Tuesday, 13 Sep 2005

The resort here at Oyster Bay hosted an island-wide "scavenger hunt" today, and we decided to partake. The hunt required a vehicle, which we had, and the vehicle required gas, which we did not, so bright and early this morning I went out and filled up the Jeep -- filled to the tune of .00! Yikes!

Judi and Lynn had originally thought the scavenger hunt couldn't possibly take longer than 2� hours...

...we were shocked when Isabelle, the activities dudette, told us it would take 4 hours...

...it actually took 6� hours!

It was hard. It wasn't so much a matter of finding things as it was finding information. We had to find answers to sixteen questions, requiring a circumnavigation of the island. But we had a good (if tiring) time, and we learned a lot.

Captain Oliver (photo: Judi)

International Bridge

At the first stop, Captain Oliver's on Oyster Bay, we got to meet Captain Oliver himself. He was awesome -- charming and friendly and helpful and warm. He showed us his "International Bridge." It seems that the water in Oyster Bay is Dutch, while the land on the north side is French. His restaurant, built over the water, is Dutch. So twenty years ago he built ("with my own hands") a bridge that connects his restaurant to land -- an International Bridge. It's about ten feet long and maybe six wide. It's guarded by a Toucan, who is Dutch (according to Captain Oliver, who is French). The story is that the Dutch and French gentlemen whose walks originally divided the island set out from this point.

Green Sand Beach

Captain Oliver also pointed out the Green Sand Beach, a short distance north of his restaurant on Oyster Bay. The sand is actually a dark, bilious green -- kind of olive drab. We were supposed to bring back sand from Green Sand Beach as part of our hunt. Captain Oliver warned us that the beach was very hard to get to, because houses had been built all along the slope above it.

We decided to see if we could get there anyway. After a short drive around the Bay we came to an overlook that seemed like it might be above Green Sand Beach. I haven't mentioned out competitors, but there were two carloads besides us, and they followed us up to the same overlook. We were discouraged that they would mimic our every move, but there wasn't much we could do. Letting the air out of their tires would not have been very sportsmanlike. So I set off down the slope in search of green sand. Judi stayed behind to cover me. When one competitor asked her if I went "down there," she said "I don't know. He just left me here to watch the Jeep."

My journey took me through people's back yards and down their side yards, down a ditch that had a fence running uncomfortably along its bottom, down the top of a stone wall that sloped towards the water, over broken rocks and through undergrowth (all this while wearing my new Birkenstock sandals) to... Green Sand Beach! I got green sand!

Before making my way back, I concealed the green sand in my pocket, not wanting to let on that I had been successful. As I scrambled back up the ditch with the uncomfortable fence, I encountered one of my competitors who asked if I had got it. Not wanting to lie outright (for some reason), I just said that it was all rocks and bushes down there, very difficult territory. When I got back to the Jeep, we slipped the green sand inside and took off.

George at Plantation House

One of the stops on the hunt was the Old House, the remains of a plantation that dates to 1843. It was one of those places we always wanted to stop at but never did, until the hunt forced us to. The house and the stuff in it are interesting, but more interesting still is the man who runs it -- George and a French last name. He's directly descended from the original founder, and he tells the story of his family and his relatives very well indeed. I recommend a visit to this place and this engaging gentleman. Unfortunately, we had to run along on our hunt....

We had to stop at that restaurant that's at the top of the hill across from where you turn to go down to Orient Beach. We'd thought about stopping there to take pictures, but never had. Now we did.

We had to visit the airport in Grand Case -- the French side airport -- and I was surprised to find how well developed it is.

A hard working French waiter at La Main

When we got to Marigot (we had to find the name of the man who designed the statue of the woman in the Market -- Martin Lynn, in case you want to know) we stopped for lunch at our usual place, La Main � la P�te in Marina Royale. I had the Pennes 4 Fromagges that I had year before last. Either it's less nuclear now or I have a higher tolerance, because I finished it, and it was great. Judi had, as always, the French Onion Soup, which was gooey and wonderful, as always. Lynn had a steak with sauteed scallions. The scallions had a lot of flavor, but the steak didn't, and it was chewy. I wouldn't recommend steak at La Main. But I would recommend just about anything else. And the wait staff is terrific.

By the way, "La Main � la P�te" means "the hand in the dough" -- in effect, everything is made from scratch. However, I can tell you, from the texture and consistency of my penne, that they were the kind that comes hard and dry in a box.

Oh, and the great salad that we had last year isn't on the menu now. Maybe it was a special.... I think it may have been. And, for the record, they still serve real ice tea.

Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church detail

Back to the hunt: Did you know that the smallest and oldest church on the island is on a back street in Simpson Bay? It's a handsome stone Catholic church, called Mary, Star of the Sea. It was very hard to find. I had to ask several people, finally finding a local woman who runs a little cafe right at the edge of the airport runway who gave me directions.

Did you know that there's a statue in the center of a traffic circle on the road between Philipsburg and Cole Hill called "Guarding Loved Ones You May Lose?" It's a child clinging fearfully to his mother's leg while the mother strikes a dramatic pose, arm extended, palm out, halting the approach of danger.

Did you know that Peter Stuyvesant, the first governor or New York (then New Netherland), lost his leg here, while fighting with the Spanish? And that his leg is buried in Cul de Sac cemetery near Bush Road? Although his leg is really in a museum in Curacao. What's up with that? I don't know.

You probably do know that there's a pineapple -- a beautiful golden pineapple with green leaves -- atop the Philipsburg Courthouse. Even we knew that.

The hunt also brought us to Fort Amsterdam. This was an interesting experience. You can only get to the fort by going through Divi Little Bay Resort. You can only enter the resort if you're going from Philipsburg towards Little Bay, not the other way. Not very convenient. Once you get past the guards into the resort, it's a short hike up the hill to what's left of the fort, which isn't much -- just an L-shaped section of wall. However, the view of Great Bay Beach and Philipsburg is magnificent. The view of Little Bay and its resorts is pretty good, too.

The final task of the hunt was to find the St. Maarten Tourism Bureau, and, curiously, this proved to be the most difficult. To begin, it seems that most of St. Maarten's citizens don't know where the Bureau is. We finally stumbled across a government building and Judi suggested that someone there might know. A couple of government employees who were standing outside made a phone call and directed us to a three story white office building with blue windows. Thinking we had hit paydirt, we found the building and waylaid another government employee -- nattily attired in black dress pants, white dress shirt, and tie -- who informed us that the Tourism Bureau was actually in a different building in the back. Entering this building, we found ourselves in a public clinic. Hello! This is so not a Tourism Bureau. We were directed to yet another building which finally proved to be the right one and by coincidence we ran into one of the other parties in the hunt! From all this I can conclude that (a) not only do many people not know where the Tourism Bureau is, even government employees don't, and those are even government employees who work in the same office complex; and (b) a sign outside would simplify things greatly.

A very helpful government employee

That said, we found, at the Tourism Bureau, an amazing helpful, knowledgeable, and friendly employee who knew what we needed to know. I didn't get his name, but I did get his picture.

Really, everyone that we talked to, on the whole hunt, was friendly and tried their best to be helpful. These are great people on this island. "The Friendly Island" is not an empty phrase.

So we finally made it back to the activities desk at the resort, with our answers and our green sand -- not to mention a couple of bits of conch shell -- tired but well-fed and having had an interesting day.

And, finally, getting back to our room, hot and sweaty and tired, we found that the air conditioning had been knocked out by yet another power outage -- the third in the three days that we've been here -- and it was hot as blazes. I realize that the resort can't control power outages, but they're charging us an extra twelve dollars a day for air conditioning, and I definitely don't feel as though I'm getting my twelve dollars worth.

Anyway, we'll find out tomorrow evening if we won the hunt.

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