2025 ST MAARTEN LAND VACATION

DAY 4: GONNA LASSO THE RHINO'S TO THE BEACH

I had set my alarm for 7am today since we had an excursion booked and I didn't want to miss it. However...my mind had other plans and I woke way before then. I headed out to the balcony and it looked like a beautiful day was forming.

The kids and hubby were up shortly after that and they had decided they wanted cereal for breakfast. Alrighty then, I'm perfectly happy with not having to cook.

Karl, being the hungry hungry hippo that he is in a walking sticks body, decided that a regular cereal bowl was not going to conquer his rumbling belly calls so....he ended up with this as an alternative:

Yes, you are seeing things right...that is a casserole bowl...completely full. That should do it! Please, someone send help for me.

Today was our "4th" day at the resort, which meant it was cleaning day. If you are staying for an extended amount of time, they only offer cleaning services every 4th day, unless you want to pay for it. I pretty much keep everything clean no matter where we are staying. I mean, I have to "live" there as if it's my home and don't want to live in filth or an untidy home. But, that meant clean sheets and towels so I'm game for that!

We headed out the door by 9:15am to head over to the Rhino Riders. They are located pretty close by (just down the street on the marina). We got in the nice warm, barely a/c car and was there in no time. Yes, we were early so we just checked in and sat outside. The remaining balance for the day would be $322 plus 5% if using a credit card. The cost is $199 for a double Rhino plus their outrageous tax amount... in case anyone was wondering.

As we waited, one family headed out on an earlier tour. They were lucky because they were the only ones on that tour. I bet they were going on the snorkeling tour we did in the past to Creole rock. I was rethinking my choices because a lot of people were now showing up for our tour. It looked like it was going to be a big group.

To check out our previous snorkeling Rhino Tour, you can click the following link:

So just a visual of our tour (we will stop at Frairs Beach):

The instructors went over how to drive the Rhino's, what would be happening, where we are going, which boat we would be assigned to and we geared up with our life jackets. Oh the excitement in their faces. 😂

We jumped on our assigned boat (the hubby and I on one and Sakari and Karl on another). We were the second to head out from the dock. They had us circling around the area until everyone was out circling. I remember last time when they had us do this we were to stop and pose and they took our pictures (to sell to us at the end of course), but they didn't do that this time.

We would soon notice that the kids had not made it out to the circle. Don't you know their boat would not start. Eventually they had them get onto another boat and they finally made it out. Karl decided he was going to drive. Well, Karl has never done anything like this before...of course. He pulled out, he bumped into the dock. He turned the steering and ran into another boat. He just wasn't getting the concept. It was quite hilarious and we would expect nothing less from him. Such a newbie. Boats do NOT drive like a car. The steering is totally different. It's like a jet ski...although he's never drove one of those either so there's that. Eventually he would make it out to the circle...at least he didn't run over anyone...yet. Eek!

Now we were given strict instructions that we were to follow the line in a perfect straight line with a certain amount of space between us. No riding beside each other. However, since the kids were the last one's out, they were last in line. I just wasn't having that. I needed to be in front or behind them. I NEED PICTURES AND VIDEO'S. You guys know this.

At one point they were so far behind that our guide stopped everyone to wait. At that point, I knew I had my chance...I would let everyone else go ahead of me and we would fall in line behind the kids. NOW things are better and I'm a happy momma. Let the picture tour begin. 😁

I'm pretty sure Sakari was laughing at Karl's driving skills at this point...some of the looks she was giving me. I felt like I needed to save her. Nope, you picked him to drive so hold on for your life. lol

Now one thing that was different this time around is the actual boat we had. The last time we had one that had a seat across the back and a seat in the front. This time around it was a long seat that you had to sit behind the person driving. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out because these boats are powerful. Would I be able to hold on or was I going to be flying off into the motor. So far, so good though.

Look at those beautiful mountains!

We were almost to the bridge around Marigot now and time to head out of the marina.

This area is a no wake zone.

This house built on a crooked rock looked really weird. All I could think about was it was so close to the ocean water and with the impending hurricane coming our way...

You could see the clouds getting lower and covering some of the mountains in the distance. I was starting to wonder if the rain was going to come sooner than later but was holding out hope.

We would pass several beaches they told us about however, there's honestly no way to know what is what as you pass by. There was a time that the instructor made a circle and had all of us winding in and out of each other...without hitting each other. I'm not going to lie, I was worried about Karl. 😆 The hubby did say that this is one of the things they ask you about on the boating license test. Asking and successfully doing are 2 different things.

We noticed the "leaders" were now heading toward another beach and I think this would be the beach we were visiting for the day: Frairs Beach.

This yacht name cracked me up.. PyratZ. I had to show Sakari.

I said "Pyratz" "Get it?

PY-RAT-Z" "Get it????"

PIRATES! She got a kick out of it...finally...I think.

The group was now gathering off shore together.

So they told us either we could swim to shore or if we wanted, they could take us up there and drop us off. Well, we had a bag with snorkeling equipment, camera's, towels and so on so the hubby opted to stay behind and be taken to shore by boat. The kids and I jumped right in and started swimming. Yes, it was deep here and you can't touch...fyi.

We were told the seats would be free to use and we would be able to buy drinks and food if we wanted. We grabbed a couple of chairs where the hubby would plant himself for the duration of our stay. Karl headed for the food OF COURSE!

What a nice view and calm waters.

Over to the side I spotted some rocks. I knew that would be the place I wanted to try to snorkel and see what I could find. I may get lucky right?

I went up and down the rocks. I spotted Grunts, various small Damsel fish but nothing exciting.

It was pretty uneventful....until I seen a bunch of fish under a rock that looked familiar. It was an entire family of Highhat Drums. Every once in awhile we will spot ONE somewhere, but not often. Sakari loves when she will find one but this time...there were multiple down in there. Some would come out, see me, go back in. I'm obviously not the fish whisperer like Sakari and she wasn't with me this time around. The other thing about these Highhat's were they were the biggest Drums I have ever seen. Usually they are so small that you almost miss them. Not this time around! Extra large.

I returned and the sun was shining and it ended up being a great day.

Karl ended up getting a plate of Jerk Chicken Wings and Rice and said it was the best thing he's ever tasted. I guess he's never had it before. Now he's asking where he can get these meals back home. We weren't really hungry yet and only had our Coke Zero's (which were $3.50€ each).

We spent a little time in the water and then it was almost time to go back to the boats. I think we spent about an hour or so there.

I spent a little bit of time out in the water talking to one of the tour guides, named Daniel. He told us to "make sure to give us 5 stars online". "Remember Daniel from Rhinos". Well that was easy to remember since our dive instructor was also Daniel. Our other guide, which I don't remember his name because it wasn't Daniel, said he was originally from Anguilla and moved to St Maarten several years ago.

They told us that if we were ready to go then we could start to swim back to our boats and off the kids went.

Well, our boat was actually up by the edge of the water since they brought the hubby in on it with all of our belongings. So, I guess we wouldn't have to swim back out. Winning!

The kids made it back to their boat and I would look on as they tried to hoist themselves up into the boat. I remember doing this the last time we did this tour and it wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be.

When talking to the "not Daniel" guide they hubby was telling him how we used to jet ski every weekend and had a very powerful racing Jet Ski and giving him details, I guess they didn't worry too much about us driving after that and while everyone else was still all in a ball of boats in the middle we were riding around. LOL Then when it was time to head out we made sure to go over by the kids so we'd be together on the ride back.

It was now Sakari's turn to drive and she was about to show Karl how to really drive (since she used to drive our jet ski back when she was only 8 years old...yes, with the hubby on the back for safety, but she still learned how to drive it and control it).

We followed our instructor out to the wide open ocean and he stops.

He tells everyone to get in a line...only this time it wasn't a single file line....it was side by side across. He dropped his hands and we were all racing! All I can say is Sakari took off and she was flying! Like we couldn't even EVER catch up to her. She was having a blast and I'm sure Karl's eye's were bugged out in fear at this point. But, he'd never admit to that and said it was so much fun.

We would also be surrounded by so many flying fish along the way. They were everywhere jumping out of the water. It was so cool to see. I've only seen them a handful of times and mostly from my balcony of a cruise ship. The only other time while we were on a boat in St Thomas going to the BOSS Sea Scooters and there were a few but nothing like this. These were plentiful and right there on the water beside us. Again, amazing to see so many. Can you see them below?

I will have to say that on the way back was much different than on the way there. There were a lot more waves and we were jumping them all the way back. It felt more like we were riding a bull instead of a rhino at this point.

Heading back into the area of No Wake!

Going up and under the bridge and back into the marina/bay area.

Sakari was now 2 boats ahead of us after she slowed down to allow us to catch up. Then she points at the water. I see something heading right at us. What the heck is that?

Oh, now I see...it's a swimming miniature dinosaur. How does Mr Iggy get to the other side? He swims. There's no time to walk across the bridge. He has things to do!

We safely arrived back and parked our boats. They do have showers there for you to rinse off with. I could tell Sakari was happy with the day because she came back clapping and excited. She would tell me later today that they were not at all what she thought they were. I think the name "Rhino Riders" kind leaves one trying to figure out exactly what that is. When I told them this morning we were going to ride the Rhino's she thought I was talking about the Sea Bobs we've rode in the past. Boy was she shocked to find out otherwise. lol

Here's a video I made of the day. It was so much fun!

Then we headed out and back to the resort.

Karl was hungry again. What do you mean you're hungry? You're the one who ate at the beach less than an hour ago. Ok lunch number two for Karl coming right up and I made some fried bologna and cheese sandwiches.

After our first lunch of the day and Karl's second, we couldn't decide what to do with the rest of our day and decided to just head down to the beach for awhile. Sakari brought her water ball and they tossed it back and forth awhile and the hubby and I just hung out in the water relaxing. We were out there until 4pm. I can't believe we were actually there that long without Karl needing his third lunch but it happened I kid you not!

We headed back to the room for showers and decided to go to the "big" grocery store. It was a 9 minute drive. Now look...we've had this discussion before, it's 9 minutes island time. It was also, just like back home, rush hour traffic time...only there was no rush and no where to go. You creeped inch by inch wondering if you would ever make it the next block down. I would notice at the top of the hill was a pull off area and there were all kinds of PIGS up there on the side of the road. Like the kind of pigs you see in kid story books...pink pigs! Where are all of these pigs coming from? Well, I had already passed the entrance to the pull off so we would have to try and see them on the way back. It took us 33 minutes to make it up and over the mountain to the other side where the grocery store was located.

Once again, I would forget my grocery bags, still tucked away in the overabundance amount of cabinets back at our place. Oops! I would also forget that we needed a "coin" of some sort to get a cart. Well, at least this time I would have 8 arms to carry food. They do have these really small baskets inside with wheels that you can use...but ONLY in the store. You are not allowed to take them outside to the car. Well, that solves the problem of carrying groceries in the store but not getting things out to the car. That's where the 8 arms would come in handy I suppose. 🙄

I found it odd that no matter what grocery store we went to, you could not find any bacon or sausage. I mean there's pigs right down the street and up on the hill. Why is there no bacon on this island??? The hubby's main grocery item this time around was a bag of rice. Anyone know why? It wasn't because we were cheating on our Keto diet. It was because that's what you stick a camera or in my case a GoPro in to dry it out. It was worth a shot right? Our bill this time was $50.56.

On the way back to the resort we would see the most beautiful sunset happening. I was hoping we would make it back in time to get a few pictures. I had to make the choice to stop at the top of the hill to see the oinkers or try to make it back to get pictures. We (and by we I mean I) decided to keep going.

Now is time to mention the parking spots at the resort. THEY SUCK! Like there is literally NO room on either side of any parking spot. It was hard to turn into a parking spot and once you got in it, you could barely squeeze out of your vehicle. We did learn on the second day to back the vehicle in so it would make it easier to at least pull back out. However, backing in meant that if you had anything in the back, you had to get it out first before backing all the way up. Otherwise, you're left trying to play Spidey Man maneuvering from top to bottom of the vehicle to retrieve your items. Everyone in the vehicle also needed to get out before backing as well. It was just terrible.

So, as per our routine, the kids were grabbing the groceries before I completely backed in and I see this on the back up cam:

We made it up to our floor just in time to catch the sunset. It was so beautiful.

Tonight was taco night. Something quick and easy for the hubby to make. We sat out on the balcony eating and I was texting with Daniel #1 (scuba) to see if we might still be able to do a dive with him tomorrow before Hurricane Erin arrives. He ask if we still wanted to go or not and I let him know we definitely did.

I was checking the weather and it said they were predicting rain for the next week, which of course would put a damper on things we still wanted to do. I was checking my to-do "list" and decided we would just cross off the SeaTrek ($120/pp) and Snuba ($99/pp) because both of those things are done were we had already went diving at and although a different experience, why waste money on seeing the same things? I still had multiple things on my list to do, several which included being on/in the water...which I wasn't sure was going to happen at this point.

We watched a little tv then off to bed we went. It would be a rather terrible night for me...more to come. 💤🥱😩