The "Beaches of St. Martin" Story

It was an ordinary day. I had a carton in my office that I was starting to put items in for our next trip. Carol and I are traveling back to St. Martin for the 7th time. Not leaving for a few months, but like to put things in a carton so it puts me in the mood for the trip. 5 paperbacks, long lens for my Sony SLR digital, camera bag, chargers, credit card booklets that list all they cover for travel and an old Millersville University PA license plate for Andy and Cheryl to hang in their new restaurant. Andy and Cheryl run "Baywatch" which is a restaurant on Orient Beach that specializes in American food. Charges are in dollars instead of euros even though it is on the French side of the island. On the wall of the restaurant are license plates from the 50 states. Cheryl always greets you, gives you a hug and makes you feel at home in their place. I'm also starting to think about what beaches we will travel to this year. We have quite a few that we really enjoy. I guess our favorite has to be Orient Beach located on Orient Bay. A mile and a quarter of powder white sand with turquoise blue water. Quite a few beach bars are located on that stretch and the all rent chairs and umbrellas. Bars such as Bikini Beach, Kontiki, La Playa, Orange Fever, Pedros, Coco Beach and Waikiki sit back about 50 yardsfrom the water. Each features different colored umbrellas. At one end of the beach is Club Orient which is a naturist resort. They have yellow loungers and yellow umbrellas. Universal symbol for sun worshippers. Days we travel there we must get there by 9:00 AM or all the chairs are taken. Mostly an older crowd travels to this location. The other end of the beach has the Mont Vernon. This used to be a plush hotel which grew to be in disrepair, but is now being sold as units to private individuals and is once again starting to be a beautiful building. Another favorite beach for us is Happy Baie. Must walk over a small mountain through brush and rocks to get there. Because of the inconvenience of getting there, few people venture to this beach, but it is probably the most beautiful beach on the island. Seagrape trees and palm trees line the edge of the sand for about a quarter of a mile. No facilities or rentals on this beach, so you must lug all your chairs and food with you. We head over to this site at 8:00 AM so we can have a full day in paradise. There are days when you and one or two other couples share the entire strip. Another beautiful beach is Baie Rouge. This is about a half mile long strip of sand that is gorgeous, but very hard to walk on. The sand is so soft that you tend to sink in up to your ankles, even along water's edge. There are places to eat and rent chairs at this beach. Mullet Beach is close to the airport and another beautiful beach. Facilities and parking line the edge of the beach. Water is probably more calm on this beach than on any other beach. All these beaches are located on St. Martin proper, but another one of our favorite beaches is on an island that you need a ferry ride to reach. The ferry travels from the French capital, Marigot, every half hour starting at 10:00 AM to Pinel Island. This is an uninhabited island which has soft sand, calm shallow water and three beach bars. They are all powered with generators since there is no electricity on the island. Yellow Beach with it's yellow umbrellas, Karibuni with it's blue umbrellas and The Key with the orange umbrellas make for a colorful adventure. We usually hike to the top of Pinel for a view of St. Martin and head to the other side for our picnic lunch and a swim. This is always an exciting and fun day, but you have to make sure you don't miss the final ferry back, or you'll be stuck there until the next morning. Wouldn't be the end of the world if that happened, though. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - Pixs from the top are: "Baywatch", Orient Beach, Happy Baie, Baie Rouge, Mullet Bay and Pinel Island from the top of the hill.