SXM – AXA January 29 to February 12, 2013
Just some subjective musing.
No problem with USAir going down or coming back – early arrivals each way.
January 29 to February 8 – SXM. For this trip – the SXM part – I sent out the emails to Bruno (Paradise Bungalows), Michael (Unity), Sharon (phone), and Jeannie (groceries). Unfortunately, I had not booked early enough for high season with Bruno. The good news, however was that we got the chance to stay with Cecile at Orient Bay Lodge, which is her place within the Palm Court Hotel. Our third floor walk-up was very nice – well supplied with towels, dishes, and everything needed. Cecile has a great place at a great price! When we arrived the afternoon of the 29th, our groceries were already delivered. The produce we ordered was great and everything looked good. Great job Jeannie! On this first night, as on many nights, we ate in the room.
Wednesday January 30. Went over to Divi Little Bay to snorkel and had lunch at the Sea Breeze – where we have always gotten a decent lunch. Visibility for the snorkeling not too good – but OK. Beach and buildings looked good. Guard let me through gate after brief effort at telling me about the “car park” outside the gate – fortunately my confused and bewildered look quickly prompted her to just let us through. Walked up to fort while wife did her second snorkel of day – sign requiring “Written Permission” to go up to fort area still up and still ignored by me. Many of trails were overgrown and signs were not in good shape. Met one young couple who had not walked up to fort area because of sign – I encouraged them to ignore it. I continue to believe that the sign is illegal – in my view, the fort is a public part of the heritage of Country St Martin. Divi lost its fight to gain control of the Fort area and should accept it.
Thursday January 31. After early morning on Orient, we went to Bay of Prunes or Plum Bay. Snorkeling was very poor – almost zero visibility and it was rough. We did not stay long. We then drove to Bruno’s Dreams for lunch and to hang out on beach. The lunch was excellent. I had the grilled Mahi-Mahi and it was excellent. Wife stuck with a burger – which also was excellent. Bruno was dealing with a missing dog but very hospitable as always. Very nice place – not a typical beach place. We hope it does very well.
Friday February 1. Did Neil’s Friday Fun Sail on Celine. We had a great time. Snorkeling was not too good at Tintamarre –visibility again being the primary problem, along with a choppy sea. Lunch was excellent – as usual, Neil’s Paella was the showpiece. Next stop after Tintamarre was Creole Rock where the snorkeling was some of best of trip – the far side of Creole is some of best snorkeling in SXM in our opinion. Left the lights on in car for reasons unknown. Had to call Michael who had me call Dwayne (not certain of name) and he quickly got me to confess to leaving lights on. He came pretty quickly and gave me a new battery and we were on our way. Thank goodness for Unity service.
Saturday February 2. Hung out on Club O beach and swam to Green Cay for some snorkeling. Visibility was pretty good and other than Creole Rock, this was some of best snorkeling of trip. Ate at Andy & Cheryl’s for first of two times we had lunch there. The old gang all seemed to be doing well. George was working hard as waiter and bus boy, and seemed to be doing OK.
Sunday February 3. Went over to Pinel and hung out on Yellow Beach. Snorkeled in the roped off area. We swam over from Yellow Beach. Isabelle who works for the company the Reserve has contracted with called us over to the snorkel shack or whatever it is called and gave us a talk about what to do and not do in the snorkel area – she did assure us that there was no charge to snorkel. Snorkeling good, not great. Drove over to Simpson Bay and went on Neil’s Lagoon cruise starting at 5 pm that is free to JMB members, which we are. Enjoyable as always.
Monday February 4. Got up early and went to Dawn Beach for a snorkel and to get a good parking place before going on Captain Alan’s six hour snorkel and lunch. Francois was Capt – by himself – and did an excellent job. We snorkeled at Tintamarre (just for the turtles – not under the cliff as it was rather rough there). We then snorkeled at Green Cay and Pinel, having lunch at Pinel. Francois led us to a reef outside the outer buoy line at Pinel to a very nice reef. Francois did a good job with lunch – a very nice day. After the six hour snorkel, we changed clothes and cleaned up somewhat before driving around Oyster Bay to the big SXM party hosted by Norm and Betty. They did a very nice job of hosting. We had a very nice time.
Tuesday February 5. For the first time, we took a day sail trip on Winner Touch - the relatively new French Cat that sails out of Grand Case – it apparently is making life hard for Scoobi. You meet and handle the paperwork at the Calmos Café – which makes parking across the street in the public lot very easy. The cat is a huge 82 feet, easily handling the 28 or so pax on board for this day. They sail to Prickly Pear, where the snorkeling was good on this day, and you then have a very nice meal on board. A little pricey and not sure we will go again, but a very nice day. After the day sail, we had dinner at the Rib Shack which had a large crowd. Good food and good price. We turned right out of parking lot and were able to get out of Grand Case. Because of the cars parked on both sides of the street, there was only one lane for travel. Traffic was a real mess and we were very lucky to get out of town as easily as we did when we did.
Wednesday February 6. Returned to Divi for the day. This time told guard at gate we were going to lunch at Sea Breeze, which was true, and he let us through without comment. Snorkeling better than other day – better visibility.
Thursday February 7. Day spent on Club O beach. Lunch at Andy and Cheryl’s. Happy hour at Perch. Did about as little as possible.
Friday February 8. Last day in SXM. We spent morning at Club O beach before heading back to room and getting packed up. Drove over to Simpson Bay – bought the gas – and turned the car in to Michael. Instead of taking us to the airport, they took us to the Simpson Bay Police Station where Franklin Connor had told us to meet him for a ferry ride to Blowing Point Anguilla. Got there at 2 pm as agreed and were then picked up by a van and eventually delivered to the new Ferry Terminal near the airport. This is the Terminal that Anguilla paid to build – in an effort to increase tourism to AXA. Seemed a little strange to look over and see the terminal that Fun-Time and GB Express use – why they cannot use the same terminal is unknown to me. Waited around because they were waiting to see if folks scheduled to arrive at airport would arrive. When it later turned out that they would not make it until much later (because of NE storm), we left.
February 8 to 12 in AXA. We stayed four nights at the Arawak Inn Beach in Island Harbor, which we very much enjoyed. Maria Hawkins is a great Innkeeper and concierge. Our room at the Arawak was excellent, as was the housekeeping and service generally. We really enjoyed AXA.
Saturday, our first full day, we took a day sail on Chocolat with Rollins Ruan. We had met Rollins on Prickly Pear on prior day sails from SXM and had looked forward to the opportunity to take a trip with him. We had a great time – we did the barbecue lunch at Prickly Pear, snorkeled there, and then we stopped at Sandy Island on way back to Sandy Ground. Rollins is a character to say the least.
On Sunday, we took an excursion to Scrub Island with Joseph Lake which Maria had arranged – Scrub is an uninhabited island off the Northeast tip of Anguilla. Maria gave us a picnic lunch to take with us. It was a great day – nice snorkeling.
Monday, Maria drove us to Shoal Boay East at Tropical Sunset. Water too rough for snorkeling there. Maria had Raymond of Bass Rental Cars meet us at Tropical Sunset and he brought us an almost brand new car to use. We had gotten a car from him on Saturday to go to Sandy Ground. I can recommend using Raymond at Bass very strongly. We drove to Smokey’s for lunch – great lunch – and then drove to the Great House on Rendezvous Bay just to see it, as we were there several years ago. Drove over to Shoal Bay on way back to Arawak and checked out various hotels along Bay – dropped in at Gwens. I found driving on AXA much easier than on SXM.
On the 12th, our last day, we went to Colville Perry’s Heritage Museum – he has a nice collection and we enjoyed it very much. I had seen a book on the history of Methodism in Anguilla – “Born in Slavery” that I wanted to find to buy if possible but had been unsuccessful at stores in the Valley. I asked Perry if he had it in his little shop but he did not – he was familiar with it and had his own copy but none for sale. I told him not to worry about it, but he immediately started making phone calls, and found out that Bethel Methodist Church, an historic church in Anguilla, had copies in its office and they would sell me one. He was really super nice and helpful! We stopped at the church on the way to the ferry and I got a copy for $4 – very nice lady in church office sold it to me. At Blowing Point, someone from Bass met us and took car back. Zipped over to SXM on ferry – they drove us to airport – and we had a short wait before flying home on USAir. We had a great time on AXA and may well spend more time on AXA compared to SXM in future. The weather was not very good for snorkeling, but the beaches are beautiful and if the weather will cooperate, the off beach snorkeling is at least as good than on SXM.
