Airport musings

Sad day, the 29th. Hannah, Esther and Sophie,and Seth have flown away. Our Christmas visit is over. Hundreds of travelers were stranded at even the Princess Julianna Airport but our birds got out on time and really left. We’ll see how they fare in Newark.

Once they were through passports, Paul and I drove to the next village to get shwarma wraps then parked back at home and walked down to the Maho beach to watch the plane take off. Great excitements there as wave swells had dumped dunes of sand on the beach head and onto the road. (Earlier this morning, after droping Seth off, Paul helped a van get out of the sand (like being caught on snow and ice). I was just walking up with some big palm branches when the driver finally gained traction.

Actually, there is a lot to say about this….

1. The road curves around the end of the airport and the runway (it’s fenced)
a. This is the only road connecting two popular areas, Beacon Hill and Maho.
b. There is a lane in each direction separated by a low wall.
c. The beach is on the far side of the road from the airport.
d. There is congestion at both ends of this short passage – people congregating, open air bars, parking, hotel entrances, taxi stands.

2. This passage presents an issue that sometimes requires a host of Police, roadwork crews, sand movers, convoys of huge dump trucks, extra men to try to direct traffic and forbid parking by clueless tourists
a. Large sand moving equipment brought in to transfer sand to dump trucks takes up one of the lanes.
b. The expansion of the airport runway (in accordance with the development model the country is pursuing) has successfully lured larger jets which, upon takeoff, cause blasts of said sand to spew back on the road and the crowds, which have gathered to experience exactly this.
c. When these conditions prevail, the sea is high and dangerous and spewing water over the retaining wall and onto the sandy road. People will try to swim anyway, and tourists will continue to double park in the road, they will also hang onto the airport’s wire fence in hopes of being lifted like a windsock despite signs depicting exactly this behavior and warning them against it.
d. Nevertheless, all goes fairly well until the arrival of the next giant dump truck which may require a whole line of cars, vans and taxis to exit the only open lane in reverse.

All this was occurring while we waited for the plane to leave. It was delayed about 40 minutes but finally took off, cleared the mountain it was headed for and rose into the clouds and was really, really gone.

Everyones’ attention soon turned to the water where five men on Jet skis had appeared and seemed to be moving in and out of a formation. They broke apart and variously tackled the mighty waves. They rode them like surfers or rode against them, doing handstands on the handlebars as the large wave tossed them into the air.

Xmas on SXM 2010

Visions of Xmas: red and green, colored points of light, perennial silvered orbs and cherished fancies older than my great grandfsther. Faded paper chains and angels from happy years. Candles, trees and boughs, piney fragrance and spice. Music, bells, and song. Rustling tissue secrets, ribbons and surprizes. Carols set in Druid forests, hills, heavens and gothic chapels; stories from 19th cen counting houses and prairies. Snow.

Chrsitmas Eve sunset over the ocean, from our window
Xmas in SXM: Plastic piney roping with red bows are wrapped anywhere, a 30' fully lit tree looms over the casino rooftop , inflated snowmen, santas, angels on street corners and life-size, life-like animated Santas wave from shop doors and open cafes, decked out in snowflakes and blue tinsel. Reggae carols. Sand.

A few desicated balsams are for sale in groceries while artifical firs decorate every shop and lobby. Otherwise, conifers are not found on this island. The casino's street dancing girls come out in scant Santa suits and hats all with fake fur trim and thick, knee-high furry leg warmers over their high heels, and bump and grind to pepped-up seasonal pop classics. Their parents and friends mill about in support and in case they faint, possibly.

21st -23rd
Hannah and Esther have arrived! Let's go to the beach! But the sea is too strong at both nearby Maho and Mullet bays so we drove to the other side of the island to try Orient Beach, the famous crescent of sand on the French side. Then on to the village of Grande Cas and ate ribs and conch at an open cafe and watched another sunset.

After dark (6:30 pm,) we walked around Marigot, the French side capital, to show the girls the town. There was fete on and everyone was out, including the Rasta guy who sells vanilla beans. When we wished him good luck selling, he replied he didn't believe in luck, only in Love, Respect and Ambition.

This was a long, long day and the driving was stressful in the dark. The girls have gotten a glimpse of this place.

Our Christmas Eve

Spent eve's day at the Beach with the masses of friendly Americans here for the holiday. The waves were down from the day before when we were warned of the rip tides by local surfer kids. (They ended up having to rescue 2 young teens who were swept out, we heard)

The sea swells at Christmas/Soltice time, they told us (yes, we watched the eclipse!): Swollen is the best word. By January, it will be calm again, usually.

Normally, it takes only a little time and some attention to figure how to gauge the wave action to enjoy the ocean. With sea swells, the wave pattern is less predictable and the rip is longer and much, much stronger. The waves can get higher than they look like they'll be and the sand is more pulled way back and into them until some waves look like sandy water while others remain clear. Imagine a massive celadon wall of water, rising up with the sun behind it, bodies dangling within like jellyfish, the sand pulled smooth up to its base.

It's fun to be in, but eventually you want to get out. Swelling waves don't carry you like ordinary waves do so you can't just cleanly body-surf in and walk out of the water. The sandy bottom can suddenly be pulled out from under you, making it impossible to gain foot hold before the next wall hits.

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In the evening, the girls made pomanders with cloves and tangerines sold from an umbrella stand. Our decorations were a crocheted lace star from Saba, lacy Flamboyant Tree fronds in a Moraccan vase, small clippings of this and that, some bright red bouganvillea, cards from home the girls brought down and a few candles.

Paul drove over to the airport to pick up Seth, Esther's boyfriend. He is staying downstairs in a tiny apartment we rented from a student away on vacation.

Our dinner included a layered crepes gateau florentine with mornay sauce and mushrooms, a joint effort of crepe-making and shopping. It's from Art of French Cooking, vol 1, and fun to make. Alas, the oven bottom-scorched our cookies (note that cookie dough is interesting when pan fried.) Cooking here is like when camping, inconvenient but goofy fun for being challenging.
We all got pretty sodden with coconut milk-based experimental drinks.

..take the eggs.....

After all was cleaned up, we started to feel a little sorry for ourselves, missing what might be going on elsewhere this night, but there is no church in our village, Maho. We pulled up Lessons and Carols from King's College Chapel on UTube, as were millions of other homesick souls, judging from the speed of loading. Hannah found a hymn site and we sang the carols which still held us: Lo, How a Rose..., In the Deep Midwinter and Silent Night.

The casino and the Platinum Club bounced along through the holy night and I lay dreamless, visions of sea swells in my head.


CHRISTMAS DAY

Despite no sleep the night before, Santa came and filled athletic socks with the bare-bones of tradition: chocolate gelt and a sectioned chocolate orange and a book to read here.
Everyone went to the beach but Santa, who was tired and feeling overworked. She went back to bed and slept when she wan't reading and felt much better for it.

Later, we are excited bacause we have gotten lobsters! Upon thawed inspection, I don't like their looks so much but Esther boils them up. They still took quite a lot of processing and "saving" so we ended up with Lobster Thermador instead of a beast each. Luckily, cream had been on the shopping list and it's only sold by quarts here. And once again, dry sherry saves the day....

Sophie made best-ever potato salad and another tomato letuce salad.

For dessert, a beautiful Pear tarte from Sarafina's!


*** HAPPY CHRISTMASTIDE TO ALL!***

Saba Interlude

You can make photos larger by clicking on them

Sophie and I (Carol)are now back in SXM . The various flights were smooth but took all the daylight hours. We left home before dawn (leaving the first real snowfall - beautiful) and arrived after sunset at Princess Julianna International Airport,where Paul was waiting with the car.

Paul had made tasty mixed fish chowder for us! We unpacked, repacked for our next adventure and fell over into sleep.

Even earlier the next day, we trundled down the road in the dark (waking all the dogs) and failing to negociate a reasonable taxi rate and not seeing a bus, we walked the really very short distance back to the airport. I was not so thrilled but actually, it was just fine as the road and shoulders had been improved over the year and it was much, much shorter than I had imagined.

Truthfully, I needed that mental adjustment to push me into a new mode for I was apprehensive about this whole project - the tiny prop plane, the short runway waiting us, the dormant volcano we would be sleeping on and the vertical hiking vis a vis my own endurance! I'd been quite intrigued by the island, Saba and the Eco-Lodge from first reading about them but thought them beyond us. Four hour hikes up mountain trails - no alternative?

But once in the plane, the spirit of adventure took over as it always will. Otherwise, one would get out, right? After the screeching halt, we did take a taxi up to almost the very top of the all-green mountain - as far as the hairpin turning road could go (and by the way, that perfect concrete road is only 50? years old; before that the local folks used a maze of steps, carved into the hills long ago. Those steps now comprise a good part of the hiking trails and like all steps, they are nearly vertical!)

It is impossible to describe the Eco-Lodge and cabins unless the reader has been to summer camp. Here is the difference - no piney smells, no horizon - for everywhere you turn, you are looking into a wall of looming tropical plants, mossy rocks, ferns layered upon ferns. If there is a break or a turn, the clearing will not be a flat lake or fields, it will be a sharply falling valley with close pointy mountainous hills rising over it and the ocean beyond, and clouds.










Sophie and Paul set out the next morning for the summit, to Mt Scenery, and will tell their own story.

I was happy just to be there but eventually set out on my own to poke about. All the cabins are tucked away on minitrails and covered by plantings and soon, I realized I was not on real trails. But, I saw the huge cistern which collects and holds rainwater, the only water used in camp and indeed, on the whole island. I tried to follow the various pipes and leads and wires from the solar collectors to the cabins (the only electricity used) and from the (total 5 min/day) showers and sanitary in-cabin composting toilets. The systems are carefully set out and managed and pretty well concealed.


I found a real trail finally and set out. It was a wonderland, not really a hike, but more like a crawl upward on ancient semi-hidden steps wiht mossy boulders offering handholds. Lots of fun, never the same from one footfall to the other - a thinking trail. After what seemed a long time, I came to the first major turn and descent and sat on a mossy rock and sketched for a time, enthralled. Picking my way back, I found a spider had built her web across the trail but left me a space to creep under. Later that day, we followed the trail to a village and more the next day.


The island has a few villages, Windward, The Bottom, the two Hells Gates (upper and lower) and St John's. The population is around 2000 and is mixed, generally Dutch and descendants of enslaved workers. It is all under the protectorate of Holland. There is the small, tidy airport and a loading pier (newish.) The waters surrounding are a Marine Park and are famous for diving sports. Hiking and diving are it - no casino underlife, no "shopping," for cruiseboats can't get in. There is a Medical University. All the buildings everywhere are white, all the roofs are red tile, everything else (except the concrete) is green wiht the exception of the white, orange yellow and red flowers.

This was a wonderful retreat and I encourage you to consider it: http://www.ecolodge-saba.com/.



ps. stay at least two nights and 3 days and be sure to rent a cabin with a hot tub on the deck - you'll like it after the walks! Tell them we sent you - thanks!

Final weeks at AUC

It has been a busy end of semester as classes come to a close and exams are run. We had no holiday for Thanksgiving but, instead, the University sponsored a traditional turkey dinner feeding over 600 people including students and employees. As faculty we all took turns serving and the different classes came for dinner at intervals throughout the day. It was very traditional and actually very good! No oysters though so Carol's Mother would have been disappointed no doubt, but there were some pies and non-traditional ginger coconut sweets. It came at a good time since it was well before the time students worried about exams and the final semester students were doing a full week of review (Kaplan Live) where many of the main themes and facts they have been faced with during medical school are summarized again during 35 hours of continual overview. The instructor, who comes from the USA for one week, was just a mass of energy and I sat in a few times and found it quite useful in seeing how my own areas of teaching linked to other areas in ways that I hadn't connected.

The following Saturday was a busy one indeed. In the morning, five of us from the University joined about 30 others in racing 12-metre yachts as I talked about in the last posting. That was a lot of fun though we certainly were kept busy. A picture of the group in our yacht is shown before the hard work started. I in sunglasses, just behind and partially obscured by the man in the blue T shirt (Dewey Hertz of the Pathology Department). After the wine tasting and punch reception be retraced our steps to go to another party given at Sue Atchley's house. She lives near the University and has created a wonderful home with a Japanese flavor, out of a space that was largely a dump for car wrecks etc. And what a party that was! A local restaurant made the pumpkin pie and for once it was really fabulous. More of a mousse than the typical stodgy, if still tasty, pie.

This past weekend, we had another sailing trip as a faculty end of term party. Luckily a beautiful day and we went snorkeling for a while - I finally have a really wide fitting pair of flippers. The best fishes were however all around the boat and not much was visible close to the shore. My car decided to die on our return: a problem with its alarm that was mended by a local mechanic by deactivating it. The Subaru has been a great car but I always hated that alarm system since it would go berserk whenever I used a key to open the door rather than the radio transmitter. In addition, it annoyed me by giving a short blast on the horn every time I entered or exited the car. It is so annoying to have all these extras built into cars.

Yesterday, the Diabetes Foundation did blood testing at a festival run by the Ujima Foundation that works with youth development. There were many school groups doing dancing and singing and it seemed to be a very Caribbean affair.

I now have a week when I will be scanning a number of papers and consolidating my documents so I don't need to carry much home in January since I need to be out of the office by the end of the year. It will be fun having the family come down at last.

Fine weather activities

November 18, one week to Thanksgiving and the University is putting on a Thanksgiving Dinner running all day to cover about 700 people. I wonder how close to a US Thanksgiving dinner we get? I do hope the ultrasweet yams and marshmallow topping are not part of the menu. I am serving during the last session.

It is going to be a busy time since there is probably a faculty party on the Saturday shortly after a group of us have been sailing in 12-metre America’s cup yachts as part of a Diabetes Foundation Fundraiser – a great opportunity at a greatly reduced price from normal. The boats we are in are pictured at http://www.12metre.com - Inappropriately for diabetes, but welcome, the 2-3 hour experience includes drinks on board plus rum punch, snack and professional wine tasting after we return. So I expect to feel quite hazy by the time I get back to the apartment.


Up to now, it has been a glorious November: Not too much rain, if any, and bright sun and deep blue seas, just like the Caribbean should be. My old black lady friend has been visiting again, snorting around the house late at night and complaining as I drive her away. She seems to have become a nocturnal visitor with all the neighborhood dogs proving a chorus of barking to signal an intruder is around. I have a rather poor picture of her by flash as she bars my way to the door that leads to our stairway.


We had a visit to Philipsburg a couple of Saturdays ago. A colleague, Fernando, from the Pathology Department and our librarian Chris went down for a day. It was nice to have Chris there as she planned to shop and therefore became a magnet for the salespeople, while Fernando and I just looked on and tried free samples. One store had a bottle of “Shipwrecked” strawberry liquer for $3, but it is very sweet and probably only really good in an English trifle. Fernando, took us to a Gulmohar’s. It seems to advertise fine jewelry on the web suite but the picture says otherwise http://www.best-stmartin.com/detail.asp?storeID=4160&catID=15&typID=28 There was a fantastic selection of rums and whiskeys many available for sampling. The rums themselves varied but some of the better ones were superb. One was particularly tasty with a back taste of whiskey coming from having been aged in old whiskey barrels. Though we kept to sampling only the rums, we sure were pretty happy as we rolled out over to a beach restaurant for lunch. Also in Philipsburg, there are Indian groceries and they have a good selection of prepared sauces in packets as well as an impressive variety of all sorts of food wanted by the Indian community here. The prepared sauces are are actually very good and, with a bit of rice, meat and extra vegetables and some yoghourt make for an excellent and easily prepared dinner.

That same day, after a bit of sobering up, I had a trip back to Philipsburg with several other people from AUC to see a play “Antillean Green Card” in the Cultural Centre. Most amusing with some very good acting though the story line became a bit unbelievable at the end. The audience really got into the mood of the platy and it was an animated interchange with the actors. Really a lot of fun and I didn’t sleep at all- something I worried would happen after my rum-filled day.



November 11 was a national holiday, St Martin’s Day, and several of us went to Pinel Island for a day of sunbathing renting beach chairs and just vegging out. It is a short boat trip and has the advantage that you don’t have to watch stuff with an eagle eye since if anyone stole your bag, they would not be able to get off the island fast. Just drinking and lazing around in the sun is a very Caribbean activity and we all agreed we were totally exhausted by this strenuous work when we got back around 6:00PM.



Last weekend was the diabetes Walk-a-Thon, said to be around 6 miles but it felt less. Only I and Chris (our librarian) got up early for it. It started at 6:00 PM. It did give a chance to see a nice sunrise and some mushrooms.

Just finished my last lectures- over 20 organisms, many very important ones, that cause upper respiratory tract infections covered in 3 lectures! I think I got the message across that people who worry about vaccines should compare the so-called problems (almost all are falsely touted) with the real likelihood of death from infection should their children not be vaccinated. At least vaccines have not become whipping boys of mainstream politicians! We are all horrified by the situation of cholera in Haiti but it doesn’t not really impact St Martin since it is a long way away. However, I suppose persons traveling from Haiti right now will be carefully screened wherever they go in the Americas.

Catch up from last message: The professional singer at the Anglican choral event was Mr. Melvin Hodge. Well worth hearing and I will be checking out when he performs at one of the Casinos.

A month goes on by.

So now it is November: you wouldn't really know that the seasons were changing so fast up North since it stays sunny, rainy on occasion, and warm. I've been busy teaching, having had to put together a slew of new lectures covering a vast number of organisms: poor students! they'll forget pretty much all the detail but hopefully these lectures will provide them a framework for use in preparing Board exams and for practicing medicine.

You do feel kind of isolated here when you get sick: I had a heavy upper respiratory tract infection that was no fun: still it cleared up eventually and I am now happy to cruise the beaches again and generally participate in island life, including having lunch at Sarafina's.

Talking of which, I had a great time this past Saturday hearing the combined choirs of the two Anglican churches on St Martin (one on the French side and the other on the Dutch side). They had a fundraiser at the Community Center that was packed and it was a lovely evening of singing by a number of choirs (senior, youth, men's etc). One girl did a solo on the steet drum: what a great instrument that is! There was a sax solo and a fabulous soloist singer who is a professional performer on St Maarten. He sure got the audience going! I'll add his name later. If I were to stay here another year, I would try and join a choir but my contract is up in 3 months time.

Now I have other stuff to do including tasting one of those real expensive tomatoes that I finally succumbed to when I went shopping at the weekend. Will update soon

It has been pouring since the weekend

Have been busy with preparing a bunch of lectures but get out on occasion. There is a bunch of faculty that walk down to the other end of Simpson Bay and back on Saturday and, in contrast to the previous weekend, this last Saturday the rain held off. In the photo, we are outside a breakfast joint before we turned back walking along the long Simpson Bay beach. At the end, we cut through an apartment complex and come along a road where was a nest of iguanas eating some vegetables, presumably left for them. A nice break from lecture preparation since all the lectures are relatively new.

Since then the weather has changed. None of the nice sunny afternoons and warm evenings with sun worshiping locals and tourists enjoying Mullet Bay as I walk back to the apartment, but RAIN, RAIN, RAIN and greyness. This morning, I got trapped in my corridor since coming out would have drenched me in a couple of seconds when a cloudburst emptied into a strong wind. Everyone at the college appears to be dressed for cool weather and drink lots of hot coffee.

Getting to work is a little tricky since the road from Maho to Cupecoy is badly flooded. It is the only road available unless you go about 10 miles round the French side and it always floods after rain, but right now the car doors go under the waterline in places. I have driven through these deep puddles in my regular car, and so far have had no problem, but luckily, I am picked up by a colleague and ride in a jeeplike vehicle. Even then the water depth is a bit concerning. It is a good thing the spark plugs are at the top of the engine! I wonder if the country, once it gains new status on Sunday, will do something about this problem since, without easy access, I expect several people would be hesitant in investing in shops or apartments in the brand new and fancy development in Cupecoy (Porto Cupecoy). It's doubly problematic for those without a car since several buses, even more in bad weather, just stop in Maho rather than continue the full way.

The weather has stopped me revisiting Sarafina's, the bread store in Marigot that reopened this week. However, most of the bread types are also available at the local grocery in Maho, it just seems that the brown bread type that I really like is rarely delivered.

I recently found a good source for fresh seafood and ended up cooking red snapper. Had to learn how to make fillets and then use the non-fillet parts for fish stock. The internet turned out to be super resource since there was a short movie on this and it was all I needed. I think I almost preferred the fish soup, made with carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, and some red and green pepper to the actual fillet!

Back on the Island

Paul here:

Back on St. Maarten at last after a time waiting for documents allowing travel. Long delays there, but I must congratulate the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services office in Detroit as being the most helpful place I have yet encountered among governmental bureaucracies. The flight down was very easy and there was no problem making the connection in Miami in spite of a short time between flights. It would have been different if our flight had been delayed unloading for more than 10 minutes or so. On the last leg, the flight was packed and I sat with two guys returning from the USA to vote. Since one was a building laborer, I was surprised since a return flight from Maine must have cost quite a bit. However, there has been some writing on the newspaper site that that some people get their way paid to come back to vote.

Anyway, the election has led to a split government since the two main vote getting parties ended with 7 seats and 6 seats with the third party holds 2 seats. So there will a coalition that will have to deal with the coming independence from the Netherlands Antilles on October 10. Very little has been talked about that!

In spite of hurricane Earl that caught St. Maarten a little, the apartment was completely OK though a bit musty having been shut up for some time. After a bit of airing and mopping it seems as good as new. A major improvement is the Internet connection that is now appearing to really solid, and my landlord finally did a number of small repairs that had been needed. The flamboyant trees are however no longer in bloom and, in fact, the number of flowers out and about seem to be quite diminished. There were a few bright yellow ones on the mountain pass though.

Today, Saturday, morning I went to help with blood testing with the Diabetes Association but it started to pour with rain and was called off. It was held outside a grocery on a narrow road and I amused to see a long line of cards trailing a motor mower going past us. The cancellation allowed me plenty of time to get some groceries at Le Grand Marche which seemed to have a little less variety than before: I am told that this is often the case in the stores in the heart of the low season. I went on to Sarafina in Marigot for some good bread, only to find it closed for a vacation "a la Francaise," but this disappointment was tempered by finding fabuouse blue cheese bread at La Sucriere almost next door. They also sell goat cheese bread - for next time! This is very nice french bakery with less variety compared to Sarafina's but it has plenty to choose from. One advantage is that there is WiFi at hand so there are always several people earnestly working on computers.

The wind is up and there has been a glorious sunny afternoon: you wouldn't know it had rained. There is a strong wind and the waves on Mullet bay have been big and strong making those who wish top sunbathe have to lie at the upper edge of the beach. But it is lovely to hear the waves again and see them shoot high over the rocks.

Pictures go with writing. Click on individual pictures and the photo should enlarge

Finally got to Orient Bay

This is Paul again.

Saturday was gorgeous: the calm before the storm since on Sunday the Netherlands vs. Spain final of the World football cup was going to take over all concerns on the Dutch side of the island. Actually, I didn't know anyone personally playing on either team so wasn't too worried who won, though it would have been nice to have seen what would have happened on a Dutch island if the Netherlands had won! Lots of talk about a day off! It was not to be. I joined a group of faculty at a party in an apartment building near the school hosted by Dewey (teaches Pathology) & his wife Joanie. Not only were they marvelous hosts but they have, something dear to the Lehmann family, a pug. She is old and grey and reminded me so much of our Tuppence, especially showing that wonderful ability to drop years off her age when a piece of food would end up on the floor.

On Saturday, I went with the librarian around Fort Louis (again). This time I made sure to photograph the interesting signs saying things like there was a door that has been removed, or there was a cistern that was removed. Also a couple of new verandah holderuppers. It was good to have someone with me who had been to Grand Casse - the gourmet capital of the island since there is quite a muddling entry to the town involving backtracking. We had lunch at the open-air barbecue area. A massive lunch with beer and water for the cost of a lunch at the college cafeteria. Some things are really very reasonable here. Then we went on to Orient Bay which neither of us had been to.

It is a glorious bay and this has a long beach of lovely white sand. It doesn't fall away too fast so you can paddle or walk in the water for some distance. It is clearly a full service beach with beach chairs and umbrellas for rent (including access to toilets and a free drink with the rental) and you can rent out canoes, go parasailing, or rent jet skis etc. But in spite of the commercial nature, it remains really lovely. The far south part of the beach has a clothing optional area. While you are allowed to wear clothes, we both felt we had gone far enough as we approached it seeing we were not even in swim things.

On our return we drove over the mountain and stopped to buy our hurricane buckets. Having a waterproof bucket is highly recommended for storing vital stuff in case of a hurricane. Then looked in at a store that basically caters to restaurants. My great find was a 70cl bottle of gin for $1.45 (no tax here). This price is pretty much the same what one pays for milk! The gin was labeled very regally, with crowns and something like like "Since 1848," but had no indication of the country of origin. However, it doesn't taste at all bad if diluted well with tonic and lemon.

A fairly active day and I fell asleep immediately while the Saturday movie was being shown at the college!

Looking forward to my trip to Toledo!

The beach for a walk to work

Mullet Bay is beautiful beach to walk along in the morning. The sand drops steeply into the ocean. The beach runs between Maho where I live and Cupecoy where the University is situated and most of the way is bordered by a golf course which is divided by a pretty badly maintained and narrow road that floods badly when it rains. It was fairly cloudy day when I look these photos but in the afternoons this beach can get a large number of people since it is easily accessible with a large parking lot. The photo that is taken across a piece of the golf course shows the American University of the Caribbean cream-colored buildings with red roofs behind behind it. An island in the storm should we have a hurricane come through! They are very well prepared here with food, water and the ability to run the own generators etc.

Not all that much news. Lots of excitement is on the island with the Netherlands and Spain going on the World Cup Football final.

A trip to Fort Louis in Marigot

July 4 and what better day than to go Marigot and clamber up the hill to Fort Louis in a lovely breeze. Last time I went I did not have a camera. The fort is high above Marigot but the photo makes the hill look slight. At the left is what looks like a very thin monkey puzzle tree but it is probably something else. I was not close enough to really see it properly. I have some pictures of the way up and view. You get a grand view of Marigot bay and behind it Simpson Bay Lagoon in front of the airport. If you enlarge and look carefully you can make out a plane taking off from the airport in one and where we have an apartment near the radio/radar tower (the place that has a spherical top) on the other side of the bay.

The fort itself if largely ruined, but has some gunnery in situ. Some interesting plants and iguanas also. I have a view with the Flamboyant trees included, a single flower is shown also, as well as an attractive but obviously nuisance pink-flowered vine. Once I was down the hill, I thought it might interest you to see some Marigot buildings like the Catholic Church, the museum and AIDS support center which is just opposite the 3 car length road labeled Rue Fichot (also shown you can enlarge to see its label). There is a plaque near the church memorializing one of the priests, F. Kemps, who wrote the much-loved St Martin/Maarten song. I thought the designs for security screens on doors and for ironwork holding up balconies would interest Carol. As always, click on pictures to enlarge since I can't work out how to format pictures very well.