Saint Barthelemy or St Barth

April 25 - 26, 2014

22 - San Juan, Puerto Rico,  23 - Fijardo, Puerto Rico  24 - Culebra, Puerto Rico,  25 - St Thomas, USVI,
26 - St John, USVI,  27 - British Virgin Islands,  28 - St Martin,  29 - St Barth

St Barth:  A -- Gustavia,   B -- Our anchorage   C -- Shell Beach

 Many of the 200 shops are the size of a small
bedroom.  

In the 1950's tourists began arriving at St Barth's tiny airport on small planes and private jets.  Wanting to protect their lifestyle, the islanders quickly passed laws to prevent casinos, high-rise hotels and fast food chains from taking over.  They did allow some luxury-brand shops to open and now it is known as the Caribbean's Riviera.  Like St Martin, St Barth is also a duty free island.  Several streets right off the docks in Gustavia are lined with restaurants and  designer stores.  As the guide book pointed out, these small shops aren't boutiques they are collections!  The 200+ shops emphasize quality and exclusivity NOT quantity.  Jewelry, clothing, handbags and shoes -- they are all here.  Designers like to include St Barth on their list of exclusive locations.  Lots of walking and window shopping.  We found that even the shops that looked less intimidating were very expensive.    

Red roofed buildings surround the protected
harbor.

Brian got his hair cut at one of the salons and it was a lot more than he expected.  The treatment began with a coloring shampoo to take the yellow out of his gray.  After the haircut and eyebrow trimming, his hair was washed again, lotion was massaged onto his face and his head was wrapped in a steaming towel.  Back to the chair for his final blow out.  Wow, he kind of liked it!  I guess the local barber shop won't be his first choice anymore.

A crepe with swiss cheese, ham and
an egg in the middle.  

After breakfast at La Creperie, we walked to Shell Beach.  It was just over the hill at the end of town.  Walking there took longer than expected due to a lot of dead end streets.  I went to the ocean’s edge to look for shells, while Brian had a Coke at the open-air bar, Do Brazil.  He missed a good one!  This should be called the topless beach.  The shells were not noteworthy, but some of the women were!

Shell Beach from Fort Carl's remains.

Three forts were built in the late 1780’s while under Swedish rule.  They surround the bay of Gustavia:  Gustav, Carl and Oscar.  We climbed to the top of the hill to see Fort Carl only to find it completely gone!  The fabulous views were worth it.

This is about a third of the steps to
the missing fort.

The sign was installed before they knew I was coming
for lunch!

Two notables:  La Select and Brian Smillie.

Every guide book and brochure that I read said that a meal at Le Select was almost mandatory while in Gustavia.  Not being ones to buck tradition, we hiked over for lunch.  The 65 year old open air restaurant is filled with trees, plants and interesting people….locals and tourists.  it felt great to sit, have a meal and do some serious people watching.  The French are a very interesting bunch!   

Boats, boats and more boats!  Hey, slow down!!!

This bay is extremely busy.  We were surprised that about 90% of the boats were smaller than ours.  We thought that it would be filled with large yachts.  There were a few mega-yachts both sail and power.  Of course, every boat has at least one dingy.  So, there is a lot of traffic in the bay as boats look for a place to anchor and others zip in and out of town in their dinghies.  All of this movement causes rocking of the boat, but the worse culprit was a continuous roll from swells washing across the bay all day and all night. To get a better night’s sleep, I moved to the guest room and Brian slept sideways on our bed.  Time to yank the anchor and head south.

Gotta smile — we’re lovin the ride!