Feed: An American in SXM - AggScore: 78.5

Mongoose! Cute! And Icky.

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The other day I was taking photos in Red Pond of this view:



Suddenly I saw some mongoose in the road. (Seriously, if you get icked out, do not scroll down).



They hid from me at first but when I didn't approach, they went about their business. Which turned out to be the business of eating a dead rat.



At first they were sharing nicely together, but then one decided to take off with most of the meal.











"Whatever. I've still got the head. Best part."

Bald Yard

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Over the years, our yard became a crazy place - our dogs destroyed some planting areas, some areas became overgrown and we ended up mowing the grass in portions and letting the rest do what it would. Eventually, certain types of weedy trees were taking over and we decided to clear the brush and come up with a plan. We do not have a plan for the yard yet, but we noticed one thing right away - we made the hunting easier.



This big pile of rocks has been in one spot since we moved in.



It ended up covered over with tall grass and wild tamarind and it was evidently a great place for lizards to hang their hats. We took away some of their security measures when we cleared the brush.

Sorry lizard dude.

Daisy and Scratchy (the dogs) were not the only ones to notice this interesting development. Every morning since we cleared the brush, we have four or five visitors in our yard, perched on the wall or the rock pile and surveying the land.

I think that these are cattle egrets. They are loving the new and improved access to insects and lizards in our yard.

Of course I got my ID from the Incomplete Guide to the Wildlife of Saint Martin, which also mentions that these birds are more successful at hunting when near a large animal. Do dogs count?

My dogs would certainly like to hunt these birds - I am glad to say that so far they are having no luck at all.

Birds on the Rocks

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When I was looking around Caravanserai at the end of June, I also took a few pictures of birds that I saw and thought I'd put them up separately.

 I think these rocky coastline areas are favored by certain types of birds - I'll have to remember to have my camera handy next time I go back there to see if I can spot more.
See? There is a pelican. OK wait, here is a zoomed in picture:





That brown bird is a brown booby. This was the first time I have seen one in St. Maarten.



I wanted to have a pep rally for this guy. Live and thrive brown booby! I hope to see lots more like you!

Wandering Around Caravanserai

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Around about the end of June, I heard that the Dunes Casino was open, finally, and stopped by to check it out. Also, to use the bathroom. Sometimes it is difficult to find a public bathroom on this island, ok?

Anyway, I also took a look around Caravanserai, which has been under construction for 400 years. These are the resulting pictures. Warning: there are lots of them.





I wonder what that 3rd floor terrace is? Can people like me go there and have a drink and watch planes?

There were not many people around that day except for a few at the bar. I heard that Marty from the Simpson Bay gyro place was running the bar, and the bartender certainly sounded like him.







It is so strange to remember Bamboo Bernies in this spot - there used to be a gazebo out at the end of these rocks.

2001? Is that when Bamboo Bernies was built? I loved that place when it first opened... there were plants everywhere and ridiculous tiki paraphernalia. This place looks so different and stark now that all of that has been torn down.

Maybe it is better for the birds. I would come here just to see them.

Bright Green Visitor

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The other day I glanced outside to see whether the cat food bowl was empty and was arrested by the sight of a blurry green lump next to it. What is that?



Do iguanas eat cat food? Snails like it. Hermit crabs like it. I guess maybe iguanas do too?

As soon as I stepped away, this iguana scrambled to the other end of the terrace, which is dug into the hill at the back of our house, and difficult to get out of if you are as small as an iguana is. I did not follow him except with the zoom lens of my camera, but my presence and the fact that he could not jump out of the terraced area easily made him hostile, and he hunched his back, bobbed his head aggressively and showed me the flap under his chin.

He is mid head bob here.

I propped a board up against the wall so he could use it to escape and got out of there.

A while later I stuck my head out to see if the iguana had made it out and was confronted by this sight:



At first I only saw the cat and mistook the iguana for a plant. I wonder if the cat even knew he was there?





Eventually the cat left to dig some unfortunate creature out of the rocks in the hillside, and I waited to see if the iguana would leave. He dropped his mouth open and I wondered if iguanas use their tongues to get scents the way cats and dogs do? Or perhaps he would eat some leaves?



Eventually I realized it could be that he was too hot in the sun, but would not move because he could see me watching him. I ducked inside, and when I looked again he was gone. I hope he was okay. I was shaken by the idea that I could have harmed him by scaring him into not moving. I'll have to be more careful.



As much as I enjoyed seeing this iguana, I am not happy about the possibility of a confrontation between something this size and one of my dogs or the cats that hang around nearby. The cats seem pretty wary of everything, but my dogs are stupid enough to get too close. I wouldn't want them or the iguana hurt by such an encounter.

Rainbow Rainbow

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The last day or so has been emotionally wrenching for me, but I find myself feeling happy, purposeful and thankful for my circumstances.



That is such a precious feeling for me, and I thought it would be wise to record it here, so that I can remember all the circumstances that led to it.

Weekend Getaway

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For a birthday celebration this year, we decided to have a little weekend getaway at an island hotel. I have never been a tourist on SXM but I do like to pretend to be one once in a while. And, as I have mentioned before, I love staying in hotels.

This year we chose Le Petit Hotel. It is right on the beach, and it is possible to walk to the restaurants and shops in Grand Case. The staff was totally helpful in every way, from time I was asking for availability, to helping me haul things up to our third floor room and finding me a vase for flowers I put into the room, to when we left.

I loved the view from our 3rd floor room. I was recovering from a knee injury, and found the stairs daunting when carrying luggage, but otherwise I liked our location very much.

The room was thoughtfully laid out, and they had the a/c running and little frangipani flowers left everywhere for us when I checked in (I planned this hotel stay as a surprise and checked in first. Jean-Francois and Anne-Laure, who helped me with the arrangements, offered to let me check in early, which gave me lots of time to stick champagne and cake into the fridge, etcetera.)

Wifi was included, and there were tons of channels with plenty of US programming. This is not always the case with television on the French side, and so I had come prepared with DVDs. I wondered if the DVD player would play my US region DVDs (French DVD players are different than US) but had no problems. There was also an IPod dock.

I didn't get pictures, but there are chairs on the beach in front of the hotel. At this end of the beach, there were not many people.

The kitchen was well equipped, with a 2-burner stovetop, enough pots and pans and utensils to cook with, as well as a microwave. I thought about getting Fabulous Feasts in for a fancy meal, but the kitchen was not quite what they needed and so I ended up making a meal for us on one of the nights we spent there (mushroom risotto, asparagus and filet), and had no problems with the tools provided.

The only kitchen tools I brought with me were a good knife, a pepper grinder and an ice bucket.

I did manage to trip a circuit when I turned on the microwave at the same time as every other thing in the room was turned on. I didn't want to mess with the switches because they were quite different looking than ones I am used to, and I am afraid of electricity. The front desk closes at 5PM and only security is on after that, so at first I was worried. However, I used my cell phone to call the hotel's number, which was answered right away, and our problem was solved very quickly.

The breakfast that the hotel offers is well thought out. Near the front desk, a breakfast station is set up, and there is an espresso machine, regular coffee and milk in insulated pitchers, fresh OJ, pastries and fruit. Trays for carrying the bounty are available and someone is on hand to show you the ropes if you have questions.

Looking down the beach, we could see that Love Hotel had lots of chairs and umbrellas out - there were a fair amount of people there.

We walked down to Grand Case during the day and had lunch at Ti Provencal, which was very pleasant. They changed locations last year and are in a much larger spot (it used to be La Marine).




Last year, we went to the Radisson for a weekend getaway and ended up going home early Sunday to deal with preparations for Hurricane Earl.

This year, Irene formed as we enjoyed our hotel room, and let us know about it by storming outside our nice sanctuary and blowing hard at the windows. Once again, we checked out early and took off home, fortified  by our getaway memories.




(This post is not sponsored by the hotel in any way. I said nice things about it cause it is a nice place.)

Back in SXM

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Before our flight to SXM from Boston on Sunday, we had been watching the weather closely. A storm named Maria was scheduled to pass by the island the day before our flight, and we weren't sure if our flight would be cancelled or not. There were lots of cancellations the day before our flight... but we heard nothing. News on the island was that Saturday was a fine day, sunny even, where was this storm that was showing on the weather maps?

So, sad we didn't have an excuse to stay in Boston for another few days, we trundled off to the airport. Our flight from Boston to Charlotte was uneventful. Our flight from Charlotte to SXM was another story. USAir had cancelled the flight the day before, and now our flight was oversold. The plane was full to the gills. 30 minutes from landing, the captain announced that there were lots of high winds in the island area and that we should buckle up and get ready for some turbulence. He had the flight attendants buckled up too. When pilots have the flight attendants sit down too, I get all sick feeling. Its no good.

For the most part the descent was fine, but as we got close to the water and headed for the runway, we could feel the plane being pushed here and there. The landing was very bouncy. The passengers erupted into applause when we were finally down. I learned later that a flight to SXM from Miami at around the same time was diverted due to high winds and returned to Miami. I am glad I didn't know that while I was on the plane - I am not a terrific flyer.



It turned out that much of TS Maria's winds were sort of behind the center of the storm, and they came through SXM later on Sunday. We were home in time to close some shutters that faced in the direction that the rain and wind was coming from, and to stare at the ceiling, watching our newly repaired roof for leaks.

It was also my first real chance to see the closed section of road that is currently making life difficult in Cole Bay. I'm sticking to driving on the French side these days.

I Went to Massachusetts (Last Part) and Thoughts on 9/11

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Some of the last pictures I took in Boston were of the September 11th Memorial in the Common, the day before the ten year anniversary, which was the day we were to fly home.





I have a friend whose child just started kindergarten, and the school was planning a remembrance assembly. My mind was blown by the idea of trying to explain 9/11 to someone who was not even alive when it happened - where do you start?

I was in St. Maarten on that day. I was working in Simpson Bay when a co-worker (who was chatting online with a friend in NY) told me a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought it was a little plane, whose pilot had messed up. The scale of it, even when I saw a photo, didn't register until we turned on the radio and heard the size of the plane. We were listening to the radio when the second plane hit, and it was only then that we realized it was a terrorist attack. Both of the people I was working with were from New York, and the office was flooded with calls in and out.

We heard about the Pentagon being hit, and it felt as if all of the US was under attack. I wondered where the next attack would be.

Soon after that, the power went out on the Dutch side - it added to the doomsday feeling, and we had no way to find out what was happening. We got into our cars in order to keep listening to the radio. We heard the radio broadcasters wonder if one of the towers was leaning a little bit, and then scoffing at the idea that the buildings would go down. We ended up at the Atlantis Casino, which had generators and a bank of TVs, and we stood with a big group of other people who'd had the same idea and watched the towers fall.

What I remember the most about that morning was the feeling of continual and renewed shock. The realization that this terrible thing that happened was not over, here is a worse thing to add to it, and here is another on top of that.

Ten years later, I flew back to SXM on a flight out of Boston, and I was having second and third thoughts on the way to the airport. The news was full of the possible threat that the government had decided to talk about. Security at the airport was very tight, I think every person going through was put through the xray machine. My flight from Boston to Charlotte was underpopulated.




In the end it was a beautiful flight.

I Went to Massachusetts (Part 42,000)

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Omigosh, can I be finished with these vacation photos yet? I do not have the attention span for this stuff.

Still in Boston, we ventured out to explore the Copley area, we got to spend time with friends we have not seen enough of in years, walked down Newbury Street to the Boston Common, dodged people everywhere, so so many of them! We were seduced by the Fluevog shoe store and the Aveda store and the bookstore and the Thai food places, and we saw fancily dressed wedding attendees everywhere we turned.

Pedestrians and musicians on Newbury Street.

Amazing that Borders is gone. When I worked at independent bookstores, Borders seemed a bit like the evil empire to me (but less so than Barnes and Noble and Amazon) but they were a great place to go when visiting from SXM and being in bookstore withdrawal. Sigh. I have memories of the big Borders store opening in Union Square in San Francisco - I walked past it every day on the way to my job at Cody's Books (an excellent independent bookstore, sadly gone for good). When that Borders opened there was another chain store, maybe a Waldenbooks, a few blocks away - they went out of business almost immediately. Their employees filled their front display window with hundreds of copies of Sherwin Nuland's "How We Die". Books are at a strange stage - the internet, ebooks and personal publishing are changing everything.

Some of Boston's buildings are just gorgeous.







First time I have ever seen this place in person. I watched every second of that season of Real World.

Nature: winning.

I never spent much time in this part of the city when I lived there, so it was nice to visit there on such a beautiful day.

One of the Swan Boats and its duck outriders.

Huh.

One of two weddings we saw on the Common that day.

I would have gladly spent another week or two or three wandering around in Boston (as long as the weather held). Every time I go back I remember how great it is.

I Went to Massachusetts (Part 4)

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Boston Pictures:

In Copley Place we saw people setting up and practicing for a fashion show.

Evidently it was Fashion Week. When did that become a thing?

All of the women walkers but one wore heels. I wonder if she was vilified. I think Tyra would have had something to say about that. The boot wearer is smart though. Let's say there was a zombie attack. She'd be able to run, outpacing the other models. And if some model-zombies were made, she would still be able to outrun them. Assuming they kept their shoes on. Huh. I will have to think about that part of it. Do zombies notice their footwear?

Tons of people around, again. I forgot what its like to be in a place where people choose to walk in the streets (and are able to safely. Sidewalks!). I have lost the city dweller's ability to be an effective pedestrian - I meander here and there, looking all around.

This room full of people working out was right above a busy restaurant.

Boylston Street offers a lot of restaurant choices.

It also had this Hubway, Boston's new bike sharing system. I love this idea.

This girl and her friend picked up bikes while we were standing there - it seemed to be a relatively quick task. If you don't have a credit card you are probably SOL though. (Having a credit card is not a universal thing in SXM the way it is in the USA).

I love Boston. You can walk all over the place.

I have more pictures, but I'll put them up in a new post.

I Went to Massachusetts (Part 3)

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Once settled in Newburyport, we went to a wedding at the Willowdale Estate which is in the Bradley Palmer State Park in Topsfield, MA. It was fantastically pretty. I kind of expected to see teensy fairies helping the bride** with her dress instead of the usual ladies. The bride is a family member we don't get to see often, and we had only met her fiance once before the wedding - their wedding ceremony just made me want to get to know them better. I can't even remember all the bits but it was great. For dinner we were seated with 4 other couples who were about our age (well OK, younger, dammit) and who all knew each other. They seemed to be very nice people but I discovered that my conversational skills are VERY rusty. I am socially awkward anyway*** and I didn't improve on my skills that night.

**Here I would like to mention that while the bride wore a beautiful, very demure full-length lace dress that had belonged to her mother, with long sleeves and a high collar, her shoes were something else. They looked like this:

Awesome.

***Here, because of the word awkward, I would like to mention the web series The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, it makes for hilarious and sometimes painful viewing.

We also went to a labor day BBQ, and saw friends we have not seen in a long time - in one case 13 years! Jeez. We had a good time. We ate good food. Some of it was farmer's market produce and I was jealous of it.

I need to figure out how to grow tomatoes!

As usual what seemed like plenty of time in the planning turned into nowhere near enough time - I loved seeing everyone and again regret not being able to magically translocate for visiting purposes.

Eventually we made our way to Boston for a few days, and stayed in Back Bay, which was a fun location for a short visit.





The gorgeous weather gave over to wind and rain for a few days, which may have been remnants of Lee that had moved north. At the same time, we were watching the formation of what eventually became Hurricane Maria, which forecast track showed as "headed right for us". It was not forecast to be a strong storm by that time, and so we just kept hoping. We did wonder if we'd have to postpone our return flight to SXM, which was scheduled for early Sunday, September 11th.

On our first night in Boston we took ourselves out to a restaurant called L'Espalier, where we had a wonderful time. A seasonal menu is offered, with several courses, along with an optional wine pairing. I don't remember details of all the courses, but I do remember there was an emphasis on using local products - we drank several wines that are from the New England area. I'd love to tour those vineyards! OK I am getting crazy now. But not really.

Thats it for now! Next up - some Boston pictures :)

I Went to Massachusetts (Part 2)

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We thought we'd have tons of time to look around Newburyport, but it turns out we underestimated the amount of time we'd be spending doing other things. We did get to spend one day looking around at the shops and scenery. The weather was gorgeous and tons of people were out, enjoying the sun. I miss New England towns.

There was a musician by the waterfront, people laying in the grass and seagulls perched around keeping an eye on us all.

I found the martial look of this boat interesting - though I suppose it could be some sort of surface preparation.

Nice.

We noticed that many of the stores in Newburyport had water bowls for dogs outside, which I purely liked. Once we started to see it, we also noticed it in Portsmouth, NH and in Boston.





The sign out front says: "The freedom of the mind is the beginning of all other freedoms" - Clinton Lee Scott. I look at this lovely church and, while noticing its beauty and architectural details, also think about its probable damage during a hurricane, which seems to be how I consider all architecture these days - something I'd like my mind to be free of once in a while.

We spent quite a while looking through this vast store. Aaron threatened to buy some truly hideous lamps. We agreed that if he was still smitten with them at the end of the day, he should buy them, and I am totally happy to say they are not now ours. I have loved some ugly lamps in my time, but these were black or grey dolphin/mermaid/wave statues with lighting elements added later (and poorly). Not good. Not lovable by me.

They did have some terrific stuff in there, however.

There was also some excellent music playing at the front. Aaron commented that the music made it seem like one of those places in post-apocalyptic movies, which gathers every kind of imaginable bit for purchase or trade, and maybe sells long pig out the back door.

I Went to Massauchusetts (Part 1)

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At the end of August, I thought I would expire from stress.

Our repairs were taking longer than we expected (we expected them to take longer than we expected, and they took even longer than that, which we should have expected), laundry was a troubling issue, and we were leaving for a trip to Massachusetts on the 1st.

Hurricane Katia was making me crazy. Well, at that time it was not a hurricane, not even a storm. By the time it reached SXM's vicinity, it would be a storm - but what kind of storm?

The forecast mostly showed Katia going north of the island. Sometimes it showed the storm coming right for us. Then it went north again. Katia was going to be a strong storm, then it was going to be a weak storm and strengthen after it passed us. The storm was far enough away that the forecast track and strength could change substantially. Katia would pass us around September 3rd or 4th - we would be off island, only able to call up the people taking care of our house and dogs and ask them to do their best.

Oh, and hope that our roof repairs were finished, because they were not going to be done before we left.

It sucked big time. We almost cancelled our trip. We argued. I stressed.

We watched the forecast avidly on the 31st and decided to leave.

By the time we landed in Massachusetts, I was all set. I felt free and happy. We had done everything we could to prepare, just in case. Now we were in Massachusetts and feeling fine.

The weather was beautiful for most of our visit, we got to see friends and family and we got to relax. We stayed at a nice place in Newburyport for the first part of our trip. Some of the decor was beautiful, with vintage feel to it - some was kinda... funky, but it was comfortable and right in the middle of the town.

The lobby area of the Garrison Inn, which also served as a sort of champagne lounge at night.

I always like to take pictures of our hotel rooms (I love staying in hotels) before we mess them up. I wondered about some of the furniture in this room, but it was comfortable, we had tons of space and in daylight we saw there was a nice view.

The surrounding wall inside our bath/shower was one of those one piece inserts, with the soap rests molded in - this one also had flower shapes. I wonder when those will come round into popularity again and be considered "vintage".

My favorite feature of the bathroom was the heat lights in the ceiling - my grandmother had these in her house when I was growing up and I have always loved them. I can think of no way to convince myself that we need one of these here in the Caribbean, but I used the one in the hotel at every opportunity.

Another excellent feature of the Inn is the included breakfast. The offerings were fairly wide, and included one dish with some sort of insane hollandaise that I would be happy to eat by the jar.

Next... pictures of Newburyport.

Seaweed

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This is a picture of seaweed coming towards SXM. For a few months, there have been huge rafts of it landing on beaches on the eastern side of SXM. I have read that this is an annual occurrence elsewhere in the Caribbean but it is the first time I have seen it happen here.

This is a picture of Guana Bay a few weeks ago. I saw the same view a few days ago and there seems to be even more piled up there now. The Daily Herald has an article warning against swimming there. Wildlife guide author Mark Yokoyama wrote a blog post about the seaweed as well and mentions that there are benefits for some beach inhabitants. (edited to add: Mark wrote again about sargassum and pictures the birds who love it. @DomnikTweet on Twitter says "they had that in Tobago and Grenada in March too").