It seems that in much of the Caribbean the sun sets at around 6:00 PM all year long. This means that all outdoor activities that require daylight must be wrapped up on the early side of things, certainly much earlier than would be required in most mainland North American locations. One way of combating this limited access to daylight is to start waking up earlier in the morning and focusing one’s waking hours on the period of time with sunlight. This is basically what we have been trying to do, and our success rate surprises me.
For the most part my father had been getting up at some point and then waking me between 7:30 and 8:00. After a quick breakfast he heads into work to prepare for upcoming lectures as well as to lecture and then hold an office hour. The early arrival time means that less time needs to be spent preparing lectures in the evening, a very positive development.
Though I don’t have any lectures, I am able to take advantage of this time to read, drink coffee, and write these. Occasionally, I have also taken walks in the surrounding areas.
Actually, today, just as I was heading to walk into Maho a local bus (that looks kind of like a van) stopped because it sensed that I was heading towards town. Upon confirming that he was headed where I wanted to go I hopped in. Once inside and seated I found that it cost only $1, which was about 50 cents less than I was expecting.
As we reached town I was wondering how one signaled a desire to stop. Quickly town was passing me by and we were quite close to the airport. Fortunately, just as we were about to take the road along the runway, the bus stopped to pick someone else up. As we were idling I hopped, thus preventing a full trip to Philipsburg. Before heading into Maho proper I decided to walk along the road between the beach and the runway. As I part way across I noticed that a small plane was coming in to land. With only a moment or so to spare I was able to pull out and start my camera. Though the resulting footage isn’t great (I blame the hand-held nature of the shot) it was impressive to have a plane fly overhead and then land just feet away.
The only problem with my trip to Maho, other than my not knowing how to signal a bus stop, was that basically none of the shops or restaurants were open when I arrived at 10:30. While I had expected things to be on the quiet side, this was certainly much quieter than I would have guessed. Basically none of the tourist shops were open, and only about one restaurant. On the other hand, while I wasn’t able to go in any of the shops, by window-shopping I was able to ascertain that most sold only overpriced touristy crap. Even the pharmacy didn’t seem to have a very good selection of run-of-the-mill pharmacy goods, but rather higher end products that didn’t really interest me.
After my reconnaissance mission to Maho I walked around a few of the streets on the edge of town before I started to make my way back. As I was walking along the golf course I decided that I would try to walk the length of Mullet Beach, starting with the end with beach bars and food sources. As I entered the beach I saw the standard beach bar set up with lounge chairs and umbrellas.
Not surprisingly, the beach wasn’t all that crowded before 11:00 AM on a Wednesday morning. This meant that I was able to make my way along and take photos without really disturbing anyone, or even really seeing all that many people.
When I made it to the other end of the beach, where we had gone snorkeling the previous day, I decided to sit one the rocky outcropping and watch the waves crash for a while. The waves, though relatively small, were more exciting and active than the previous day. The experience was particularly pleasurable because of the presence of a rock that caused the larger waves to spray water up wards as they came ashore. In some cases even relatively small waves were really able to send the seawater flying.
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