Charlotte a bit late but arrived early. We are becoming fans of US Air as they can get me from the heartland to the tropics with the shortest layovers and we don’t have to get on 3 or more flights.
Departure- Like butter! Left a few minutes late and got to fly out “backwards” leaving directly over the beach… Made up the time and was thru Charlotte customs and to our plane home in under 45 minutes. We walked up to the gate as they were just starting the boarding call.
Rental car;
We used Alain at AAA yet again. He greeted us at the airport with a big smile took us back to his lot and in 5 min were on our way. Alain said that they will be moving to a new location most likely before the new year which will be close to the Caravarseri. Our car ran like a top but with all the rain it had a little glitch that earned her the nickname Christine. We would drive thru random puddles and the wiper blades would kick on….run about 5 min and kick off again. Didn’t hurt a thing so we would just laugh and wait for the blades to stop. Again car was great and Alain is the go to person for rental cars for us.
Phone;
Picked up a phone from Sharon too and were able to call friends and family back in the states to check in.
Our rooms;
We spent our first night with friends in Grand Case, thank you John and Cyndi. The next day we moved over to the Flamingo and into a one bedroom for a week then a studio for the rest of our stay. We had, simply, the best rooms we have ever been assigned at the Flamingo. Our one bedroom was out on the point with a wrap around deck area that afforded us an incredible view from the pool all the way back across all of Simpson Bay. Our studio was just a couple doors down. The pool at the Flamingo was going thru finishing touches of renovation while we were there but was up and running a couple of days into our stay. The resort was in great shape, maybe the best I have seen in the 10 years we have been visiting.
Activities;
We spent the better part of our first 4 days visiting with some dear friends sitting in a villa above Baie Rouge Nid D’ Amour. We simply unwound lying by the pool drinking and enjoying their company.
Sunday night Oct 31st, attended the costume party at Red Piano, was a hoot, laughed at some of the creativity. We did miss the lady C but maybe next year as she is still in dry dock.
Tuesday night Nov 2nd , we hosted a small get together at Tijon had probably 20 people attend, thank you all it was a great evening and is always nice to put TTOL names and real faces together.
Wed Nov 3, This was or off island excursion. We took a day sail to Anguilla. Left on a charter from the back of Bonita’s Cantina. The ride was smooth and honestly not much longer than the Marigot ferry. Rented a car and drove to Junk’s Hole, Shoal Bay East and down to Sandy Ground before catching the ferry back. We ate at Serenity for breakfast, there was a beautiful view but you pay Anguilla prices that are a bit steeper than ST Maarten.
We had three pancakes, two eggs and toast and orange juice for just OVER $30.
Our intent that morning was to stop in the Island Harbour are and pick up breakfast at the bakery, Bon Pain, however they are closed on Wednesdays.
Stopped in at our favorite spot, Gwen’s Reggae Beach Bar, She was just getting ready to open on Saturday but has no beach left to open to. There used to be a large sitting area in front of her place with tables and chairs surrounded by a bunch of palms….no more, many of those palms are at the edge of the “beach” and have water lapping at their roots.
I sure hope the erosion there stops soon or there will be no more Gwen’s by the next time we get to return.
Walked Shoal Bay to pick up a few rum punches around the point then after basking in the sun close to Gwen’s we were off to Johnno’s in the Sandy Ground area for lunch. Prices there were much better than those at Serenity and frankly the food was much better….three fish sandwiches and an order of delicious ribs.
Thursday Nov 4th, stopped in at Bacchus and picked up a very nice bottle of wine for the evenings art show. Then the rains came….
Friday Nov 5th, scheduled on a day sail with Capt. Neil on the Celine. We stopped in at SkipJacks for the trip and Neil invited us all in to have a seat. It seems that we weren’t going to sail that day. Seas were 10’+ and winds 20+ knots. Neil is a class act, he fed everyone breakfast and shared that if he took us out NO ONE would enjoy themselves and there was some real danger in those kind of seas with a bunch of novices. We rebooked for a snorkel trip for the next day but that too was cancelled. I had never met Neil before this day but really liked his character. We will sail with him next time if the weather permits. We decided it was a great day to head off to Orient. Could see from shore what he was talking about with the waves and had a little cosmetic dermabrasion while enjoying the beach today but once again , had a blast!
Saturday Nov 6th, Enjoyed our last consistently good day sitting at Cupecoy. Went back later in the trip and the waves had picked up to a point that you couldn’t even get down to what was at one time the beach in front of Dany’s. I know that the sands shift and there may already be beach there again but was bare rocks on Tuesday.
Rest of our trip was pretty uneventful, back and forth to Orient as there wasn’t much beach on the south side of the island.
Eating out;
We tried a few new places for us and enjoyed them all.
Grand Case
Town Topic
L’Escepade
Orient Village
Cote de Plage
Dutch Side
Ernst and Fidel’s
Chesterfields
Uncle Harry's
Some of our regular hangouts
Peg Leg Pub
Dany at Cupecoy
Zee Best
Kangaroo Court
All meals were very good.
We seemed to find ourselves at PLP on a regular basis either for dinner, happy hour or nightcap, we were back and forth across the island so much that it always seemed to be on our way to or from somewhere.
Good,
We spent time with many friends both local and others that vacation to the island and enjoyed their wonderful company.
The island is VERY green right now.
Food and service was fantastic everywhere we went on SXM.
We saw NO crime and my spider senses never left me feeling uncomfortable during our trip.
Bad,
Tomas and another low pressure system kind of monkey'd with the weather around the island, more rain than we previously experienced on any of our Oct/Nov trips but we survived. I hardly got my camera out of the bag because it was so overcast everyday.
Our last evening in Grand Case, the mosquitoes decided that for dinner they wanted foreign food instead of French and I got bitten up pretty bad but one night out of 13 isn’t too bad.
Ugly,
Traffic on Welfare Road in the afternoons was atrocious. We couldn’t believe how much worse it was this year than last. We avoided bridge openings and even the arrival of the big flights but coming from the airport thru Simpson Bay was ridiculous. Most days we would get to the junction of Billy Folly road and Welfare road and traffic flow would determine our direction of travel to the French side…more times than not we took the long route thru the Low Lands.
Final thought,
Though I whined a bit about the weather and traffic, there is no place I would rather be than on SXM. We will be back in the fall and are trying to work it out so we can come to the island twice a year in the future.
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