Anniversary Trip - Part 3

Continued from previous 2 posts....the final installment of our trip commentary...

Day 7 - Friday
We got up on Friday with the intentions of watching the sun rise but it turned out to be a rainy morning :( We went back to bed and after breakfast called for a Taxi to take us on an island tour. The weather started out a little gloomy but as always cleared up pretty fast, it kind of sucked though that we were following the storm as it crossed the island.

Caesar was our driver. He was a quiet old man but insisted on several "photo opportunities". He'd stop or slow down in certain areas and I'd snap a photo out the window. Most of those didn't make it into the slideshow b/c he and I had a different idea on what was a good photo opportunity. The island has a road that follows the rim of the main part of the island. There is also a road that goes out on the peninsula towards Nevis but we only went a small way down that on to one of the best look out areas on the island. We started in downtown Basseterre then headed North towards the Fortress. He seemed a little disappointed that we'd already been to the capital city and the fortress, I think b/c these are good attractions for him to talk about. We hadn't been to Romney Manor and the Caribelle Batik factory so he was excited to show us them.

We started off up the rural road and stopped at some petroglyphs. We got out and a local guy wanting to sell jewelry and pictures with a baby monkey immediately moved in. We got a few pictures and I had to hold the baby. He was so calm and sweet but a little stinky. I couldn't wait to wash my hands after that encounter.

The next stop was an old sugar mill. The stonework looked so cool in the green of the rainforest area. There were a few goats having a bite to eat in one of the buildings.

We next moved through the rainforest toward the Batik factory. It housed some of the most colorful buildings and gardens we'd see on the island. We browsed the store and watched as one woman made a batik. It's done with dyes and wax mainly but quite a long process. The store was so colorful with all the different forms of batiks from clothing to wall hangings to purses.
We next explored the gardens on site. It was such a gorgeous location - up on the sides of the volcano with a distant view of the Caribbean. Here's a cool view of Brimstone Hill from Romney Manor:
From Romney Manor we continued our tour around the island. We went through all sorts of small villages. Sandy cove was one where Caesar was especially popular. He honked and waved at almost every person either on a porch, on the road, in a building, you name it. We heard lots of "Hey Caesar!" coming from the buildings as we passed through. Close to this village is an area of hot springs where the water is heated by the volcano. It smells of sulfur and Caesar told us "One time I had to run for my life because the water was so hot!" I didn't get any pictures but it was a cool area of the island.

At the Northern most tip of the island road we stopped to view St. Eustatious. It looked mystical, covered in rain and fog:

As we rounded the Northern tip of the island and the winds picked up we saw a few more beautiful bays and what seemed to be the quieter side of the island. At Black Rocks, an area where the black volcanic rock meets the ocean, we encountered a little baby donkey. As we approached him (her?) he showed his playful side by pretending to charge and sweet side by rubbing up against us like a cat. We'll never forget the playful run he did when we pulled away - who knew a donkey could be so fast - he looked like a race horse, ears back and down, racing back towards his grazing parents.
The last stop we made on the island tour was from an amazing overlook. Going down the road that takes you to the end of the peninsula, there is a location where looking one way you can see both the Atlantic and Caribbean and then when you turn around you view the beautiful Frigate Bay area (Picutres are in the previous post). What a cool spot!

We only owed Caesar $80 plus tip for the amazing tour. It was great to see some of the natural and real areas of the island.

That night we walked to dinner at Rock Lobster, a restaurant on the way to the Shiggidy Shack. We both had surf and turf and it was by far the best meal we had on the island. I finished up with a piece of coconut cake and we headed to the Shiggidy shack for one last night. They had a band playing and the singer was awesome! I wanted to bring him back to the US he was so good!


Day 8 - Saturday
We got up late on Saturday, had some breakfast, requested later check out and sat by the pool for a while. After showering and packing up we walked down to the Monkey bar for one last lunch on the island. On our way down we had a taxi pull over to talk to us - It was Caesar asking if we needed a ride to the airport later that day! What a great guy! He said he'd be there at 3 to pick us up. Lunch was good but they still hadn't gotten the blender fixed so we had to settle for mixed drinks instead of the frozen variety. On our way back we ran into Caesar again, this time he stopped to tell us that he was taking some people on a tour and wouldn't make it back by 3 so he asked a lady taxi driver to pick us up instead! We got our luggage at 3 and made our way to the airport. The lady who Caesar asked to pick us up got herded along by the bellboys and took another couple but did give us a wave like she was apologizing.

We checked in, paid our departure taxes, went through security and sat in the waiting area until our flight. We were obviously the last flight out and this became apparent to us as all the stores and employees left as they started boarding our flight.

We boarded on time for a 5:20 departure to Charlotte, got situated and I started to fall asleep. I woke up to hear the pilot telling us they were "still finishing up some paperwork" and we'd be on our way shortly. What seemed like an hour later the came back on to tell us "some bad news folks, during our walk of the aircraft we discovered a small 1x4 inch access panel on the right wing missing." They'd probably lost it during the take off or landing previously but they didn't have a procedure to fly with it missing. They'd check into options and get back to us. Shortly after that they came on to tell us that they were going to look for some "speed tape." We were told this is silver tape used in the industry (sounds like duct tape to me?) but that since we were not at a maintenance type airport they weren't sure if they'd find it. In the meantime, the pilot was calling AirBus in Europe to find out about a procedure. Apparently the FAA approved us flying with the hole covered in tape but warned that the airline could be fined for flying without a procedure. As we expected, speed tape wasn't found and AirBus said NO to flying with tape covering the hole on the wing anyway. Flight cancelled, everyone off. The crew unfortunately had to fly back to Charlotte with a hole in the wing. I guess they made it b/c I"m sure we would have heard otherwise.

Then the real fun began. We had to gather our things and get rebooked. As Duane waited for the luggage, I made my way to the ticketing counter. We had to wait for a ticketing agent to come back into work, and the poor girl ended up having to do a lot of work. As time went on and our fate became more uncertain, people lost all manners. Cutting to the front of the line to "try to hear what was going on". We found out there was only room on the island for 40 people to stay and that they were going to have to shuttle the rest of the people to St. Maarten to stay overnight and fly out of there. Even if we'd stayed on St. Kitts, there were no more US Air flights out until NEXT Saturday so we'd have to go to St. Maarten anyway.

Duane and I were #38 and #39 on the first flight to St. Maarten. We were rushed through security again and herded onto the small prop plane brought in especially for us. The flight attendant was so cute, going through his normal safety and plane procedures over the intercom while all the frustrated passengers griped and moaned. The best part was when he came over the intercom and said "I am now going to spray a non-toxic spray throughout the cabin. If you have sensitive eyes or wear contacts you may want to close your eyes until I'm through." I guess it was for any bugs that St. Maarten doesn't want?

We got to St. Maarten after a short 17 minute flight. We then waited for what seemed like an hour for our luggage then moved as a herd outside to the awaiting bus. Again the manners were lost and people acted like the buses were leaving without them. After a short drive we arrived at the Sonesta Maho hotel in downtown St. Maarten. It looked like Vegas compared to what we came from!
AGAIN, we were pushed to the back of the line for check-in, these people were unbelievable I tell you! The check-in process went smoothly, they gave us a room and a card to get dinner and breakfast. It was past 10 PM by this point so we were pretty hungry.

Our room was less than desirable, despite how it looks on the website. While opening our door, two of the couples we travelled with had issues - one had no lightbulbs, sheets, etc in their room, the other had opened their door to find their Second dirty room! I think they stuck us on the "low rent" floor. WE did have a balcony on our room which seemed nice until we saw what it looked at - the trash heap for the hotel and the water treatment plant! No kidding - here's a photo taken in the morning, after the trash was removed!
At this point, we could only laugh. We went to get dinner at the buffet. After dinner we went back to bed although I hardly slept because I was nervous we'd miss the bus to the airport. We were told to be in the lobby at 9:30 AM. We ended up getting through to US Air and finding out our flight wasn't until 5:20 PM so we didn't go over that early. We did end up going over to the airport via taxi around 11 AM to find out it was good we came early. We had to stand in one line to get ticketed then another line to pay another departure tax. Again, the people in front of us, being very important, had no manners and gave the poor people working there an earful.

Thankfully the airport had more amenities than the airport in St. Kitts so we passed the time eating lunch, looking around and observing the largely French population (St. Maarten is half Dutch and half French rule). We left on time from St. Maarten for Charlotte. In Charlotte we had to get our luggage and go through customs then board our flight for Philadelphia. We got into Philly and parked at the absolute furthest gate in the A terminal. After a 20 minute, you'd think our luggage would be waiting for us but we ended up waiting about 30 minutes for it. We got to our car and got home around 2 AM. I took a personal day on Monday and Duane went in late.

Even though you'd think an extra day in the Caribbean would be great, it isn't when you can't enjoy it and just want to be home. We were so thankful for a great trip, even with the black eye it got at the end :)