Trip Report #4 6/16 - 17
Breakfast today was pour over ice coffee, scrambled eggs, baguette with fig compote. We enjoy breakfast in our studio but tomorrow morning we plan to go down to the Mango Cafe. Mahokid asked about Mango, so after breakfast I took a walk down to check it out. Funny thing is, we must have walked by it 20 times since we arrived and never noticed the name. It looked primarily like a coffee and espresso place, but I stopped in and talked to the waitress who clued me in on what they offered. She was very friendly and mentioned they make fresh juice combinations and smoothies. Their display contained various breakfast cakes that looked inviting. I asked if I could take a few photos and she said yes. Their menu indicates a variety of breakfast options including eggs, pancakes and bagels.
I noticed a few questions in replies to my previous reports and I spent some time responding this morning in the context of the particular report. One thing I saw deserves special mention. There have been NO water problems since we’ve been here. Our VRBO host said they’ve been threatening to turn the water off from 10pm thru 6am, but so far have not done that. We have water and great water pressure. This studio is equipped with a cistern, so if we have any problems we have an alternative to public water. They did mention that we shouldn’t drink any of the water so we stock up on bottles.
I got burnt the other day and we thought it a good idea to stay off the beach for a day. So the plan for is to head over to Sunset Beach Bar.
Before I continue on our trip to Sunset, the bottle of rum we purchased last night, Papillon spicy, was interesting. The labeling is all in French but what I can make of it, and based on the taste, it has vanilla and a variety of florals. It is spicy and took us a few zips to arrive at “this will do”. We hope to stop in a store on the way back from Sunset to buy our go to rum, Kracken. We have a local rum distillery nearby where we live that produces an amazing butter pecan rum. We pour a shot of Kracken and then top it off with a splash of butter pecan. Yum. Our favorite rums are, not in any necessary order: ALL OF THEM! Joking. We like: Pyrat, Dominico, Goslings, Papa’s Pillar and Kaniche (the bottom comes in a red wood box. Exceptionally good).
We arranged for Wilfred to pick us up at 10:30am for our cab ride to the Sunset Beach Bar. He was prompt and we had a good conversation with him on a variety of subjects on the way over. He pointed out the renovations in progress in Marigot and the buildings still in disrepair since hurricane Irma. Our take on things is that the island’s recovery is remarkable. You would never know how extensive the devastation was in much of what we saw on our ride. We arrived at the beach bar and were able to take a high top seat out on the deck by the water. There weren’t a lot of people there when we arrived around 11:20am but as noon approached business picked up. We ordered waters and cups of ice and I had a Presidente with a cup of ice and my wife had a Guinness with ice. I can’t count the times when we’ve ordered beer and a different waiter would bring it out and put the stout in front of me and the Belgian style wheat in front of her. It’s the other way around!!! Though I enjoy a stout too. She won’t touch a Belgian wheat. We got the coconut shrimp, which were so good with a side of sweet and sour sauce.
Planes, of course, were arriving but I noticed the JetBlue scheduled for 11:20 am from JFK hadn’t arrived. (You can access a schedule online of all the flights coming into SXM). I wondered if there was a storm delay and sure enough I checked my weather app and there was a storm front racing across the east coast. On cue, my daughter and grand daughter texted me almost simultaneously. “Tornado warnings!” The weather app radar showed the front was just about on top of them looking quite angry with reds, oranges and yellows. They both sent me photos of the scary looking clouds and dark skies. I responded immediately with a photo of the cyan blue sky, turquoise sea with a sailboat in the distance. The humor was lost to them but it was no time before the storm subsided. “Dud” my daughter assured me. The JetBlue did arrive finally. I was going to go out to the beach and take some videos but there was a sizeable crowd of people waiting for planes to arrive and take off so I decided against it.
We ordered lunch and my wife got the fish tacos which she said were very good and I got a cheese quesadilla which was kind of dry and not very flavorful. We ordered two more beers, this time we both had the Guinness. We’ve been coming to the beach bar since 2004 and I’m sure many of you have been coming way before that. During lunch I was reflecting on Bamboo Bernies, and a place called Bliss. We ate at BBs and had drinks at Bliss. When we were at Bliss, which was earlier in the evening, there was hardly anyone there (it would get hopping much later in the evening). A playlist of interesting gentle electronic music was playing and I remember each of us having a glass of rose, sitting out on a deck near the water with lights strung around and the moon shining down. It was a very romantic beginning to our first strip to SXM back in 2004.
We were thinking about taking a ride over to Philipsburg, and had told Wilfred our intent for him to stop back around 2pm, but we decided against it and headed back to Orient Village. The heat was getting to us a bit and his air conditioned car was feeling very good. We ran out of our small bottle of Kraken rum last night and asked Wilfred to stop by the super market to pick up another but they were out.
Why is the rum always gone? I opted for a bottle of Havana 7 but we’ve never had it so we’ll see how it goes. By the second glass it will start to taste better regardless. We got back to our studio pretty tuckered, laid down for awhile then headed down for more small bottles of water but they were out at both stores. Why is the water always gone?
We purchased a six pack of 1.5 liter bottles as we’re just about out. Oh, as we came down a were walking to the stores we heard this loud screeching sound in the middle of the road. A donkey was walking out there. What the heck! I read where someone mentioned they were out by Club O, so maybe this one walked down for dinner in the village.
We’re not sure what we’ll do for dinner tonight. You ever have the feeling when nothing sounds good but you feel you should eat something? I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We need to stop by the vendor again for our grand daughter’s bracelet so maybe we’ll make our way into one of the restaurants for tapas. Not sure you can even do that here. The evenings are pleasant in the village, with a constant ocean breeze, which makes for an enjoyable experience walking around and then out on our deck later.
We ventured out around 6:30 pm and immediately went to Hip and Trop the jewelry vendor where we had purchased my wife’s bracelet. Manoua also crafts dresses along with jewelry. She is a beautiful, friendly and accommodating young woman who the night before crafted a special order bracelet for our grand daughter. Most of what she had on display was silver in color, which our grand daughter doesn’t wear, so Manoua made a gold bracelet which is beautiful. My wife also chose a ring to match her own bracelet and a ring to go along with our grand daughters bracelet. We purchased a tan and black bracelet for another grand daughter and then I asked Manoua if she minded a photo of her and my wife. She was very enthusiastic about doing that. There was another vendor a table away and I purchased a leather and stone bracelet for myself. Our another granddaughter doesn’t wear jewelry so we purchased a candle for her from another vendor. My cash was running out, so I’m glad we ran out of grand daughters by then. And that there’s only two of us. None of the purchases were above $20, most going for around $10.
We are creatures of habit. The standout option for us, not wanting to eat too heavy tonight, was another meal at Sao Asian. We talked to the waitress and let her know the food was wonderful last night but we had trouble tolerating the smoke. She was quite nice and understood and suggested a seat more toward the back of the restaurant. It looked too enclosed to my liking so we opted for a table sitting right out in front of the restaurant. The night breeze and the fact that few were smoking tonight made for a perfect evening. We both had a signature lobster sushi roll and a glass of rose and water. And ice
I got all proud of myself being able to grab an edamame one at a time with my chopsticks. Our sushi was excellent and the rose quite nice. We agreed, rose taste so much better in St. Martin. It’s very good at home, but still.
The restaurant was packed and the plaza was buzzing with adults and kids. There was a vendor right at the edge of Sao who was a magnet for kids in the 8 - preteen ages. I watched as they looked and handled much of the vendors product. He patiently looked on and engaged the kids with a smile. The boys and girls would investigate the items then run in the opposite direction, assumedly to their parents dinner table. Eventually the moms and dads came out and every child packed away a memento of their dinner adventure.
Since we only had sushi we each ordered a dessert. My wife had banana flambe with rum sauce and I had the chocolate fondant with vanilla ice cream. OMGosh! These were so very good.
By the time we got back to our studio we both were very tired and it was late, 9:30pm. I started back writing this trip report hoping to publish it tonight, but we really wanted to cap the night off with the Havana 7 rum. So I decided to finish it up the next day. The Havana was good. In fact, my wife asked what kind of rum was on the flambé, to which the waiter laughed and said with his French accent, “I don’t know. If I told you it would be giving out trade secrets”. However, he came right back out with the bottle and it turned out to be a while Havana 3 rum. We thought that was a fun coincidence. The Havana 7 was quite good. We enjoyed about a half hour together on our deck, gazing into the dark night sky and down into the village, lit by street lights and cars driving in and out along the road. Most were leaving the area most likely having completed their dinner. We noticed the parking lot across the way and the street were packed with cars and we realized it was Friday night. I wonder how it will be tonight? Oh yeah, we could see the donkey meandering about on the parking lot, appearing under a street light then slinking back into the darkness. I wouldn’t want to meet up with that face to face unexpectedly.
Saturday morning we planned on going to the Mango cafe for breakfast. The waitress, Ann, was so very friendly and explained the menu and took our order. There is a seating area that goes out from the counter area and walkway toward the street that sits like a covered porch and has about 8 tables. We sat at the end by the road and watched as patrons came and went as we ordered and enjoyed our breakfast. My wife had the pancakes with strawberries, blueberries and sauce, whipped cream and granola. Let’s just say they were loaded! We have some left over for tomorrow as the portion was huge. The pancakes were heavier than an American version and she said the dish was excellent. I had eggs over with bacon. Ann asked when I ordered if I wanted cheese also. I asked, “You mean on the side.” She responded, “No, it’s placed on top of the eggs.” That sounded good to me so I said yes please. It came with slices of baguette and the eggs reminded me of my childhood where they are all crispy around the edge and on the bottom and the yoke is perfectly preserved. There was also a small arugula salad on my dish. An amazingly good breakfast. We both had an ice coffee latte and their “happy water”, which is ice cold water shaken with cucumber. Very good. And happy! We told Ann we have heard good things about Mango Cafe and she wondered from whom as they hadn’t been open but for a couple months. We mentioned TTOL and let her know we’d be writing up a review of our experience, which we said was great! We feel, happy! She told us Mango is owned by the owner of Sao Asian. Ann also said we should come back and try their bagels.
We are not sure what we’re going to do today. We thought about going back down to Le String but it is already very hot out and not sure we’ll make it. It’s already 11:25am and we both are stuffed from breakfast, so lunch there doesn’t sound feasible. Looking out onto our deck from inside there are a lot of clouds in the sky and as I type it’s raining. Just a passing shower. We’ll see how the rest of the days go. Neither of us feels like doing much today. We just had a conversation about skipping the beach, going down to Bikini later for an early dinner (the restaurant closes at 4pm) and maybe just hanging out there for awhile. I might bring down my paints and do a scene from the restaurant area vantage point. I’m sure they won’t mind if we order drinks for a couple hours. Oh, since typing the last few sentences, the rain has stopped and the sun is shining. Ah, St. Martin!
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So refreshing!