Days 3 &4 (they're starting to blur!)
Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 4:48 pm
Good thing I jotted notes, because the days were becoming a blur-could it be all the Lime ‘n Coconuts I was drinking?? Actually highly recommend that-easy to make, fresh lime, lime juice, coconut rum, coco lopez and ice, mmm mmm!
Morning photo-sunrises on this side are beautiful!
We ventured out to Maho this a.m., to try our snorkel gear out. This week was our first real attempt at snorkeling. I'd been out with Capt Phil once, but deep water is neither my husband's nor my comfort zone. That's why we rented the snorkel vests which I do recommend.
Maho is normally a favorite, but it was mosquitoey! Due to the rain the previous week, the mosquitos were out in force; had to stay in the water to avoid them! heard that the people at the maho camps were having a terrible time due to the bugs.
Saw these guys either on the way to Maho or Salt Pond, can't remember which. We did see a baby once, but I didn't have the camera.
We have friends who will be coming with us for the first time next year and wanted to see what the area by Salt Pond looked like, so went and took some pictures from up on Concordia's driveway:
We HAD to stop at the Tourist Trap (another first) from reading all the reviews, and happened to run into Pam and John there-who apparently had also been at Maho that morning. Mosquitoes were out in force still. Thanks for the bug spray Pam! I thoroughly enjoyed my sesame ahi tuna and I think the drink was called a boom boom (?) (no, my lights did not go out!)
Afternoon traffic jam:
An afternoon at the pool, and a dinner at the Donkey Diner finished the day. On Saturday's the diner does BBQ-apparently a couple come in specially to do it-the woman also bartends at Skinny's we saw later. Big portions-enough for another meal. Ribs were decent and my husband liked his bbq filet mignon a lot. Very nice people too!
Sunday we got up early to go to Salt Pond. Made it about 8:30 (we like this side better for the morning sun than the north shore). We were the only ones on the beach
When we got there we noticed a lot of fish jumping in the water-not the little fry, but some stuff that was just a little bigger.
Anyway, we're on the beach watching all these fish jumping all over the place maybe 20' from shore, and the water's really churning in a couple locations. I'm getting my stuff on to go out, when..... my husband says he sees double dorsal fins out there.
So we wait and we watch and we see them again, in 2 locations at the same time!! You can see the whole "thing" at times, it's coming almost totally out of the water-about 4' long. Now, we're no fish experts, and we're not very comfortable in the water yet anyway so we just watch. By now some other people have come along and we tell them what we think we're seeing. They tell us it could be tarpon. We figure we'll just stay close to shore, and let them play out in the deeper water-remember, you just have to be faster or closer to shore than the rest of the group! 
We did look at books/fish guides while in Cruz Bay later in the week, and what we saw was definitely not looking like any of the tarpon they showed, and more like a small shark.
We end up making it out to the shallows to snorkel and I was happy, I found a $20 bill stuck in the sand-now don't anybody message me and try to claim it!
Had a fun morning at Salt Pond ('cept I really don't like the walk back!) and played at the pool again in the afternoon.
Sunday night was the Beach Bar gathering. Stopped in at the Quiet Mon for a drink and to check emails again. Picked up water at the Lumberyard (I think it was 50cents/gallon using our own containers). Luckily made it just before the woman with the 30 gallons she had to fill! Swung into the Spice Shop to pick up another copy of Feet Fins 4Wheel Drive for our friends coming next July.
It was a night of meeting/re greeting several forumites and their better halves: onthelake, brenda, dcphoto, stjohnruth, billinva, and pegoode. Hello all!
It was an "interesting" drive back to the Coral Bay side in the dark-not only did we once again almost run down the ****pig in the middle of the road, but we had the VITran bus on our bumper the whole time!
Another day in paradise was over
Morning photo-sunrises on this side are beautiful!
We ventured out to Maho this a.m., to try our snorkel gear out. This week was our first real attempt at snorkeling. I'd been out with Capt Phil once, but deep water is neither my husband's nor my comfort zone. That's why we rented the snorkel vests which I do recommend.
Maho is normally a favorite, but it was mosquitoey! Due to the rain the previous week, the mosquitos were out in force; had to stay in the water to avoid them! heard that the people at the maho camps were having a terrible time due to the bugs.
Saw these guys either on the way to Maho or Salt Pond, can't remember which. We did see a baby once, but I didn't have the camera.
We have friends who will be coming with us for the first time next year and wanted to see what the area by Salt Pond looked like, so went and took some pictures from up on Concordia's driveway:
We HAD to stop at the Tourist Trap (another first) from reading all the reviews, and happened to run into Pam and John there-who apparently had also been at Maho that morning. Mosquitoes were out in force still. Thanks for the bug spray Pam! I thoroughly enjoyed my sesame ahi tuna and I think the drink was called a boom boom (?) (no, my lights did not go out!)
Afternoon traffic jam:
An afternoon at the pool, and a dinner at the Donkey Diner finished the day. On Saturday's the diner does BBQ-apparently a couple come in specially to do it-the woman also bartends at Skinny's we saw later. Big portions-enough for another meal. Ribs were decent and my husband liked his bbq filet mignon a lot. Very nice people too!
Sunday we got up early to go to Salt Pond. Made it about 8:30 (we like this side better for the morning sun than the north shore). We were the only ones on the beach
When we got there we noticed a lot of fish jumping in the water-not the little fry, but some stuff that was just a little bigger. Anyway, we're on the beach watching all these fish jumping all over the place maybe 20' from shore, and the water's really churning in a couple locations. I'm getting my stuff on to go out, when..... my husband says he sees double dorsal fins out there.
So we wait and we watch and we see them again, in 2 locations at the same time!! You can see the whole "thing" at times, it's coming almost totally out of the water-about 4' long. Now, we're no fish experts, and we're not very comfortable in the water yet anyway so we just watch. By now some other people have come along and we tell them what we think we're seeing. They tell us it could be tarpon. We figure we'll just stay close to shore, and let them play out in the deeper water-remember, you just have to be faster or closer to shore than the rest of the group! We did look at books/fish guides while in Cruz Bay later in the week, and what we saw was definitely not looking like any of the tarpon they showed, and more like a small shark.We end up making it out to the shallows to snorkel and I was happy, I found a $20 bill stuck in the sand-now don't anybody message me and try to claim it!
Had a fun morning at Salt Pond ('cept I really don't like the walk back!) and played at the pool again in the afternoon.
Sunday night was the Beach Bar gathering. Stopped in at the Quiet Mon for a drink and to check emails again. Picked up water at the Lumberyard (I think it was 50cents/gallon using our own containers). Luckily made it just before the woman with the 30 gallons she had to fill! Swung into the Spice Shop to pick up another copy of Feet Fins 4Wheel Drive for our friends coming next July.
It was a night of meeting/re greeting several forumites and their better halves: onthelake, brenda, dcphoto, stjohnruth, billinva, and pegoode. Hello all!
It was an "interesting" drive back to the Coral Bay side in the dark-not only did we once again almost run down the ****pig in the middle of the road, but we had the VITran bus on our bumper the whole time!
Another day in paradise was over
. We LOVE the Tourist Trap too. Great place.