Jan 3
Not so early start for me today. I never did get around to putting on sun block yesterday and ended up getting a bit too much sun, plus for some reason my feet were kind of sore. As I got thinking about it I realized that, including my morning walk, I walked 9 km the first day and 12 km the second all on sand and usually in bare feet. I guess that explains it then! I'll skip the morning walk today but am looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow, it's a real nice way to start the day and something I could certainly get used to! I also got a tip on a shop at Club Orient that sells croissants in the morning so Paula will be happy if I can bring one of those back after my walk! In no particular hurry we got started about 11 o'clock today heading off to Maho Beach to watch some planes come in, check out the brand new Blue Mall and get some groceries before coming home. Getting back to the airport was no problem in the daylight although the route is still a sight to behold! In some sections it seems quite poor and in most sections the roads are narrow and second rate. We took a wrong turn at one point and ended up at the city center of Marigot which appears affluent and modern looking. It was an interesting detour (on the list of places to visit) and once we got out of the city center again it was back to poorer neighbourhoods. When we go back to the area of the airport is when the first of todays folly's started. From my Google maps satellite views I figured I knew the way to get to Sunset Beach Bar and Grill where you can have food and drinks right on the beach and watch the planes come in. I was actually quite proud of how I knew where the restaurant was but at the same time frustrated that I couldn't quite find the road to get me there! As we fumbled through back lanes and side roads I just couldn't believe that such a popular restaurant would be so damn hard to find! I finally broke down and asked a man for directions. While English is widely spoken on the Dutch side, and this old fellow obviously spoke it, I could still barely understand him with his accent. It turns out I was completely on the wrong side of the runway and needed to have gone down the other side of the airport. Five minutes later travelling the right way we were in the parking lot and ready for lunch! Being used to the length of Orient Beach Paula was surprised at how small Maho Beach was and we both noticed how much hotter it was without the east wind blowing in off the water. Paula had a grilled Mahi Mahi burger that was pretty good and I had Grouper fingers that were also enjoyable. We had a couple of tropical drinks to wash it down with while we watched a few planes come in. This is where I planned to take a few shots so even though the lighting wasn't what I wanted I snapped a few shots with the idea that we'd come back later when the time was right. However, after 3 minutes on the beach Paula expressed a desire to go and no desire to return! I have to agree that it's a little noisy and crowded for our tastes but I still want to return to get a couple of specific shots before she goes home. Next stop was the brand new Blue Mall! Its a pretty fancy building, I'll give you that, but we didn't find
much to buy. Most of the stores seemed fairly upscale and didn't interest us. The mall was pretty empty but it's only been open a couple of weeks. We'd heard Long Beach was pretty nice and headed out that way from the mall. However, only a few yards along we noticed a sign for Cupecoy Beach which is another one we wanted to visit. So we parked and headed down to find pretty much everyone on the beach naked! Apparently we had found the CO section again! No matter. Cupecoy has a lot of cliffs and rocks, unlike Orient and we headed off past some rocks to find a quiet section just to ourselves. Well, apparently there's a reason some sections are quiet and we found that out when a big wave came in and washed up over all our stuff! Lost were my flip flops and the sun block and almost lost were Paula's flip flops and my camera bag with a few thousand dollars worth of gear in it! Fortunately I was able to save my gear and another beachgoer came by and rescued Paula's sandal. The wave action was pretty crazy, not sure I'd have gone out to get it but glad he did! My shoes bobbed away a few yards of shore apparently taunting me and reminding me of how close I was to losing more. We dodged a bullet there to be sure!
Once settled in to a drier spot we headed off to what appeared to be a safer place to get in the water. That's when we met Pat from Newmarket, Ont. Another Canadian! He and his wife had been coming for 18 yrs and were very friendly, sharing their thoughts and experiences of the island. We had a little fun in the water then I took some test shots of the gorgeous scenes from the beach as it's another spot I would like to return to for sundown photography.
About 5 o'clock we thought it best to head back to the mall and buy me some shoes because at this point I had none! With new sandals in hand it was off to Grand Marche for groceries before again navigating our way home in the dark. This time worked way better as I got nowhere near Oyster Pond let alone circumnavigating the island!
Not so early start for me today. I never did get around to putting on sun block yesterday and ended up getting a bit too much sun, plus for some reason my feet were kind of sore. As I got thinking about it I realized that, including my morning walk, I walked 9 km the first day and 12 km the second all on sand and usually in bare feet. I guess that explains it then! I'll skip the morning walk today but am looking forward to getting back to it tomorrow, it's a real nice way to start the day and something I could certainly get used to! I also got a tip on a shop at Club Orient that sells croissants in the morning so Paula will be happy if I can bring one of those back after my walk! In no particular hurry we got started about 11 o'clock today heading off to Maho Beach to watch some planes come in, check out the brand new Blue Mall and get some groceries before coming home. Getting back to the airport was no problem in the daylight although the route is still a sight to behold! In some sections it seems quite poor and in most sections the roads are narrow and second rate. We took a wrong turn at one point and ended up at the city center of Marigot which appears affluent and modern looking. It was an interesting detour (on the list of places to visit) and once we got out of the city center again it was back to poorer neighbourhoods. When we go back to the area of the airport is when the first of todays folly's started. From my Google maps satellite views I figured I knew the way to get to Sunset Beach Bar and Grill where you can have food and drinks right on the beach and watch the planes come in. I was actually quite proud of how I knew where the restaurant was but at the same time frustrated that I couldn't quite find the road to get me there! As we fumbled through back lanes and side roads I just couldn't believe that such a popular restaurant would be so damn hard to find! I finally broke down and asked a man for directions. While English is widely spoken on the Dutch side, and this old fellow obviously spoke it, I could still barely understand him with his accent. It turns out I was completely on the wrong side of the runway and needed to have gone down the other side of the airport. Five minutes later travelling the right way we were in the parking lot and ready for lunch! Being used to the length of Orient Beach Paula was surprised at how small Maho Beach was and we both noticed how much hotter it was without the east wind blowing in off the water. Paula had a grilled Mahi Mahi burger that was pretty good and I had Grouper fingers that were also enjoyable. We had a couple of tropical drinks to wash it down with while we watched a few planes come in. This is where I planned to take a few shots so even though the lighting wasn't what I wanted I snapped a few shots with the idea that we'd come back later when the time was right. However, after 3 minutes on the beach Paula expressed a desire to go and no desire to return! I have to agree that it's a little noisy and crowded for our tastes but I still want to return to get a couple of specific shots before she goes home. Next stop was the brand new Blue Mall! Its a pretty fancy building, I'll give you that, but we didn't find
No comments:
Post a Comment