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Day 3
Being our third day we had some sort of routine in camp going. We would fill our solar shower bags every morning to warm and shower each evening. Sometimes we would fill them twice if we really wanted to cool off. We kept ice in the cooler for drinks and had coffee every morning. We are early birds so waiting until 7:30am for coffee is kind of late when you are used to getting up at 4:30am. Besides, we felt the best part of the day to snorkel was in the morning. Our schedule worked out great for us! This am (Monday) we had breakfast at Maho and then took Frett's Taxi to Trunk Bay. I have been to Trunk before and knew if was best to get there early. We snorkeled around the whole cay. The snorkel was nice but you can see how the coral appears to be not as vibrant as less frequently visited snorkels. We then walked to Jumbie, looked at the beach, and continued on to Denis Bay.
Denis Bay
We took the path off to the right from the parking lot at Peace Hill. This beach is worth the trip! Loved this beach! When we got to the beach there was a man there..he walked backed to the house just beyond the tree line. Maybe he lived there? Not sure. We snorkeled and saw large stingrays, looked at all the shells, and walked around a bit. We noticed that the man came back down to the beach and snorkeled around the cay is off to the left if facing the water. I wish we had snorkeled there. I talked with him a bit about his snorkel and he said there were many great things that he had seen. He did not elaborate.
We left Denis by foot and started walking towards town..a taxi stopped and we did not object. We paid him $10 and he took us into Cruz Bay. For lunch we had Uncle Joe's Ribs, Chicken & sides. We went to Woody's and had our first Bushwacker! It was so good! Great place for drinks. I like Woody's but really only visit during the day..it gets a little too busy for me in the evening! 🙂 Call me boring, lol! At that time as we passed a few car rental places it crossed our mind..or should I say "invaded" our minds. We stopped at the first three with "no rentals available". At the forth, Varlack, they had one white jeep available. We realized we did not have a credit card with us, but just our debit card. They took it no problem! Jeep Rental for 7 days- $502.00. Our plans were taking some drastic changes!!!! 🙂
Rental Car
We stopped for a smoothie and headed back to Maho to clean up for dinner. We embraced our car rental and took a nice ride to Coral Bay, drove down to Saltpond, and back to Island Blues for dinner. We had the grilled chicken salad. We took a ride to the (2) markets- St. John Market & Starfish. We were really looking for Pine Peace Market but missed it. Both markets were pricey but I had already expected that. We just picked up some more snacks and headed back to Maho. We frequently saw deer on the Maho grounds, many mongoose on our drives, donkeys, pigs, cows, and an occasional land crab crossing the road near Big Maho. All the staff at Maho were very friendly as well as the other guests. Bugs seemed only to be a problem when we were near the water spickets or other damp places. I can only speak for our tent location as mosquito's were not a problem in the tent. We did have coils burning and I always sprayed mosquito repellant around the inside of the tent each evening. I'm sure this helped.
Day 4
It rained heavy through the night and you could really hear it on the canvas tent roof. We had our Maho breakfast and drove to Hawksnest. When we arrived in the early am there was a wedding just about to begin. It appeared to be just the couple..we didn't note any guests. A camera man..JP and what appeared to be the wedding planner/coordinator? Not sure..everytime I have visited Hawksnest there is a wedding in progress or about to begin. The groom approached us and asked us nicely to scoot! He also stated that as much as he would like us in the photos, it was his wedding. LOL! Come on now..does he think that I wanted to be in his pics with my ill-fitting bikini? lol..no problem..we snorkeled over to Gibney. I still think we were in some of the wedding photos. They must edit the pics I'm thinking! 🙂 After the wedding we then snorkeled from Hawksnest to Little Hawksnest. Amazing coral! But shallow so we had to be really careful..float and just use our hands to navigate. We saw two stingrays and a cute porcupine fish. They appear shy and are very endearing..my favorite fish. I must admit to getting a little nervous around the stingrays. I know they are not aggressive but I couldn't help but immediately think of the tragedy with Steve Irwin. Totally not the same circumstances obviously..but it did come to mind.
Stingray
We continued on and got yet another smoothie, lol..drove back to camp, showered, and then headed to Cruz Bay. We had a Bushwacker at the Beach Bar, a beer at Larry's Landing, and Lunch at High Tide. He had the chicken quesadilla and the conch chowder. For dessert we went to the C&D Bakery where we had coconut pound cake and a bowtie. Back to camp we changed and went for another snorkel from little Maho to Francis Bay. The water was very cloudy and we didn't see too much.
Thanks so much for the trip report! I haven't stayed at Maho for many, many years and it was fun to think about my stay there. The pictures from Maho looked like they could have been taking back in the 1980s.
I've always regretted not having made the trip to Chateau Bordeaux, but I'm feeling better about it now. We're pretty low key diners (Hercules' pates, Joe's ribs, mahi sandwiches at Beach Bar, "salt fish and provision" for lunch at Patrick's, Miss Vie's, Dominican food at the The Lighthouse, chicken curry sandwiches at the Grotto) with splurges at Miss Lucy's and the Fish Trap. We had our fancy disappointment at Asolare a few years ago, so I can relate to another fancy disappointment.
We're 10 days out from a trip split between STX and STJ, and, after our cool, wet spring in Seattle, I'm wondering how we'll adapt to the heat. We didn't reach 60 today and it was quite cloudy with a bit of mist and rain today. At least we won't have the heat on to take off the chill in the morning. I'm not accustomed to having to think to stay hydrated, either, so thanks for the reminder that it's easy to run dry in the heat. I don't need that headache and blah feeling when I'm on vacation.
We have also found Haulover (the north side) to be one of our favorite snorkel places. The gradual slope with the huge coral heads (to the left as you face the water from the beach) makes me a bit more interested in taking up scuba. I'd love to be able to explore that expanse of reef that lies in 50 or 60 feet of water.
I'd suggest Miss Vie's (Hansen Bay?) beach next time. We were surprised at how good the reef was there, and swam for a few minutes with one of those fantastic spotted eagle rays. We usually catch a fleeting glimpse of a spotted eagle ray when we're swimming across the mouth of Lameshur when we come back from Europa bay. It was such a treat to be able to see one that was mostly indifferent to our presence and was much closer. They are magnificent and make me want to see their larger cousins some day. Being able to hop out of the water an grab lunch at Miss Vie's adds to the fun.
We've had interesting experiences at Jumbie (where you skipped the snorkeling). It was before the Steve Irwin thing, so we didn't think twice about swimming over several stingrays eating the bait fish that were pushed towards shores by the (huge) tarpons. I don't think we were more than a foot above the rays, but, now, wouldn't put ourselves in that position again. (I had no idea that stingrays would eat fish...I though they just ate stuff that they stirred up as they swam along the bottom.) The limited parking at Jumbie usually keeps the crowd to a minimum.
