The "Secret Beach" Story

It was an ordinary day. It was winter. It was freezing! Oh how we wish we were on a sunny, warm beach somewhere in the Caribbean. We will be traveling in a few months to our favorite island of St. Martin/Sint Maarten. This is an island that has two governments which share the ownership. France and the Netherlands. One of the beaches, Orient Beach, which is located on the French side of the island is listed in my story "In Search for the #1 Beach" from November of 2009. I'm sure we will spend quite a bit of time on that beach when we arrive. But, we have a "secret beach" which we discovered in 2006. It really isn't "secret", but hard to access and therefore very few people ever use it. You must follow a very narrow path over a small mountain which takes you through rough brush and around rocks to the beach. The beach is about a half mile long and has a backdrop of beautiful palm trees. the sand is pure white and the water is........well gorgeous. Shades of jade,sapphire, emerald and turquoise and as clear as can be. Naturally, since it is in the Caribbean, it is almost always around 85 degrees warm. One end of the beach has rock formations which are interesting to explore while the other ends at a mountain. On both ends are sea grape trees which are fantastic for shade. And also, being that it is a French beach, it is clothing optional! You don't need a suit!! Great for packing when leaving on vacation. On our first visit to Happy Bay (Yep! that's what it's called) we sighted four other people spread along the entire length of the beach. They were there, but hard to see. The umbrellas gave them away. We got our first taste of skinny dipping at Happy Bay. NO TAN LINES! No sand in the suit. We parked ourselves at the end of the beach with the sea grape trees and totally enjoyed our day. Close to the end of the day we had just gotten out of the water and were lounging at water's edge when all of a sudden someone appeared from behind the rocks to the left of us. "What do we do," Carol said. "Just sit here and relax," was my reply. "But, we don't have our suits on," she said. "So what." Wouldn't you just know it, he walks by and stops, and SITS DOWN next to us. His name is Danny. He is a native of the island and walks this beach everyday he tells us, while waiting to transport people back to the cruise ships. He is a tour bus driver and....he is clothed. We have a nice conversation for about 15-20 minutes and then he leaves. Pretty traumatic experience. I tell Carol, "We'll never, ever see him again." Well, last year on our visit to Happy Bay we notice someone had built a small hut to sell drinks and food. I walk up to inquire about the cost. OMG, it's DANNY! And he remembers me!! It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.