Monday June 17

We had breakfast in our studio. I went down to Good Morning, which sits just below our studio, and bought an egg, ham and cheese quiche and an almond croissant, both to share. As always, pour over coffee over ice. Still not much of a breeze but our balcony was still pleasant.

We are enjoying not doing a lot this trip. We were on the beach last week a lot more than our second week. So time in the A/C of our studio is still feeling like a relaxing vacation. So rather than head right out, we just chilled in our studio for most of the morning.

Our plan is to have pizza at Orange Fever. We walked down around 11:45am and immediately were greeted by William who led us to a couple chairs and an umbrella on the first row. We ordered two Caribs which he brought out in cold bottles with a glass of ice each. Nothing like a cold Carib on Orient Beach with the waves breaking ahead and the rich blue sky above.

We headed up for our pizza around 2:00pm and found a nice table further out from the enclosed restaurant which enabled us to enjoy a breezier experience than if we were inside. JC came out and took our order in a few minutes. I opted for a Diet Coke while my wife ordered a frozen mojito. We ordered a pepperoni pizza which arrived pretty quickly. It was thin with some char. The crust was crispy and a perfect mix of cheese and sauce. She said her mojito wasn’t as good as what we both got at Bikini Beach Bar.

We returned to the beach and went for a swim. We were approached by at least 5 different women offering massages. Some are more high pressure than others, but all will eventually move on when you kindly say you’re not interested with a smile. We do massages from time to time but on the beach is not something either of us would opt for. After laying out for a little longer we went for one last swim for the day, paid our bill at the register, and headed back to shower and prepare for dinner.

We walked around La Place du Village, a very brief walk across the street from our studio, and at first thought we’d have a Guinness and share a burger at McCool’s Irish Pub, but didn’t fancy the ambience there this evening as the seating all seemed cramped together. We strolled out and looked at the menu at Favella and took a table right out in front where there was a little more breeze.

I ordered the lobster bisque and pulled brisket tacos, my wife had ratatouille and the pulled brisket tacos. She joked that they would most probably just dip a lobster in my bisque but I had higher hopes. She was right. There were no pieces of lobster to be found but the bisque was rich in flavor, had a slight bite and was quite creamy. The bisque was accompanied by toasted bread which I added to the bowl of bisque for more texture. It was quite good. My wife loved the ratatouille. We both felt the meat in the tacos was a bit too over cooked so as to be more of a sauce than solid meat. They were on the salty side but overall we enjoyed them. The waiter brought a rum digestif with the check as do most all restaurants we have gone to. This was passion fruit and was very good.

We’re noticing that the restaurants have a noticeable decline in patrons since the weekend and that would be true for tomorrow evening. It is after all, off season.

After dinner we headed back to the studio for the evening, watched some YouTube videos and retired around 11pm.

Tuesday June 18

We enjoyed another home prepared breakfast of egg and cheese on a tortilla, a couple dates and our iced coffee.

We needed to resupply our refrigerator with water and pick up a few other items so we headed down to the Casino market. We’ve probably gone through at least 15 large bottles of water so far. We do use almost a whole bottle when I make pour over coffee so it’s understandable we use so much.

Not much to report of our day. More studio A/C chillaxin.

However, we had our absolutely best dining experience of our vacation, when considering location, food and over all ambience, at Rancho del Sol.

We have passed this restaurant every time we’ve driven to Orient Village but this is the first time we’ve ever had a meal there. We opted for a late lunch and arrive around 2pm. The parking lot at first looked full but we found a spot in front of the building right as we pulled in and I saw an ample amount of parking to the right. The restaurant honestly has never impressed us as we passed by on so many occasions but a couple we had met on the beach at Le String said they had a very good experience.

As you walked into the restaurant and to the right you are greeted with an open area seating deck with an amazing view out toward Orient Bay. It sits high on a hill, so though breezes have been light this week there was a very refreshing breeze coming in the whole time we were there. We were surprised to find peacocks roaming through the seating area and thought that was quite cool. There was also a chicken and when people began feeding bits of salad and bread to the chicken an iguana appeared out of nowhere rushing for the morsels. The iguana usually won out over the chicken but the peacock was having none of that and made some quick swipes at the iguana with its beak before chomping down the food.

We loved the feel of this place and enjoyed looking out at the sky, hills and ocean from the high vantage point. There was quite a bit of storm activity in the distance, so the cloud formations were pretty amazing.

The waitress brought out a table menu of today’s specials and the porcini ravioli with mushroom cream sounded good to share. My wife ordered what they called tuna half cooked with a side of rice and I ordered baked half chicken with potatoes and side salad. I ordered the chicken before I saw the chicken walking around and hoped it wasn’t a friend. We also had a glass of rose which was one of three offered by the glass and sat in between the sweeter and dryer wines. I asked to see the bottle because it was what we like in a rose and wanted to see if I could purchase a couple bottles to take home. It is called Mason Charlotte but I was unable to find it in the Casino market when we got back.

The ravioli was superb and I could have made a meal out of the dish if we hadn’t decided to share. My wife really enjoyed her tuna. My chicken was a bit dry, though it did come with au jus which was very richly deep in flavor. So that helped a lot.

We each ordered another glass of wine and were so enjoying the view, and feeding of the animals, that we decided on desert. I had the coconut flan and decaf cappuccino and my wife had a sundae with coffee ice cream and a decaf cappuccino also. The desserts were very good.

Getting back on the road afterwards is an adventure as traffic to the right is coming around a curve and up the hill as is the traffic to the left. We finally found a break in the stream of vehicles coming by and held on for dear life as we pulled out onto the road.

We did lay down for a bit afterwards but wanted to go down to Bikini Beach Bar for sundowners. My wife had a draft Heineken and I had an Aperol Spritz. There were hardly any people at the bar tonight as compared, again, to this past weekend. We walked down by Yellow Submarine afterwards and then over to La Place du Village to see what was hopping. Both venues were also scarcely populated comparative to the weekend.

It was a very enjoyable day and we’re looking forward to the remainder of our week.

Lancer

Thanks for the report. We haven't been to Rancho del Sol for quite a while, but it does have quite a lovely view. Your time is winding down now, I know, but for future reference anyway, Rancho USED to do delivery, if you're interested in that.

Good to hear you had a great meal at Rancho del Sol. We haven't ben back since early 2000's . Found so many excellent places over the years.

Thanks for another great report! I have been enjoying the pictures and the food reports from the French side. We spend most of our time on the Dutch side when we visit with day trips to the French side which usually include a lunch somewhere. I've been leaning more and more lately on booking a week at GCBC to start off one of our visits so we can enjoy the restaurants for dinner without a long night time drive.

Whale tail, go for it you won't regret it. We really like Calmos Cafe. We rarely eat on the Dutch side. So many great restaurants to eat at. We weren't fond of la favela in orient though. We didn't feel their food was worth the money as the food was just ok.

Have been really enjoying your reports,especially the food and beverage reviews. The last time we were at Rancho was many years ago. We ended up getting crème brûlée to go promise that we would return the dishes. Might have to put the, on the list for our November trip. We stay in the village also,and have never seen a crowd at Favella so we never ate there. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Really enjoying your reports and pictures. Thank you for sharing. We have visited Favella in the village on two occasions and enjoyed both experiences…once in November and one this past May. We had the chicken fajitas both times, they were plentiful, with good flavour. Also good service.

While the daily menu at La Favala doesn't entice us, they have some upscale daily specials including fish and tar tars of the day