Brooklands Island View Apartments The Valley

Arrived in sunshine and moored opposite the Oasis of the Sea. This cruise ship is on its maiden voyage and is massive – it carries 6500 passengers and 3000 crew! We took a taxi with three other women from the boat to Copuyec Beach. After travelling fro ages through the eternal St Maarten traffic jam we reached a beach with no loungers, shades, snack bar or anything. It was totally remote and not fit for our purpose ...

... a community feeling to it, especially because we visited in the low season, hurricane season. The steets were very quite, many shops were closed and not many tourists were visiting the island overnight.

We stayed for 2 nights and almost didn't made it back to St. Maarten because a hurricane was passing close by and the seas were too high for boats to run. So we ended up taking a plane.

... up to Pic Paradis (the highest point on the island) and instead, whiled away an unproductive and unpleasant afternoon at the Hidden Forest Café. Long gone are the days of fearless gallivanting. I guess you can say this vacation was truly a different experience, as it should be when traveling with an infant.

Suffice to say, we had an amazing time, despite all the bumps in the road to ...

... of the crew on the boats and followed our captains commands as we did our assigned tasks. My wife and myself had moderate tasks to perform, but others had more difficult tasks. We were assigned our crew positions because we are in our 50's we assumed. It worked for us.

We started our race with the other boats and our boat was in 3rd-place most of the time. With the final leg of the race approaching, we were still in 3rd-place. Our captain called for a strategic and bold ...

... It was all going fine until it was time for me to head off into the bush to get myself lost. The fire service is responsible for the search and rescue here, well that was what I was told anyway. By the reaction of one of the senior officers on the site visit before the exercise it was clearly news to him....doesn't exactly instill much confidence in being found! On the day of the exercise the fire service got around the issue of search and rescue by just ...

... luckily its heading out into the Atlantic.The office closed about 2 as the boss was flying off to Barbados, i ended up spending the afternoon trying in vain to get the bike working, no joy as yet. Today was just a normal day at work, there was a monstrous thunder storm which flooded the main road in the Valley and pushed the humidity up to somewhere around 90%...sweltering a little!! Well thats about it from me, will update next when something exciting happens!! Ian

... not what i was expecting of a caribbean paradise! Lazy afternoon....managed to get locked out of the office for an hour while the ladies in the office were out to lunch! Was a rather warm lunch hour in the open! Just back from work, on to my first beer and its not even 6, this is the life!! Will try upload some photos at the weekend...once ive took some! Speak soon, Ian

... appearance. We were dropped off at the gift shop/restaurant/front desk, which would be the focal gathering point of the group for the duration of the stay. The main building was well kept and followed the tropical theme. Perhaps the biggest draw- the serve yourself bar. You could help yourself to whatever as long as you jotted it down on the notepad underneath the seashell. I'm sure this has provided ...

... it. A few of the people I've befriended in the gate area also make it onto the next Chicago flight, and after arriving and checking the flight status boards, we grab some pizza for an early lunch. After saying our goodbye's I head to my gate, only to catch the end of an announcement. I can't be hearing this right. The flight to San Juan has been cancelled. You have got to be kidding me. I've read about this, I've prepared myself for this ...

... y partes de la isla tenian un caracteristico olor a materia organica en descomposicion. Bah, olor a St. Marteen le deciamos. Como puede ser q la gente hable maravillas del caribe cuando tiene este nauseabundo olor? Paso rapido igual, pero el momento inicial fue duro.
St Marteen esta dividida en la parte holandesa y la francesa. Nosotros parabamos en la francesa, mucho mas chick y sin casinos. Ademas del hotel, tengo la vivida imagen de una de las playas mas hermosas de ...