SXM June 5-14, 2012
Flew to SXM on USAir through Charlotte – First Class FF tickets – flights were great on way down and back home. I was able to reach closure on my anger at USAir for last September’s mess with Tropical Storm Maria.

For this trip, there was my standard procedure: after arranging FF tickets, sent the emails or website entries to Bruno (Paradise Bungalows), Sharon (QueenofSXM for phone), Michael (Unity for car), and Jeannie (ShopnDrop for grocery order – this is first time we managed to get to island after ordering with Jeannie). I recommend all of them highly.

On this trip, I brought an Alfa Long-Range Wireless USB Adapter which worked great to get an excellent connection to Bruno’s router with my laptop. (Actually, I may have been connecting to an open router somewhere else in neighborhood on a couple occasions.) Without the adapter, I have never been able to get a good connection while inside the bungalow and sometimes had trouble outside. With no problems on laptop, something else had to be trouble, of course. I had more trouble making calls back to US than ever before – I would get the “all circuits are busy” message on many calls – had to change some arrangements with friend who covers any business needs at the office while we are gone, more than I had wanted to impose on him. Upside was that once I had done that, I could forget about office more. Had put too much on phone, though, with change in plans.

June 5 – Tuesday – Arrival: using Jeannie for the groceries meant that we did not have to stop for groceries on way to Paradise Bungalows – we also had the phone from Sharon waiting at Unity for us. Took the Cole Bay route – going Marina road in Marigot and had no traffic problems. No real traffic problem at any time during our stay. Just my perspective, after all our trips and knowing the roads pretty well, I find driving in SXM pretty easy. Except for the scooters and motorcycle guys, people seem pretty good really about letting people get into traffic and trying to avoid blocking traffic. Compared to San Juan or some other big cities, I think driving in SXM is much much easier. Managed to hit Orient Beach for a couple hours on this first day because of no grocery stop.

June 6 – Wednesday: drove over to Divi Little Bay. Told guard we were going to beach and asked if there was still the charge for parking which was waived if you spent $25 or more while there. Guard said yes but it did not seem like she was used to dealing with issue as it took her a while to find a form to give us with time, etc. We had lunch as Sea Breeze and spent more than $25 but when we left the guard just automatically lifted gate for us and we never handed back the form and receipts. Divi was looking good – Jazzgal has reported on things at Divi in an earlier post she made. I would just add that in the little grocery store they have four computers and a printer, which worked great – relatively very fast - and do not cost much. There were a lot of snorkel and dive boats visiting the Tike Hut area while we were there – snorkeling was decent for area. Nothing changed up at Fort Amsterdam.

June 7 – Thursday: spent most of day at Baie Rouge – had lunch at Chez Raymond – very good. The little outcropping that had Devil’s Hole at the bottom was in fact gone – collapsed – this had been reported on but we wanted to see it ourselves. The snorkeling was good.

June 8 – Friday: took the Bluebeard excursion to Prickly Pear (Anguilla). Price is as good as any of excursion boats and better than most, Ted as Captain and Ingrid as Hostess are great, and the parking is easier than at Pelican, in my opinion. Snorkeling was good – I am not convinced it is appreciably better than the off beach around SXM, but others seem to think so. The barbecue lunch was good as always. I found this funny: one of the passengers asked Ted when he gave her the options for lunch (fish, chicken, ribs, or combo) if they had tartar sauce – his reaction of complete amazed puzzlement was hilarious. Had good group and this was a great day on Bluebeard.

June 9 – Saturday: took the Captain Alan 6 hour snorkel trip – went to Green Cay, Pinel, and Tintamare. We had a great time. We were a little disappointed that their trips no longer go over to White Rock and Creole Rock, but we still think that Captain Alan has a great operation. For this particular trip, Francoise was Captain and Jessie was the mate – they did a great job.

June 10 – Sunday: we had never gone to Pic Paradis before and decided to go this day. We got up early and drove up to the top of the hill – or at least as far as you can drive. We had been a little reluctant about the place because of the crime reports over the years but we had no troubles and saw no one up there except a few other tourists and a carload of gendarmes was heading up road as we were coming down– left nothing in car as always, of course. The views were great. Coming down the hill we stopped and looked at Lotterie Farms – did not do anything there but just looked around. Looked like business was good – there were a lot of people wanting to do the zip lines. We also had never visited Fort Louis, so that was our next stop of the day. Parked at Marina and hiked all the way up the hill – there is a parking lot up hill some – but we just wandered up the hill. Interesting. It was definitely lunch time after the Fort so we drove to Happy Bay to get lunch. Turned out that GEBE was having a big employee party there. We parked in “lot” next to gate and stepped over wall and walked in that way. The GEBE folks had someone at gate to let them drive through, but I did not want to try to tell them I was with them or otherwise deal with gate guy. At the beach with Danny, I am not sure what the deal was in terms of non-GEBE people like us, but the bartenders for the party sold us drinks for $1 each and Danny (who was doing food for party) got us some plates of ribs when things had quieted down a little in his work for the GEBE folks. Good food as always.

June 11 – Monday: we flew to Statia on this day – St. Eustatius - on Winair – total cost for two of us on Winair was $257.57. It is only a 20 minute flight and both going and coming back flights were on time with no problems. Took the first plan over at 8 am and came back on last plane which left Statia at 6:45 pm. We had not made any arrangements for what to do in Statia and planned to talk with tourist information people – I did know that there was a booth at airport. We were only tourists on plane going to Statia – others were all going to Statia for work/business reasons . On way back to SXM, there were a few folks who had been in Statia for a funeral. The lady at the tourist booth could not find anyone to give us an island tour until 1 pm – but found us a taxi driver to take us into town and he arranged with us that we would meet driver to give us tour at museum at 1. We walked to Fort Orange, which is a very nice restored fort of 1700s. We then walked down to the “lower town” and walked around some before snorkeling off a very small, dark sand beach. The snorkeling was good among the ruins of the original lower town. We visited the Nature Foundation offices and then walked back up hill, looking for a place to get lunch. Not much was open. We ate at a Chinese place called Casual Corner – good food with HUGE portions which we could not possibly eat – should have just gotten one thing. At 1 we met Wade, who was our tour guide – the deal was $40 pp which I accepted without any attempt at bargaining as I think that was a standard price and seemed reasonable. Wade was great and I recommend him highly. I have misplaced his phone number but if you go to Statia just ask for him – everyone knows him, I think – there are only about 4,000 people living on Statia. We first went through museum with him and a woman who worked in the museum. It was interesting – a very nice museum for a place the size of Statia. It was particularly interesting with the two of them because they would discuss who was in a lot of the pictures – who was who’s grandfather, etc. Wade showed us what there was to see in Statia, including the two other forts (one of which is just a former location and the other is a restored battery), the oil terminal – which is the only real source of good jobs, and the various neighborhoods. He called and checked on our flight back for us and did all he could to make our visit to Statia a good time. Our tour finished about 4 or so and we did not want to sit around in airport so he let us off in town and then picked us up again to get to airport for flight back. He did not quote me a final price and I just gave him $100, which seemed to make him happy. If you want some idea of what SXM was like 25 or so years ago, go to Statia.

June 12 – Tuesday: up early and off to Plum Bay this day. Good snorkeling to right side of bay (looking out at water). Saw an octopus hiding out in a hole in the reef. We next went to Long Bay and hiked down toward La Samana. The ledge of sand was really something here. La Samana had put ropes down that you could use to get up from the water level to the top of the ledge. We snorkeled along the wall, which is pretty good snorkeling – I usually see an octopus here but did not this time. Celine and Random Wind were there when we got there – think they had lunch there and Passat showed up a little later after they had left. Lots of people in water but did not bother us. I would have yelled something obnoxious to Neil or Di as I swam by but neither was on deck at the time – probably both working on lunch inside at the time. We had lunch on the beach with stuff we had brought. Drove back to Bungalow to clean up to go on Neil’s Sunset Lagoon cruise. We had planned to do this on Sunday – I am a member of Jeff’s “secret site” thing and Sunday is normally the day for that. I had called Neil on Friday or Saturday (cannot remember which) to check and he said that there was not enough interest for Sunday but he would go Tuesday and we should come then. I told him that the TTOL party was Tuesday and that surprised Neil because he had thought it was the next day, the 13th. He was already committed to Tuesday in any event and so we had to either do his thing or go to TTOL party. Feeling very guilty about no showing for the TTOL party at the Dream Bar (knowing all of Jazzgal’s work – I did post to her about it), we chose the Sunset Lagoon cruise – on which we had a very good time. After the lagoon cruise, we ate at Skipjacks, our only dinner out – all other times we ate at Bungalow.

June 13 – Wednesday: hit Club O first thing in morning. Chatted briefly with Cats2 (very much enjoyed many chats with Cats2 and Tomralnc during trip) before heading over to Grand Case Beach Club for a 10 am snorkel trip to Creole Rock. Thought it would be with Sebastian, but he apparently was off and we went with “Ben.” Took the trip with a very nice family of four. Excellent snorkeling for SXM – saw turtles, three rays going by together, an octopus, all the usual. “Ben” was too worried about where we were snorkeling, but we had a great time. Assuming decent conditions and that you can go all the way around Creole Rock, I think it is probably the best snorkeling for SXM. For lunch we went to the Rib Shack, one of the lolo’s in Grand Case and had a very good lunch. They have built out over beach some and rearranged some things and I thought that they were doing a better job than our last visit. In afternoon we just did nothing significant at Club O beach – with a walk down to Mt Vernon and back. Met Jazzgal to apologize for not making TTOL party – it is clear that she puts a lot of effort into the parties she has organized and I felt guilty about missing this one after first saying that we would come. Apparently there were some glitches with this one - hey this is SXM – and Jazzgal seemed a little tired of organizing a party – but I hope she changes her mind because she does a great job with it.

June 14 – Thursday: Last day. Bought yogurt, pastries, and OJ at Club O store and ate at table at Perch. Hung out a little on beach before heading pack to Bungalow to finish packing. Drove to airport without any problem – checked in for flight about 10:45 or so. Stopped to return phone on way to airport. While chatting with the woman there (I am embarrassed to have forgotten her name), I noticed Carol’s name on a phone box sitting on the desk. I tried to explain that Carol was a lawyer and an obvious troublemaker and they should make sure to watch her closely. She asked if she should tell Carol who was saying this and I said “sure.” But, I think she thought I was a little crazy ( some do) and may have tried to forget me. After phone return and airport, we then drove over to Sunset for lunch. I had the organic chicken Caesar salad which was fine. Good service. I thought the place looked good. One woman was drinking at the bar for free and all kinds of people wanted to have their picture taken with her – kind of weird really, but everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Great trip. No problems of any kind except the bit of a hassle with the “all circuits busy” on the phone. Saw lots of Gendarmes and Police Municipal - saw more police cars driving around than before. We saw no checkpoints, but then we were back in Bungalow very early almost every evening and were not out and about when they might have been running some checkpoints.