Saint Barth. Day 3. Beautiful but Hot.
Today we got up and once again, our “goal” was to leave for breakfast by 930, which I think we hit.
We went to breakfast with the intention of not eating as much as yesterday, and I think we did pretty well. They had some different pastries today. They had one swirly one with some raisins, which I liked but no one else did. They also had almond croissants. I had an omelet with veggies. We all thoroughly enjoyed our breakfast.
Then we went back to the room, lotioned up and got our rental car. Today is the first of the few days we’ll have our rental car to drive around the island. It’s a Volkswagen convertible, but it’s way too hot to keep the top open. I don’t think I mentioned that each taxi into town is about 60 euro each way, so it really is more economical to have the car. Also, the roads are tiny and the whole island is so hilly. It’s kind of like driving in a video game. Tzvi said it was some of the most fun driving he’s ever done. I’m glad he had fun while those of us in the back were saying shema at every turn.
Anyway, the plan for the day was to visit one of the beaches on the island. On our way out of the hotel they gave us chairs and umbrellas and towels and a cold bag with waters. They really set you up nicely. There was also the option to buy a picnic for 70 euro per person, but we didn’t do that. Instead, our first stop was Monoprix, which is a local supermarket. It was fun and we saw they had snacks from Le Grande Épicerie, which is one of the big markets in Paris that we went to when we were there. They also had Haagen Dazs and Ben and Jerrys. We bought some snacks, and then went down the road to Le Petite Colombe, a bakery, where we got a baguette and some other pastries.
This is where it turned. Did I mention I don’t enjoy being hot? We got to the beach around a quarter to twelve. We parked and then had to hike, uphill, on burning sand and rocks, in the brutal heat to get to the beach. [Tzvi: It wasn’t a hike. It was a hill, and it was only five minutes.] It was a hard five minutes, and that basically set the tone for me for the day.
We finally made it to Anse de Grand Saline, or Saline beach. It’s called that because it’s right next to the Grand Saline, which is the salt marsh. The beach is known as being one of the nicest on the island, and really one of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean, but it was basically completely empty (I guess because the whole island isn’t that crowded and you have to hike to get there). There were only a few other people when we got there, and some came and went throughout the day, but it was really pretty secluded. We tried to set up our umbrellas, but it was just so windy and we couldn’t really do it right, so they kept blowing away. It was so brutally hot. I don’t know how to emphasize just how hot it was. Hindel and I were both saying we each remembered when we were in Pompei and it was so hot you wanted to die. It was that hot.
We went in the water and swam for a while. It really was one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been, and the water was some of the best I’ve ever swam in. But again, it was so hot I wanted to die. And then the umbrella kept blowing away and Tzvi had to chase after it. I just ended up sitting there and holding the umbrella. It was so hot I just couldn’t move. Hindel fell asleep clutching her umbrella. It would have been hilarious if we weren’t so miserably hot. It was beautiful, and also unbearable at the same time. Tzvi also brought a bottle of champagne, which was nice but it got warm quickly and it was too hot to enjoy it.
Finally, three hours had passed so we hiked back to the car, which was so hot. But then we got in the car and turned on the air, and it was blissful.
We went back to the hotel and went to the beach. I ordered a mudslide but the bartender didn’t really know what he was doing so it ended up being like a frothy white Russian. Also, because we were too hot to actually eat at the beach, we ate our bread and jam and snacks at the hotel beach. It was a good snack.
We sat at the beach for a while, swam a bit more, read, and relaxed. Then we went back to our rooms and got ready for dinner.
Dinner tonight was at Tamarin, which was just totally outdoors. It was a little bit like a jungle, with lots of lush vegetation all around us. It reminded me a little of Disney, or something Disney would do. The whole restaurant seems to be centered around this beautiful huge Tamarin tree right at the entrance. It was all beautiful, but again, hot. That seemed to be the theme of the day.
The food was all delicious. The bread was really good and they gave us olive oil and salt. The salt was similar to the salt we’ve been getting in every restaurant – it’s fleur de sel, so it’s not really flaky, but more chunky and almost wet (I realize chunky and wet doesn’t sound delicious, but it was). We had some really tasty pastas, some good veggies, and the others all shared a full fish that was fileted tableside. Of course Tzvi dissected the head. [Tzvi: Cheek meat is the best. We also shared a wahoo carpaccio, which was both delicious and fun to say.]
For dessert we shared four different dishes – one was like a jam, sour cream situation that I didn’t love, but there was a very good hazelnut dessert, and Tzvi had mango sorbet that he loved. It was a very good restaurant and everything just tasted very fresh.
Good day. Exhausting day. Hot day.