Thursday, 15 Sep 2005

The hilltop that we drove over when it was still scary and wild

The mark of the Marriot

It's sad to see all the development in the Dawn Beach area. When we first rented a car and drove here, while visiting on a cruise ship in 2001, the hill across the bay from our resort was empty and wild. I know, because we drove over it, and it was a pretty scary ride. Then, when we visited year before last, and had our walk down the beach, they were just starting on the houses out at the end of that point of land. Now the hill is covered with houses, including a big apartment or condo complex that runs along the entire ridge at the top. And now, of course, they're building that humungous Marriott resort on the south half of Dawn Beach. Marriott has literally carved out the entire hillside to create a flat space at beach level to build their resort. From our balcony we can see the open brown wound where the hill once was. All day there are power shovels picking up the hillside, one scoop at a time, and dropping it into dump trucks, which are hauling it away, one dump truck load at a time. It's very sad.

And I mentioned that it seems drivers are getting more aggressive here. It's definitely true. Especially risky, aggressive passing. It happens all the time now. More sad.

Steering wheel (the wheels are straight)

Rental vehicles here can sometimes be... interesting. The Jeep we have this year is better than most -- good power, good condition, only a year old and only one crunch in the left rear bumper. But at some point someone has removed the steering wheel and reinstalled it... upside down. Yep. I wonder what would happen if the airbag inflated?

The weather has been great this trip -- just a couple of brief rain showers. The flip side is that it's been hot, hot, hot. We're sweating all the time. This is mid-September. Luckily the air in the Jeep works really well. So does the air in the room. As long as the electricity stays on.

Speaking of electricity, it went out again today at 7:15am. Luckily it came on again soon, but I still had to restart the air conditioners.

Cocoon

Monarch Butterfly cocoons

First thing today was a visit to the Butterfly Farm. When we were there last year, it was dark and gloomy, and the butterflies weren't very active. This year it was bright and sunny and the butterflies were bobbling all over the place. It was also hot, hot, hot.

You can visit the Butterfly Farm's Web site at http://thebutterflyfarm.com, and I recommend that you do. And if you ever visit the island, I recommend that you drop by. First thing in the morning (9:00am) on a sunny day is best. We got to see some newly emerged butterflies take off on the first flights of their lives. It was something.

The Butterfly Farm's mission is to "flood the world with butterflies" by educating and encouraging visitors to the farm and the Web site to plant butterfly-friendly plants in their yards. Allow me to add my small voice of encouragement to theirs. We have flooded the world with nuclear weapons, pollution, and tobacco. Not to mention general fear and strife. How about flooding the world with butterflies next? And you can do something to help, all by yourself, just by planting the right plants in your yard.

The one thing I'm going to mention from the docent's talk is that during its caterpillar stage the butterfly does nothing but eat, eat, eat, non-stop. The docent joked that they call this "the cruise ship phase."

After the Butteryfly Farm and a brief stop in Marigot we had lunch at another of our old watering holes, Hot Tomatoes. We started, as usual, with an order of the signature Hot Tomatoes, and I had, as usual, a bowl of their great Curry Conch Chowder. Then Judi had the BBQ Ribs with rice and a salad. Lynn had the Bonzai Chicken slathered with peanut sauce (Judi got this last year, not realizing about the peanut sauce, which for some reason is not mentioned on the menu, and she hated it). I had the Jerk Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo.

The BBQ Ribs were not meaty, and they certainly were not tender. The meat had to be torn off the bones. We wouldn't recommend them. Really, if you want ribs on St. Maarten, try Beau Beau's.

Lynn loved her Bonzai Chicken. Apparently her reaction to peanut sauce differs from ours. She even raved about it. So if you aren't averse to peanut sauce, you might want to try the Bonzai Chicken at Hot Tomatoes, but don't say I sent you.

For sides, Hot Tomatoes gives you a choice of fries, mashed potatoes, or rice. I'm afraid I haven't had the fries or mashed potatoes, but I can't imagine they're better than the rice. The rice is extraordinary.

And the house sales dressing at Hot Tomatoes is, as I mentioned last year, simply amazing. It's something they created and make themselves. You need to try it.

My Jerk Chicken Fettucini Alfredo was also most excellent. Not as great as Judi's homemade fettucini alfredo, but none are. But among all the also-ran alfredos in the world, this was excellent -- rich and creamy and flavorful and as heavy as an anvil in the stomach, as a good alfredo should be.

A dog wandered up and watched us while we were eating (we were seated outside). Of course I fed her several bites of jerk chicken in alfredo sauce, and Lynn gave her a bite of Bonzai Chicken with peanut sauce. So of course she continued to gaze at us with brown eyes of longing. Finally Judi tore the meat of a rib and gave her that. She thought that was pretty great, although I advised her to try the ribs at Beau Beau's before coming to a final opinion. The waiter came out and tried to scare her away with a chair, and she barked bravely at him, but we intervened in her favor, and so bloodshed was avoided. She hung with us until we had no food left on the table, and then she wandered off to find fresh friends.

I think I've mentioned how hot it is here. You can only wear an outfit once -- it gets so soaked with sweat, it's toast after that. To wit: By the time we got back to the resort today, and I undressed, my boxer shorts, clean that morning, had a solid white stain at inch high all the way across the front, where they crease while I'm sitting. It was salt. From sweat.

King Beau Beau

Unforgettable

A Beaubette (love that smile!)

Beaubettes

Dance contest: shake, shake, shake!

At 8:00 we went down to Beau Beau's for the King Beau Beau show. He managed to start around 8:30 -- not bad for island time. He's a great performer, and he obviously writes his own music, because the lyrics reflect St. Maarten themes.

We don't do the nightlife on St. Maarten, so I don't know how to compare King Beau Beau to other entertainment, but we enjoyed the show very much. He has a great voice. He even did his own rendition of Unforgettable, for the couples. I was touched when one of the busboys offered his hand to one of the waitresses and they danced to Unforgettable together.

King Beau Beau was accompanied by dancers -- the Beaubettes -- who could really shake their... well, you can guess what they shook. And they shook them so fast they were almost whizzing like propellers. At the end of the show there was a dance contest of sorts. Judi and Lynn took part and won small prizes. We were joined at the show by Theresa, one of our competitors from the scavenger hunt, and she helped out by taking pictures with Judi's camera.

One thing I wanted to relate: The Beaubettes have a small dressing room at the back of the restaurant where they change. It has a mirror on the inside of the door. Before the show started, the door was open, and from where I sat I could see th Beaubettes, inside their dressing room, in the mirror. When the music started outside, they spontaneously started bopping and bouncing, even though they didn't know anyone was watching. That's how you know someone who's not just a dancer, but loves to dance. They loved to dance.

It was a fabulous evening. But a word of caution: They mix the drinks very strong at Beau Beau's. I had three and that almost knocked me out. I've had way too much to drink tonight.

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