TR Day 13 - Maho!
Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2011 10:00 pm
OK, OK, we'll tell the truth! In 5 years of coming to STJ, we've NEVER been to Maho. I know, I know, what kind of knuckleheads are we??? Call us snorkel snobs, if you will. We usually frequent the beaches with the best snorkeling. And Maho, according to most of the books and conversations, is a great beach, but NOT a great snorkeling beach.
But some of CapnKirk's pictures and other comments convinced us to give it a try. So today we did!
Got up early, found plenty of places to park as we arrived at Maho at about 10:30AM. What a great beach! Beautiful sand, with clear, calm water, and just as picturesque as one could ask for. This is another of STJ's beaches that we'll be returning to, year after year!
We were about in the middle of this very long beach, and we decided to snorkel over to the rocks that separate Maho from Little Maho (thanks to CaptKirk again). It was a long long snorkel from the middle of the beach to get over there, but what sights we saw along the way!
First up, Sylvia stumbles over this large turtle, and took a bunch of great shots of him. Then, shortly after, we saw a ray, still on the way over to the rocks. Once at the rocks, there was some decent fish life and coral in places. We surfaced to turn around, and saw the pelican pictured, grooming himself on the rocks.
On the way back, we saw several different turtles, though the best on was the one with the remoras (I think that's what they are) semi-attached to him. What a sight!
We got back, and spent more time at Maho until about 3:30PM. We discovered that (in our opinion) Maho is a a better AM and early afternoon beach for two reasons: Any shade you can find on the beach pretty much disappears by mid-to-late afternoon, and the bugs really began to come out a bite by the time we left.
We finished up with a trip to the Cinnamon Bay Ruins, one pic enclosed. Ended the day back at our villa, where we ate in for a change. Tomorrow, we hope to spend the day with fellow-forumites Denny and Coral.
Here are the pics of TR Day 13 - Maho!
https://picasaweb.google.com/awardb/Mah ... jqWF1OfpRQ
But some of CapnKirk's pictures and other comments convinced us to give it a try. So today we did!
Got up early, found plenty of places to park as we arrived at Maho at about 10:30AM. What a great beach! Beautiful sand, with clear, calm water, and just as picturesque as one could ask for. This is another of STJ's beaches that we'll be returning to, year after year!
We were about in the middle of this very long beach, and we decided to snorkel over to the rocks that separate Maho from Little Maho (thanks to CaptKirk again). It was a long long snorkel from the middle of the beach to get over there, but what sights we saw along the way!
First up, Sylvia stumbles over this large turtle, and took a bunch of great shots of him. Then, shortly after, we saw a ray, still on the way over to the rocks. Once at the rocks, there was some decent fish life and coral in places. We surfaced to turn around, and saw the pelican pictured, grooming himself on the rocks.
On the way back, we saw several different turtles, though the best on was the one with the remoras (I think that's what they are) semi-attached to him. What a sight!
We got back, and spent more time at Maho until about 3:30PM. We discovered that (in our opinion) Maho is a a better AM and early afternoon beach for two reasons: Any shade you can find on the beach pretty much disappears by mid-to-late afternoon, and the bugs really began to come out a bite by the time we left.
We finished up with a trip to the Cinnamon Bay Ruins, one pic enclosed. Ended the day back at our villa, where we ate in for a change. Tomorrow, we hope to spend the day with fellow-forumites Denny and Coral.
Here are the pics of TR Day 13 - Maho!
https://picasaweb.google.com/awardb/Mah ... jqWF1OfpRQ
), barracuda, an octopus, and stingrays. Cha-ching! Jackpot!