Tuesday July 11th, 2006 |
Entry:
July 10th, 2006
Most of the morning we drove around the French side of the island looking for a dive shop, headed North towards the end of the island where there is a Cul-De-Sac where we stopped at the spot where the boat goes out to the small island called Pinel Island but they didn't have a dive shop there but the woman recommended going over the hill to where Anse Marcel and there would be a dive shop. Well, what a trip that was. Talk about winding hilly roads. A breathtaking view and scary driving but once we got there the dive shop wasn't operating due to the hotel was being renovated into a "Raddison" and once that was up and running so would the dive shop. From there we headed to Orient Beach where the beaches are a bit crowded but reminiscent of Aruba, clear turquoise water with white sandy beach. The beaches where full of vendors renting umbrella covered chairs, jet ski's, parasailing, kite surfing, windsurfing and bananna boat riding. We paid for 3 chairs and an umbrella and it cost $35.00 dollars for the day and I think we spent a total of 1 1/2 hrs using them. Too much to do and then the rains came. We decided to go diving but didn't have our gear so Dad drove all the way back to the villa to get the gear while Austin and I played in the water. At least out towels stayed out of the sun. When he returned we all went diving with a Frenchman who could barely speak english and I mean barely. Althought underwater he was a great guide with his hand animals. He always swam ahead of us so everytime he saw something he wanted us to see he would make hand puppets out of whatever he saw such as a flute fish, turtle, stingray, lobster, etc. He was great. The visability could have been better but overall it was a great refresher dive for us all. After diving Austin and I went out to the parasail boat by way of jet ski and when we arrived at the boat a man and his son who happened to be visiting from Dedham, Mass. with his extended family. They were staying at a timshare on the Dutch side of the island and drove to Orient Beach for the day. All of a sudden the weather turned bad and we had to wait out 2 rain showers before they would let anyone up. So we all just talked about the island while we tried to stay warm. Then there was a large animal swimming around the boat which they weren't sure if it was a fish or shark. One of the guys got up on top of the boat to see what it could be then radiod the guy on the jet ski to come out and have a look. Just a bit of apprehension but then it seemed to disappear. They went up first came back with big smiles so we knew it would be fun. We had a great time up there. We could see so far. The guys thought they were being cute so they dunked Austin and I in the water on our way in. Once we came in we got in the jeep and left for the villa. We went to Grand Case again for dinner and tried an Italian restaurant called Netanno. It was good. Dallas got his usual Italian, Chicken Marsala, me too and Austin had the Alfredo. No salads or extras. They are a bit pricey but we were told that. It's just too much of a hassle to drive to the Dutch side of the island where it is much cheaper to eat. I personally wouldn't want to drive the roads on this island at night, much too dangerous.
July 11th, 2006
July 9th, 2006