I realize I’m doing a really poor job of “Live in St. Maarten”. It’s a bit difficult to get online, with the internet being $50/week for personal use, and the business center only having 2 computers. Needless to say, I doubt I’ll be able to post any pics until I’m back in the States.
Anyway, it’s my second full day in St. Maarten. So far I have seen the airport, and my hotel (The Westin) on Dawn Beach, and everything on the drive in between on the Dutch side. I have yet to venture over to the French side.
The food is amazing….can we say fresh seafood? Dinner the first night was GREAT fresh fish, with a very odd side dish of wasabi mashed potatoes. And last night was this big pirate-themed buffett, complete with steel band and firedancer. Two thoughts here- 1) How does one get into the hobby of eating fire, standing on a bed of nails, or walking on broken glass? Do you just wake up one day and say, “Hmm, let’s try this and see how it goes?” 2) Seeing the hostess with an eyepatch, I thought to myself “Argh. I left me best eye patch back in New York”. I proceeded to then realize I sounded like a cross between Irish and pirate. The rum punch didn’t help the accent much. Fun evening as a tourist/pirate/Irishman.
Also got to get in a little snorkeling time yesterday. Imagine how surprised you are, to wade out to waist deep water, don your mask and snorkel, and poke your head underwater to make sure you won’t step on any long-spined sea urchins while donning your fins….and finding a decent sized barracuda just a few feet in front of you! Definitely caught me off guard!!! Although Dawn Beach is supposed to have some of the best snorkelling on the island, the water has been really rough and it was a fight to move around much, unless it was to be pushed back to shore by the waves. Maybe the better part of the reef is further out, but it was still pretty cool nonetheless. LOTS of long-spined sea urchins. But the coolest part? Spotting two cuttlefish!
The cutest animal in St. Maarten award goes to a bird I have yet to discover the name of. It will definitely be worthy of Christie’s “weekly dose of cute” as they look to be pint-sized pigeons/doves. Yep, they could fit into the palm of your hand, and are the cutest bird I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, back to the great outdoors—but VERY covered up. Just a short while outside yesterday, most of which was cloudy, and I have a WICKED sunburn. Special thanks to my sister for putting just a drop of her excess sunblock on my arm, as it now looks like I have a white barking dog’s head on my very red arm.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You better get me some good pictures of the cutie then!!
Hope you’re having fun on vacation!
You just said two of my favorite words ever:
1) Seafood (now I’m hungry)
and
2) Snorkeling (haven’t been since honeymoon in Jamaica 5 yrs ago)
Color me green…
Well, I have yet to be impressed by the snorkeling, but I am very impressed with the seafood. I’ve had awesome yellow fin tuna, red snapper, shrimp, grouper. LOVE the fresh seafood. Actually my mom’s snapper lunch took so long to get that I said, “oh, they’re out catching it right now”.
hopefully they are at breakfast again this morning. seriously, they are the cutest birds I have ever seen!