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Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Slow Tuesday

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Public artToday started slowly. We all slept in and didn’t get ambulatory til nearly noon. I went in for a quick snorkel and the water was clear and calm until you got to the reef! Seems like the reef is too close to the surface and it causes too much agitation in the water, making visibility just not good enough to take pictures. There are certainly lots of fish to see, just the photos don’t Legalize limesturn out well enough to post on the blog.

We drove into Philipsburg again and spent the day wandering about checking out the stores and the people. There was a HUGE cruise ship in the harbor and the town was full of people. We sat on the boardwalk and had lunch at place called The Big Wood. It was typical fare for lunch, nothing special, but beers were a buck.

I managed to find a couple shirts to buy – which makes the total somewhere near a dozen haha! Never seen such good looking shirts as in this town!

The viewWe’ve fallen into the habit of hitting the hot tub before 5 pm, since there is a 2 for 1 drink special from 4 til 6. We have a couple of drinks, then head home for a nap before dinner! Tough life, but someone has to live it!

Lunch time at the Big Wood GrillFor dinner we headed across the pond to Captain Oliver’s restaurant. We had intended to go to Captain Oliver’s a few days ago but we stopped at Le Planteur, a French creole restaurant that Maggie enjoyed. I thought it was terrible – I mean come on – they served my fish dish in tinfoil! lol – Anyway – it’s too bad we did not get to Captain Oliver’s that day, because it was probably the best food and service we’ve had on the island. We’ve made a reservation for Friday, our last day, for a repeat performance.

Out on the townThey picked us up from the hotel, and took us to the restaurant. it sits right on the dock, in the middle of the marina. Tables are set over glass, so you can watch the fish below you, including nurse sharks, large and small tarpon, turtles and many other smaller fish.

The appetizers – fish soup, Caesar salad, snails and shrimp were all amazing. The main courses were awesome. I had the mahi mahi in a Pernod sauce. It came with asparagus, carrots, spinach and potatoes. The presentation was sensational. The tastes were delightful. I couldn’t have dreamed a better dish! For dessert I had Pear Charlotte and while it was not what I expected, it was delicious nonetheless.

Parking is a skill, right?They brought a bottle of Banana-vanilla brandy to the table, and told us it was on the house and to drink as much as we liked. It too was a unique taste sensation.

They had a live musician playing music and singing, and he was very good as well. He was a very good guitarist, playing everything, but he played some Santana tunes remarkably well. It was a really romantic setting, and he fostered that feeling with his choice of songs.

A perfectly delightful end to the day.

Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Saturday on St. Martin

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Beach petsWell the first day of our last week dawned bright and clear (again). I got in the ocean here at Dawn Beach, but the waves are just too strong to make the snorkeling enjoyable. We’ve heard this is one of the best beaches, but only when the current is mild. So far, it has not been mild at all. The swimming is a lot of fun, but again, the current can be challenging.

Two We talked to some locals and they suggested Friar’s Bay as a great snorkeling place. We had already been there and had a nice enough time. They told us that we had snorkeled the wrong side of the bay, and that we should have gone up the right hand side. So, we figured, what the heck, let’s go give it a whirl. And they were right!

The bay was very calm today, with hardly a ripple on the ocean. Entry to the ocean was on some nice soft sand, and we quickly headed over to the rocks. We saw tons of stuff we had not seen anywhere else on the island. AND we saw some things we’ve not seen on any island! For me, the highlight was seeing stick crabs, crabs that have long very skinny legs. We had never seen any before, except in nature shows. That was so cool.

Another gorgeous Queen AngelWe also spotted four types of moray eel. There were Queen Angelfish, another boxfish, and Pam’s favorite fish, a Nassau Grouper! There were plenty of other fish we have not seen before and which we haven’t even been able to name yet!

The problem again, is my photography. I’m doing a terrible job of capturing these beauties. You’d think after all this time I’d be getting good at it, but it’s so hit and miss. It’s very discouraging actually.

Cool looking moray eelWe had lunch at Friar’s Bay Beach Cafe. If you should come to this beach, be sure to bypass this ripoff joint. We had two clubhouse sandwiches, one meat and cheese sandwich, and “chicken fingers” (with only two “fingers”), two beer and two coke. Price: $117.00. The food was not even very good. Ordinary would be stretching it. Eight bucks for a beer, when the most we’ve paid has been $2.50 anywhere else, even on pricey Pinel Island. Outrageous.

We piled back into the ocean for another leisurely snorkel up the right coast. It was great fun, and we got to see just tons of fish. The water clarity was very good, and we saw more morays, other fun stuff.

Maurice diving to take yet another bad pictureWe got back to the hotel for a soak in the hot tub, then off to dinner at a French restaurant called “Le Plainteur” just across the marina from our hotel on the French side. It is perched on top of a hill with a beautiful view of our hotel and the surrounding hillside. That was as good as it got.

Here it is snowing in St. Maarten!We should have learned from the French ripoff at lunch, but I guess we’re stubborn. The owner’s children playing far too loudly in the dining room was off-putting from the minute we walked in.

I ordered French Onion Soup. It was too cold to be called soup really. The Mahi Mahi Creole was served in tinfoil, and didn’t resemble anything Creole I’ve ever had. It was accompanied by a scoop of some overcooked mass of something indiscernible. The plating technique left something to be desired, to say the least. Dessert was Flambeed Bananas that were cooked beyond recognition. For me, this was one the worst meals I’ve ever had to pay so much money for! Honestly, for “French Food” this wouldn’t even pass as cafeteria food. Again give this place a bypass. You’ll be glad you did.

Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Anse Marcel

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Anse MarcelWe are staying at Dawn Beach, and one day we’ll make it up in time to see the sun come up – well I might, but Pam certainly won’t! The waves can be quite high here, so in order to snorkel we need to make sure it’s a bit calm. We’ve been in and it’s great, but the snorkeling has been less than we hoped.

Spotted trunkfishWith that in mind, we headed over to Anse Marcel on the French side, towards the far north of the island. It is a big bay, with lovely fine sand leading into the warm water. It was quite cloudy to start, but once we got clear of the sand and moved toward the rocks, we had some great snorkeling, the best we’ve had so far. The water was calm, with little wave action so it really was great, despite all the topless women.

Cocoa DamselfishWe finally got to see one of my flat-bottomed dudes too! Pam and Maggie and Tim managed to see a blue peacock flounder, and an eel of some kind too. There were the usual assortment of smaller reef fish. There were some French angels, lots of parrot fish, including the colorful rainbow parrots.

Sea urchinsWe headed back to Grand Case for a late lunch (around 3!) and tried a different lolo than yesterday, called The Sky’s the Limit. It’s great fun to eat at these places. The plates of food are amazing. Order the “full meal” and you get corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw, rice and beans, plantains, macaroni and cheese, vegetables AND your ribs, fish or chicken. All for 11 bucks.

Wedding Back at the hotel we watched a wedding right on the beach, complete with doves being released! How romantic. After the nuptials, we relaxed in the hot tub and enjoyed the happy hour. More iced drinks in honor of Peter and Calgary’s icy conditions. And soon to be Vancouver’s lot I here too… that’s a real shame! We’re thinking of you – and trying not to laugh tooo toooo hard!

For dinner we headed to Big Fish, a restaurant located right on the dock at the marina. We were welcomed with a handshake by Brenda. An amazing restaurant really. Most restaurants here, and all the Caribbean for that matter, add 15% to the total, and then try to pry an even bigger tip out of you. Not so at the Big Fish. They put on every page of their menu that they believe you should reward good service, and you set the price. Nice.

The food was remarkable. Plated on wavy fine china, my dinner of “Mahi Mahi Renee” was truly memorable. Stuffed with crab and topped with lobster sauce, it was a taste sensation. Their soups were served in nifty mini dutch ovens, complete with lid! Service was friendly and efficient. The setting right on the dock, was very romantic and idyllic.

We are staying at Dawn Beach, and one day we’ll make it up in time to see thesun come up – well I might, but Pam certainly won’t! The waves can be quitehigh here, so in order to snorkel we need to make sure it’s a bit calm. We’ve

been in and it’s great, but the snorkelling has been less than we hoped.

With that in mind, we headed over to Anse Marcel on the French side, towards

the far north of the island. It is a big bay, with lovely fine sand leading

into the warm water. It was quite cloudy to start, but once we got clear of

the sand and moved toward the rocks, we had some great snorkelling, the best

we’ve had so far. The water was calm, with little wave action so it really was

great, despite all the topless women.

We finally got to see one of my flat-bottomed dudes too! Pam and Maggie and

Tim managed to see a blue peacock flounder, and an eel of some kind too. There

were the usual assortment of smaller reef fish. There were some french angels,

lots of parrot fish, including the colorful rainbow parrots.

We headed back to Grand Case for a late lunch (around 3!) and tried a

different lolo than yesterday, called The Sky’s the Limit. It’s great fun to

eat at these places. The plates of food are amazing. Order the “full meal” and

you get corn on the cob, potato salad, coleslaw, rice and beans, plaintain,

macaroni and cheese, vegetables AND your ribs, fish or chicken. All for 11

bucks.

Back at the hotel we watched a wedding right on the beach, complete with doves

being released! How romantic. After the nuptials, we relaxed in the hot tub

and enjoyed the happy hour. More iced drinks in honor of Peter and Calgary’s

icy conditions. And soon to be Vancouver’s lot I here too… that’s a real

shame! We’re thinking of you – and trying not to laugh tooo toooo hard!

For dinner we headed to Big Fish, a restaurant located right on the dock at

the marina. We were welcomed with a handshake by Brenda. An amazing restaurant

really. Most restaurants here, and all the Caribbean for that matter, add 15%

to the total, and then try to pry an even bigger tip out of you. Not so at the

Big Fish. They put on every page of their menu that they believe you should

reward good service, and you set the price. Nice.

The food was remarkable. Plated on wavy fine china, my dinner of “Mahi Mahi

Renee” was truly memorable. Stuffed with crab and topped with lobster sauce,

it was a taste sensation. Their soups were served in nifty mini dutch ovens,

complete with lid! Service was friendly and efficient. The setting right on

the dock, was very romantic and idylic.

Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Marigot and the French Side

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Germain's PlaceWe headed over to the French side today, first to Grand Case, a town renowned for their restaurants. There is a long sandy beach that has homes propped right against the sea. There are narrow passages between the jumble of buildings to reach the water, but there is basically no room to leave your gear while you jump in the ocean. So we didn’t go in the ocean here.

View to Anguilla We wandered around the town, where everyone speaks French. Some have very poor English, but it was a nice little town. We had lunch at a “Lo-Lo,” an open air snack shack with large open barbeque pits. They offer quick, cheap Caribbean fare, including ribs, jerk chicken, creole fish and shrimp and homemade ice cream. Maggie was unable to resist the smell of “Germain’s Place”! Their plate of ribs was large and delicious. I had the creole shrimp and they were served in a mild curry scented creole sauce. Very delicious too.

We piled back in the car and headed to Marigot, to check out the large open air market and hunt for deals. And we’ll have to keep hunting! There were no deals to be had in Marigot! The same Rima Hawaiian shirts that sell in downtown The walk up to Ft. Louis, St. MaartenPhilipsburg for $8.95 each, or three for twenty dollars were offered in the open market for fifteen each! You can get them to come down to ten each, but that’s it.

One woman offered me one shirt for ten dollars, and when I said I wanted to buy two, she said, “Ok, twelve dollars each!” Naturally, we bought nothing! Although there was one very cool thing – little tiny guitars in their own little tiny hand stitched leather cases. Each was about 10 to 12 inches long – perfect replicas of the guitars of famous stars. Too funny! But at 60 bucks, a little too pricey for my tastes.

Another view from Ft. Louis, St. MaartenWe checked out a hilltop fort, built in 1789, and named after the French king Louis. There are crumbling walls, and a few rusting cannon laying around. But there are impressive views of the harbor, the town, and nearby Anguilla island, however, making the climb worthwhile.

Art on a roundabout We returned to home base and staked our claim to a seat in the hot tub. It was happy hour, of course, so in honor of all the snow in Calgary, we decided to only drink iced drinks today, like pina coladas, mudslides, and daiquiris. Cheers Pete! But we nearly all got frost bite, so we’ll have to curtail that tomorrow!

We tried the Infinity restaurant again with their special Creole menu. The food was different, but not memorable. A small storm sprang up during dinner, and the outdoor floor show was moved indoors. It became quite noisy so we got the heck out of there.

Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Downtown Philipsburg

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On the Boardwalk Because I had not used sunscreen the first couple of days, and couldn’t manage another day in the ocean, we decided to head into Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. It has a nice boardwalk that runs along the harbor, with lots of shops and restaurants on one one side. It has a few casinos, lots of jewellry stores, and not much parking!

Philipsburg harbor, from the boardwalkPam figured I’d buy a bunch of Hawaiian shirts, but I bought El Zippo!! Not through lack of trying mind you! They just never had my size! Lots of XXL and XXXL (my old size!!!) but none in my size, in the colors I wanted.

We have always bought a glass fish on every Caribbean island we’ve been on, and we looked long and hard for a cool one. After hours of walking around, it came down to a glass shark or one that looked like a file fish. Since I like file fish better than sharks, we grabbed the file fish. Very cool…

St. Maarten bar We tried to find a restaurant that served Keshi Yena, but no luck. After some exhaustive internet search, it seems to be local to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We had numerous recommendations to try the Holland Beach Hotel, but no luck – they did not serve it and the concierge looked genuinely lost when we asked about it.

The quaint shopping area in PhilipsburgWe asked several locals, and they’ve suggested a couple of Dutch bars on the island and I’m sure we’ll check them out over the course of the week. If you do not know what keshi yena is, it’s a dish made with the hard rind of a hollowed out gouda cheese, with chicken (or beef or fish), olives, some spices and lots of vegetables inserted into the hollow cheese then baked – kind of like a lasagna without noodles. It’s fantastic and Pam and I have tried it on Aruba and Curacoa and we just thought it was available on all the Dutch Antilles islands. But evidently not!

An Old Street, and an Old car!We shopped most of the day, and came back to Oyster Bay for a dip in the ocean. We tried the reef out front of our hotel, and while the view was spectacular, we had some difficulty with the power of the ocean waves! There were lots of fish to see, but wow – the waves were powerful and gave us all we could deal with. I almost lost my mask, my camera and my shorts! Not a pretty sight I can assure you!

Oyster Bay Beach Resort We had dinner at Beau Beau’s again. It is a short walk from our condo – like 2 minutes! They had a great Tuesday dinner special. We all started with a salad. then choice of dinner – grouper filet, grilled chicken or a steak, served with rice or potato, with some veggies. Desert was chocolate cake (VERY GOOD). Also included was a glass of white or red wine. All for 25 bucks, INCLUDING tip! You can’t beat that!

Afterwords we headed back to the condo and Pam and Maggie beat Tim and I in a game of canasta. This is the third time that Pam and Maggie have won in the thirty or so years we’ve known each other. As you can imagine, Pam and Maggie were walking on water…. And it definitely needs mentioning on the blog! Congrats ladies!

Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be only 30 degrees celsius, so we’re not sure what to do. So chilly! I’ve heard that Calgary has some snow and about minus 30 celsius weather, so I imagine they don’t have much sympathy for us who have to deal with this kind of weather. Still, it’s not easy.

REMEMBER – GO TO WWW.MAURICEO.CA when this site dies. And it will die sooon.

Commentary

New Domain

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I’ve been having a lot of trouble with my domain host, and it looks like I won’t be able to continue using www.mauriceo.com anymore… It’s a huge drag, but hopefully I’ll be able to have the new website up and running on www.mauriceo.ca in a couple of days.

So if you come to www.mauriceo.com and see a porn site, check out www.mauriceo.ca to find our REAL site.

I’m hoping I can arrange to have it changed over even though we’re 3000 miles away from home. No promises.

WWW.MAURICEO.CA    —  the new domain —- if you can’t access www.mauriceo.com then check out WWW.MAURICEO.CA

Commentary, St. Maarten, Vacations

Pinel Island

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He came a-knocking on our door!Well Monday began with a shock. Pam jumped out of bed, all perky and ready to go BEFORE everyone else! It really woke me with a start! I thought there had to be a fire, or an earthquake… although the last time we were in an earthquake, Pam slept through that! So you can imagine, it was very disconcerting for me.

Pinel IslandAfter calling security to ensure all was ok, we decided we should try out Pinel Island. Most of the reviews we have read said that this a not-to-be-missed highlight. It’s a smallish island, fifteen minutes north of our condo, about five minutes across a small bay by water taxi.

The taxi was seven dollars each, for a round trip. Once on the island, the beaches are made of the same fine white powdery sand. There are numerous umbrellas, each with two attached chairs, for rent for fifteen dollars for the day. So that meant $29 for each of us.

A couple of ballyhoo There is a protected marine park, with bouys lining a “course” for you to swim and see a very nice assortment of coral. There were fish, but not as numerous, or as varied as we’ve come to expect. One highlight was certainly the schools of ballyhoo, who swam with us. In other places, they usually do not hang around, but move off. These guys just hung around and there were a lot of them!

Tim with the largest Sgt Major EVER!The current was quite strong, especially when the course left the protected edge of the island. It was a work out! We saw parrotfish, Sgt Majors, trumpetfish, assorted grunts, damselfish, wrasses, etc. The surprising thing is that we have not seen one of my favorite fishes – I call them “flat bottomed dudes” – the trunkfish, cowfish guys. Not one! Amazing.

Maggie waves at a passing ballyhooWe had lunch on Pinel Island, and wow, that was one pricey meal. A simple hamburger with fries was 16 Euros! That’s $24 Canadian folks! So my recommendation is that you pack a lunch if you’re heading to Pinel! A can of diet coke was a steal at 4.50 Canadian.

It was a tiring trip. The surf was strong and gave us all a good workout. We came back to the condo for Pam waves on Pinel Islanda quick change of clothes and a small nap. As the sun set, we thought we’d try the restaurant in the condo called Infinity, which overlooks the infinity pool.

It’s a very nice restaurant. Cloth tableclothes and napkins add to the sense of well being. The waiter was efficient and attentive. The food was spot on, from the “Classic Onion soup” to the coconut chocolate mousse and tiramisu for dessert. Tim had the daily special, a chicken scallopini served with a pasta in a light sauce, and pronounced it excellent. Pam and Maggie had the chicken stuffed with sweet sausage and were delighted with it. GruntsMy roast pork was very nice too. The presentation was on white square plates with a modern plating technique. All in all, it was a terrific end to a really swell day.

By 9:30, I was ready for bed! I might have got a little too much sun, (there is apparently something called sunscreen that can help with that, so I might have to see just what that is….) so tomorrow I think we’ll do some exploring of the towns of Phillipsburg (Dutch) and Marigot (French), maybe take in the forts, and the markets. Pam has wagered that I will be buying AT LEAST three new Hawaiian shirts… We shall see!