Trip Report: "La Papaya Paradise" : Part 2
Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 6:06 pm
Our second day on St. John (actually the first full day), I was the first one up. In what would become a ritual every morning of the trip, I made a pot of coffee, then brought a cup outside to sit on the deck and enjoy the fresh morning air, the quiet, and just take in the beauty of a Caribbean morning in the hills overlooking the sea. It was wonderful those early mornings....The only sounds were the surf breaking on the beach down below me in Hart Bay, the breeze rustling through the trees, and the birds. One in a while, a Bananaquit would fly up and perch on the railing of the deck, look around, then fly off again.
I walked around the property that morning, noticing the charming little touches all around the outside of the villa; the flowers, plants, tile, etc.
When everyone else finally got up that morning, we threw a cooler with ice packs in it into the car, headed to town, and hit the Deli Grotto at Mongoose Junction. We got sandwiches, chips and drinks, packed the cooler tightly, and headed to Maho Bay.
Maho was great. We were able to park right at the beach and find some shade for our fair-skinned redhead guys, while we girls set up our beach chairs out in the sun. The beach at Maho is wonderful....calm, crystal clear water that's great for swimming. We swam and played in the water for a long time, sunned, read, and had lunch on the beach. The sandwiches from Deli Grotto were fantastic, and we'd end up going back there several times during our trip because the food was consistently good and the people who work there were so nice.
(Someone had asked whether or not La Papaya had WIFI, and the answer is no. We actually didn't bring our laptops on purpose because of how much we're tied down to computers at home and at work, so we didn't miss having internet access at the villa. Speaking of Deli Grotto, however, they have some computers set up in their cafe area for customers' use, and they charge a very low fee to use them. We took advantage of this on the day before we left as we waited for our food order, and checked our email. It only cost $2.00 for 15 minutes of computer time, which seemed pretty reasonable to us.)
After leaving Maho, we returned to the villa and hung out at the pool for the afternoon. For dinner that night, we headed back to Mongoose Junction and ate at The Ocean Grill. The adults had fish, which was great, and the kids had cheeseburgers and chicken, also good. It was pretty quiet that night; it was during Carnival, and it seemed like the whole island was down near the ballfield because they were having the 'Miss St. John' contest that night. After dinner, we walked down by the waterfront, and it was packed with people enjoying the festivities and Carnival. After strolling for awhile, we went back to La Papaya for some night swimming and enjoyed the lights of St. Thomas off in the distance. Another day in paradise drew to a close.
MAHO BAY
BEACH AT MAHO
ANOTHER MAHO SHOT
FROM THE WATER AT MAHO
I walked around the property that morning, noticing the charming little touches all around the outside of the villa; the flowers, plants, tile, etc.
When everyone else finally got up that morning, we threw a cooler with ice packs in it into the car, headed to town, and hit the Deli Grotto at Mongoose Junction. We got sandwiches, chips and drinks, packed the cooler tightly, and headed to Maho Bay.
Maho was great. We were able to park right at the beach and find some shade for our fair-skinned redhead guys, while we girls set up our beach chairs out in the sun. The beach at Maho is wonderful....calm, crystal clear water that's great for swimming. We swam and played in the water for a long time, sunned, read, and had lunch on the beach. The sandwiches from Deli Grotto were fantastic, and we'd end up going back there several times during our trip because the food was consistently good and the people who work there were so nice.
(Someone had asked whether or not La Papaya had WIFI, and the answer is no. We actually didn't bring our laptops on purpose because of how much we're tied down to computers at home and at work, so we didn't miss having internet access at the villa. Speaking of Deli Grotto, however, they have some computers set up in their cafe area for customers' use, and they charge a very low fee to use them. We took advantage of this on the day before we left as we waited for our food order, and checked our email. It only cost $2.00 for 15 minutes of computer time, which seemed pretty reasonable to us.)
After leaving Maho, we returned to the villa and hung out at the pool for the afternoon. For dinner that night, we headed back to Mongoose Junction and ate at The Ocean Grill. The adults had fish, which was great, and the kids had cheeseburgers and chicken, also good. It was pretty quiet that night; it was during Carnival, and it seemed like the whole island was down near the ballfield because they were having the 'Miss St. John' contest that night. After dinner, we walked down by the waterfront, and it was packed with people enjoying the festivities and Carnival. After strolling for awhile, we went back to La Papaya for some night swimming and enjoyed the lights of St. Thomas off in the distance. Another day in paradise drew to a close.
MAHO BAY
BEACH AT MAHO
ANOTHER MAHO SHOT
FROM THE WATER AT MAHO
