ST MARTIN '02: Day 4

Tuesday: We spent most of Tuesday resting. It is a vacation after all. We lazed around, watched telly and, every once in a while, we'd look out over the view of Dawn Beach. J&R headed off to do some stuff, Daiv and I stayed at the resort for some downtime-24 hour other people isn't our thing. We do well together since we aren't attached at the hip, but when we are around other people *all the time*, we get a bit cranky-well, more than a bit. We walked the long arduous 2 minutes to the beach and stayed in the water bobbing in the waves and watching the afternoon clouds turn dark.

Oyster Pond,
by fredletstravels.

The Caribbean is an interesting place. There are lots of people who are just sailing around the islands, expats who spend their time coasting around soaking up the sunshine and living what probably is a pirate's life... its probably not as romanticized as that, but I admire the nomadic lifestyle.
We had reservations at Citrus later on that night. Its a fairly new restaurant on the island. I think its geared toward New Yorker's and Californian foodies-evident in the decor- but the food ROCKS. I had the tasting menu that included oysters, a bit of game hen on 'forbidden rice' with pate, venison and a chocolate cake. I refrained from licking the plate, but that was a hard won battle. WONDERFUL food.

ST MARTIN '02: Day 3

Monday: Monday! Things are open on Mondays. We headed in the counter clockwise direction again and went to The Talk of the Town in Grand Case for lunch. This little restaurant, called a lolo, has bbq chicken, ribs, shrimpies and fish (though the shrimpies left a lot to be desired) the bbq barnyard variety animals were pretty dang good. Lolo's are apparently the way to go in St. Maarten/St. Martin. They are fairly cheap and don't have tons of obnoxious tourists lolling around eating up the good food.
After lunch we moved on over to Marigot to see what they were like when they were actually open for business. None of the towns on the French side are very big. A few streets and many junk stores interspersed with obscenely expensive jewelry stores (I don't understand the allure of all those badly designed rings and necklaces-except maybe resale value...not my style anyway. And those Lladro statues are tasteless. Yarg.) We dropped by to get another brioche and headed off to finish the circuit of the island.
It seems that we're only allowed to go in one direction around the island...heh.
We stopped in Phillipsburg to get a week's worth of dialup access, the web is rather popular around here. I counted about 3 or 4 internet companies here just roving around the island. That's promising. Even Kentucky Fried, a major player here on the island, has a website (www.KFC-SXM.com). That I simply find surreal.
We wandered up and down Front street (the local row of shops for the cruise ships when they drop by for a visit) and found a tshirt for me, a sweatshirt that I couldn't even conceive of wearing at that point, but intellectually I knew I'd wear it back home and some miscellaneous stuff to remind us of the trip. The Phillipsburg Liquor Company was the final destination for the day. The rums around here are cheap and plentiful. They range from sickly sweet (www.guavaberry.com) to the amazing RumJumbie. I'm not a big rum fan, but that stuff smells pretty dang good.
We trundled home after an exhausting day and decided to drop by another place recommended to us by a pal of a pal. The shack next door to a swanky, and rather lame restaurant, had great food and cheap beer for happy hour. We sweated out of every pore for about an hour and a half before we left. The little bar is the hangout for the local yahties and you have to trust the locals.
We decided to go swimming after the sauna of a meal and watched the stars come up over the lights on the horizon from St. Bart's.
Mmmmm...beautimous.

ST MARTIN '02: Day 2

Sunday: We woke up and made coffee (necessary) got our collective acts together (only took 2 hours for 4 people-not bad) and got in the car to scope the island. We worked in the counter clockwise direction. Orient Bay is the local nude beach, though it was sparsely populated, and is completely beautiful. The sand is soft and fine. Apparently other islands' sand isn't so perfect and require Aqua Socks or the like to walk along the beach and shore.

Scooter in Grand Case,
by fredletstravels.

Grand Case is the next town along the way. It is what I think of when I think of a Caribbean vacation; brightly colored housed, narrow streets, a preponderance of tourists on scooters coming home after the morning shopping for fresh food. I'd probably try to stay there if I came back to this island.
Marigot, further along the Northwest side of the island, is a small French city. I felt like I was in a small French town when I saw the street signs, French traffic notes and the green cross denoting a pharmacy. I instantly homed in on a patisserie and nearly swooned when I had my first bite of a real pain au chocolat in about 3 years. A brioche and cafe creme later, I was fortified enough to get back in the car and ride back down into the Dutch part of the island and Phillipsburg again. One more pass at the supermarket to pick up some DIVINE Nutella gelato locally made (as well as other flavors-alas, they were out of the chocolate that we sampled the day before-but I can understand why there's a chronic shortage of it.)
We played on Dawn beach in the afternoon and later on that night tested the hot tub at the resort's pool area. It wasn't hot, but it was warm enough to hang around for an hour or so before being ready for sleep.

ST MARTIN '02: Day 1

Saturday: We arrived about 6 hours earlier than originally scheduled. Daiv managed to switch our flights at Orlando to the next one out (and luckily, we beat the new rule about no changing flights on Oct.1) We arrived in St. Maarten slightly behind the couple we were meeting up with in the line at customs. Stopped for lunch, shopped at the local supermarket and then did the short ride over to the residence. The first night was quiet as you'd expect after a 24 hour solid flight schedule from the US.

ST MARTIN '02: info

Dawn Beach,
by fredletstravels.

Sint Maarten is separated into two parts- St. Martin, ran by the French, uses Euros and has French bakeries that make me weep with joy, and the Dutch side that seems to me to be a throwover to the old pirate days. Its about the size of a lumpy San Francisco. The beaches are wonderful, the water is warm and somewhat tame despite the hurricane season and Lili, Kyle and Isadore running through the area. (I also haven't seen any sharks or barracuda so far, and that's fine with me.) We are staying on the Dutch side, almost on the border at Oyster Bay. Our balcony overlooks Dawn beach and we can walk to the beach in 2 1/2 minutes flat (3 if you are barefoot.)