Caribbean cowboys

Jan 11
One thing Paula wanted to do here was some horseback riding, preferably in the ocean. There are two places you can go and we chose the cheapest one at €65/pp which cleaned us out of the rest of our euros. Amazingly it was also close by, just after the Butterfly Farm on the Orient Beach road! We arrive on time at 8:15 for the 8:30 ride. I thought it would be best to have an early ride before it got

too hot but the fact is that the temperature only varies about 5 degrees here from low to high so it didn't matter much either way. 220 lbs is their weight limit so I just made it! As they started to bring out their horse I could see why 220 was max! The horses are quite small and slight of build, in fact they resembled ponies more than horses. They load the biggest first and work their way down. I got a decent sized horse named Joker then waited for the other riders to meet their mounts. Paula was one of the last to get a horse, Rusty. Remy was our guide and lead us out on the trail for the 1 hr ride. He seemed to be quite knowledgeable and talked about all manner of St Martin. Someone asked if there were any snakes and he said the island has no snakes except in pet stores. Some people might buy a pet then release it when it gets too big but he said that snake would likely not last two days before a Mongoose got it. In fact Mongoose and Racoon's are probably the islands main predators. He said many on the island believe in herbal applications more so than modern medicine. In his case he makes his own shampoo in a blender with cactus and coconut. Better than anything on the shelf so he says. Anyway, the tour goes through the mangrove then comes out into Le Galion Bay where you get to ride the horses in the surf. Paula loves this part! It was fun and the horses seemed to enjoy the cool down. Once we were done the tour we stopped by the Paradise View restaurant whose parking lot provides a great panoramic view of the south end of Orient and Le Galion Bays. We took some pictures with the new waterproof camera and I vowed to come back later and shoot with the Pentax. We decided that another beach day wouldn't be a bad choice. I've kept us pretty busy and Paula really enjoys a day on the beach, listening to the waves and reading a book. So, off to Orient again!

One thing that sucks about the Club O side is that you can't get the bucket of beer for $10. So on the way there we asked at Chez Leandra if we could borrow the bucket. He said sure, just give me a $5 deposit and no problem! Now why didn't we think of that before? When the usual afternoon rain shower passed over we decided to go to Papagayo for lunch. I ordered too much food and we were stuffed when we left. This was a problem because we had planned one more Grand Case night before Paula went home. As it turned out we weren't completely full and decided to go to Grand Case anyway. This time we went to Bistro Caraibes since it looked like they had some good specials. I wanted to try their French Onion soup and Paula their lobster bisque. My soup had a lot of cheese but didn't otherwise wow me although Paula's bisque was good but also not earth shattering. For the main course I had sauteed scallops and Paula the snapper with ratatouille vegetables. Again, the portions weren't huge which was a good thing for us. We swapped half way through but I think my scallops were the best choice. For dessert we shared their house specialty, chocolate cake with caramel sauce and ice cream. At first I wasn't wowed, but once into it I have to admit it was very good... and rich too! Bistro Caraibes does not honour dollars equal to euros so this meal was a little more expensive (about $120 before tip). They did have a live lobster tank where you pick your own lobster but really we would pick elsewhere next time.