More pre-trip ramblings

More on the friends thing.

My buddy John went with us to SXM in Nov of 2005. He had just suffered thru a divorce and was needing a break from his newly altered reality….actually his wife was supposed to come along too as we had been planning the trip for about 18 months…..told you I am obsessed with this travel thing. John got us in the divorce settlement as she had a need to split up their friends so, needless to say she decided that this trip probably wouldn’t be for her and she backed out….(worked out for the best obviously)

John and I are kind of peas in a pod….I seem to be the dreamer and instigate and John seems to be the action guy and makes things happen.

Quick little John story here to drive the point home…
We are from a conservative area of the country, wife and I had been to SXM a few other times and had been to Orient beach and even done the gawkers walk thru Club O…. But never in the nude. We shared with John that when you cross the rocky area by Pedro’s you were supposed to drop trow and do the walk in the buff. John decided that he would take the walk…came back and I asked him….so did you drop em? He sheepishly replied that yes he had and I busted up in laughter…he asked what was so funny…didn’t you when you went. Thru teary eyes I replied no, we just walked it but weren’t brave enough to go bare….John hounded me for two days till finally I did the walk too…..brought wife with but she stayed fully clothed and was less than happy to go with me….

As obvious but the story above we had a blast but since John was sans partner on the last trip we hung out a bit too much and consumed way too much beer, rum and even tequila while there….we have promised the Mrs (mine) that we would behave at least a bit better this time.

Whether or not John brings someone this time is his choice…..ladies…want his number???? We will have rooms in differing sides of the resort and will rent separate cars. We are even thinking about different travel days so only 4 or 5 days of the 10 overlap.

John and I have started a couple of web pages that are SXM based

(his)http://www.bbdjohn.com/
(mine) http://www.axarob.com/
(ours)http://www.beachjunkie.com/

We are looking to snap up lots of pix while there and gather more ideas for our pages….hence part of the reason for us going at the same time. Besides we thought it would be fun to travel to the island together….group travel seems to be as much fun as couples travel as long as there is space for couples stuff when you get where you are going….

The start of planning activities for the trip

Yes we are already making plans and no we probably won’t do two thirds of them but it is fun to plan. John is planning on taking a little GPS with him to plot our where we have been, we will both bring digital cameras as I am currently in the market for a new digital SLR. John has a video cam and editing abilities so I would imagine that next May….just 10 short months from now….that our sites will be filled with streaming video, pix and some mildly humorous adventures.

Plans so far are;
1. for us to all day trip on a cat to Prickly pear island for some snorkeling.
2. He is talking about doing the Tiko Tiko trip…don’t think my wife is up for that.
3. We are discussing a morning of diving…if wife will go. Yes we are both PADI certified.
4. Lots of sun on many beaches
We have never been to Pinel island but will make it there this year and maybe even to Green Key island in front of Club O too.