May 7-14 (Week 19) our seventh escape to SXM together. The weather was excellent, making up for last year’s persistent gray cloud cover. Sunny and hot, clear blue skies with high cloud ceilings, cooling breeze. The island pace was easy during the turn into low season; few ships in port, cruisers barely noticeable unless you were somewhere behind the wheel.

Travel: Continental direct (Newark to PJA) problem free; breezed through immigration, met up with Leslie Bruce (Kenny’s Car Rental) and were on our way within five minutes.

Belair: Our home-away-from-home is clean and comfortable, great to see friendly faces welcoming you back. The beach was active all week long. The building and grounds are well maintained, the flora gardens were healthy and full. Noticeable improvements include a new parking lot!, storm drapes installed on the third floor, new cushions for the wicker furniture, and colorful new bedspreads. We saw ongoing maintenance as rooms are occasionally unoccupied – even the maintenance staff is friendly. Expansion of the Gingerbread Café will commence during the next few weeks. BTW, just kidding about the new parking lot (mini ha-ha for responsible people parking between the lines). Provisions at Grand Marche (well stocked in all sections) and Cost-U-Less around the corner on Bush Road.

Irie Surf Report (Jah Love)

Little Bay: We spent two afternoons on the Belair beachfront. It doesn’t get any easier than walking twenty steps down to the shoreline. No need to reserve chairs or umbrellas, there is plenty of room on the beach. Sunny and hot, the surf along Little Bay was gentle all week long; most everyone there was in/out of the water throughout the day. FYI The small beachfront swimming pool is designed for teaching children how to swim and the few preferring a chlorine wash :-)

Orient: We spent three days at Club Orient - it has been a few years since the beach was this healthy. Two rows of chairs and umbrellas were set up daily, and there was room for two more rows. The surf was almost as calm as Pinel. All points north on Orient looked similar – plenty of room for everyone. Most of the crowd at ClubO was in and out of the water frequently, and the parasailing/watersports further north were active daily. All of the Orient restaurants seemed comfortably active mid-day. We walked Orient several times throughout the day without hassle, as did many others familiar faces. Club Orient remains the same; we parked in the grassy lot next to Papagayos without charge, chaises and umbrellas were $6 each respectively. The security crew was filling in for the beach crew on two days, collecting tolls and managing setup/breakdown. The Perch was active during happy hour all week long.

Cupecoy: One day at Cupecoy; the north beachfront appears to be slowly returning. There was enough room for one row of chaises/umbrellas along the rock wall; any closer to the shoreline was washout. Destina and Danny continue to provide beach amenities (food & beverages+). The surf was especially rough – large crashing waves, strong undertow. Several people wiped out trying to get into/out of the ocean, not exactly ideal for inexperienced swimmers. I was one of two people who ventured into the ocean without problems; as an experience swimmer, I will admit the rough surf was an effort. We kept our gear on the rocks after the first of several massive waves rolled up to the rocks and took our gear for a short swim -- funny to see everyone in a mad dash into the break to retrieve their belongings. In addition to the construction madness of the Cliffs (adjacent to Citrus/Market/Inn at Cupecoy), the property at the turnoff to the parking strip was recently cleared for some sort of development.

Tintamarre: We were one of four couples on the Tiko Tiko cruise – everyone got along great, mixing it up on the beach and in/out of the water. Wow, this was an ideal escape - the weather was especially sunny and hot, and Tintamarre was relatively quiet. A few sailboats were perched offshore for the day; one or two textile cruises passed by with a brief stop, keeping their distance from the naturists. Phillippe and Melanie are wonderful hosts - everyone had a great time. P.S. the mudbath is priceless…

Food Stuffs :-)

Baywatch: Andy and Cheryl are gracious hosts. Mussels a la Andy (traditional recipe) was right on; Andy chuckled after asking my opinion – the most important feedback was all of the mussels were open :-)

Papagayos: Service at lunchtime was fine, the sandwiches and salads were delicious.

Kakao: We were stuck there for nearly 90 minutes during the one downpour on Orient. Pizza was below average; salads were better. Most of the restaurant remained dry through the storm… after we returned to the beach at ClubO, the no-seeums had their own party (we called it a day at that point).

Mark’s Place: Good local spot in the Grand Marche center… seemed quiet when we arrived, within 45 minutes it was SRO with locals. The grouper was excellent. Bang for the buck - we’ll visit again.

Ti Coin Creole – Chef Carl was kind enough to fill a request for the curried conch and curried goat. Delicious.

Marty’s Gyros: Marty is doing well, always has a few minutes to sit and share island happenings. Gobbled some yummy custom gyros on a busy evening.

Jimbo’s – the endless barrage of radio commercials on 92FM mesmerized us; the food acceptable at best.

Hidden Forest Café – WOW, this was worth the effort – don’t be scared away by the steep roadway into Pic Paradis and then down to the Loterie Farm. We were completely shocked by the absolute beauty of the ecoForest (the smell is intoxicating, great sound effects) and the open air restaurant is a perfect fit. The meal was excellent - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO EVERYONE!!! (and thanks to the TTOL members recommending this restaurant over the past few months).

Tiko Tiko – the lunch onboard was delicious! Natalie was raving about it (and just a tad rumpunch drunk hahaha).

Miscellaneous… if you are high season regulars and have never experienced the island during bumper or off-season, you owe it to yourselves to enjoy the slower pace on the island… traffic is just what it is, we’ve learned to go almost everywhere from Little Bay via Sucker Garden hahaha… finally visited Rima’s and picked up a few small bags of tchotchkes for office gifts; they have a great assortment of everything island-beachy cheep-cheep… missed seeing Luis this trip, he didn’t open on Mother’s Day… Vincent is now taking care of six friendly felines who comfortably mingle with the Belair crowd… the only downside was our timing did not coincide with the full moon party schedule – I don’t understand how so many people say they will attend and then pass it by, hell I’d be there if it was snowing…

Some pictures will be online in a few days – send me a PM for an invite to the 2005 album.

!!!SHABBA!!!