Carimar Beach Club The Valley

... 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.

... We still enjoyed the sand and surf. And more importantly, we got to share these experiences with our baby. Not bad for having gone to the Caribbean within his first year of life. We braved as first-time parents, flying by ourselves, to an international destination, and that made us feel pretty good. So for our last day on the island, we drove around, exploring both the French and Dutch side ...

Most of our days were spent visiting the French side of the island. We spent a long and lazy afternoon at Le Galion Beach so our little one could play in some shallow water. It’s a perfect beach for families with small kids or infants due to the calm waters. In fact, even in the shallowest of waters we saw some fish ...

... was incredibly sweet to our young one too and took time to share with us her family stories. Maybe everyone was a little warmer because we had a baby with us, or it was low season, but either way, it made for a comfortable stay.

The view from our balcony was beautiful. We overlooked the pool, can see the ocean, and hear the waves. The only thing I thought the Westin could have done to improve the ambiance was not to have the ...

... 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 ...

... some self portraits that didn't come out too badly considering the state I was in. Last week was all about the first phase of the National Hurricane Exercise, involving all the utility companies on the island. The scenario was that a car had set off during the eye of a storm, got caught up when the storm came back and a electricity pole fell on to it. 2 persons trapped inside and one person walked off to get help (yours truly!). Well that was the plan ...

... more mellow day, just took delivery of my 'new' scooter, which the boss has bought and is renting back to me. Its a pile of ****, chinese made and doesnt work!! But we are working in getting it going again, well i say we, i mean Chelsi! Yesterday I went out on a site visit to two of the major developments on the island, to check how their preparations for the hurricane season were going. We have our first hurricane of the season, Bertha, which reached Cat 3. today ...

... go. Got met at the airport by the admin assistant of the disaster management dept. She delivered me to the hotel, and what an awesome place it is! Great location, great room, great restaurant....first thing i did was to have a beer of course! Woke up uber early this morning...around 4am...as is the norm with this damn jet lag! No problems being ready in time to get ...

... which was the Arawak. Like many of the hotels, the Arawak had a driver to pick me up at the airport. The warm ocean air was intoxic ating, the conversation with other guests was entertaining, and the collection of the stuff no one was using anymore as we approched the Arawak was rather shocking . The buildings were pink and aqua, just like the website, but with more missing paint and an overall run ...

... to get on that flight. The kind lady at the desk tells me I am being re-booked for a flight tomorrow. WHAT? Does she have any idea how much an empty bed in Anguilla costs? Oh no, try again, what are my options? If I want, I can try a later flight to San Juan with a 30 minute layover before the flight to Anguilla. I haven't flown through San Juan before and don't know that is impossible, but I'd rather be stuck there than here, so I ...