Woke up this morning to bright sunshine, blue skies and a warm tropical breeze. Tanning by the poolside seems to be the order for today. Finally!

We ventured out yesterday afternoon to pick Gregg’s Mom up at the airport. The internet isn’t working and we have no map – so we drive aimlessly west hoping to find a store where we can purchase a paper map (remember them?). We stop at three gas stations, two supermarkets, an office supply store, a flag/map(!)/souvenir store all to no avail. Finally after about an hour and half into our search we spot a Texaco and sure enough there is a map – and a free one at that!

We were early – like three hours early – so we drove along the western coast up to Marigot on the French side. The rain poured buckets and buckets. It brought the traffic to a standstill, but gave us time to survey our surroundings.

The French size of St. Martin seems to have taken the brunt of Irma. Buildings big and small are still recovering. Tall modern hotels, abandoned, windows all blown out. Small buildings squashed. Tarpaulins masquerading as roofing flapping noiseley in the whipping wind of today’s rain. It is slowly recovering but taking a long time. “Please be patient while we rebuild Sint Maartin!” cheerily proclaims a road side sign we pass, more optimistic about the future, it would seem, than many of the temporary tourists or even permanent residents.

We found ourselves back at the airport with about an hour to spare so we parked the car and jumped into the bar at the end of the runway for a quick drink. This is Phillipsburg airport, the major airport on St. Maartin. The runway is just steps from a beach where swimmers and many people congregate to watch airplanes land, gliding in so close overhead you are sure you can reach out to touch the wheels just before touchdown. Quite an amazing sight!

As we finished our drinks we punched MJs flight into FlightAware and it informed us that she was minutes from landing. Indeed, as we looked out over the horizon we see a medium size commercial jet with landing lights on heading our way. It is 2:10pm local time — right on time. We watch it swoop in over the beach crowd, many snapping pictures of the jet’s underbelly, and then land and reverse throttle the engines. We jump back into the car to find the terminal and MJ.

It took us five minutes to get to the terminal. At the terminal we waited. And waited. And waited. Flights from Paris and Atlanta and Chicago arrived but the passengers spitting out of customs were from flights that landed two or three hours ago. And then we waited some more. It took nearly two hours for her baggage to arrive in baggage claim and for her to get through the perfunctory customs check. What a mess.

The airport, like the rest of the island is in recovery mode. Maybe 10% of the terminal is repaired, the rest awaiting financing from the World Bank or the governments of Netherlands and France or the local government or some angel investor before work can begin. On the car radio we listened to a recording of the press conference between the local media representatives and the Prime Minister or President from December 19th. One of the topics discussed was the delay in airport reconstruction. The airport authority needs financing (did they not have insurance on the buildings and infrastructure?) which is not resolved. For a country that depends so heavily on tourism you would think the airport would be a high priority but given all that has to be repaired and the high cost for the airport it appears to be struggling to compete for necessary funds.

Long and short – we finally exited the airport just after 4:00pm.

What is it about the tropics that induces sleep? We drove back to Villa Vista Mare with Maryjo and prepared a quick dinner of barbecue chicken and potatoes, then I was ready for bed…at 7:45pm.

Today is a gloriously beautiful day, bright sunshine and blue skies, hardly a cloud in the sky. We lounged around the pool until we needed to head back to the airport to pick up Chris Symonds who arrived on the same flight from Philadelphia. He checked no luggage so was out of customs in a matter of minutes after arriving. There is something to be said for traveling light.