Some new big panoramas (created with Panorama Factory).
In one week, we had about 5 minutes of rain. But then, it is raining really like cats and dogs!
Tropical shower :-)
And today, Saline Beach, I think the largest in Saint Barth. Very nice actually, we like it a lot! Some pictures and as usual now, a video (a bit longer this time) realized with MS Windows Movie Maker. It is not Adobe Premiere for sure, but not sooo bad for a small sequence.
http://visuals.didierbeck.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
The Saint Jean Beach, as usual with beautiful colors. Lots of families are coming here, as the beach is quite protected from the swell and the biggest waves.
And a short video taken from this beach!
http://visuals.didierbeck.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
We had our first snorkeling session on last Wednesday but the vision was not ideal under water, as there is still a quite strong swell. Anyway, I saw my first sea-turtle in Saint Jean Bay, exactly at the same place as last year, just after the white boat in the middle of the picture below!
Bottom is at about 3-4m there. Sea-turtle was about motionless and eating some underwater herbs. The turtle was about 80cm long. It is also the first time that I see a pilot fish on top of the turtle shell!
I have quite massively adjusted the pictures (contrast, color and saturation). The pictures are a bit pixelated but still from far better as I have thought!
Camera: Canon IXUS 700 with a Canon waterproof case (WP-DC70).
Bigger resolution available on smugmug, just click on the pictures!
Some fantastic panoramic views from the terrace of our (rented) villa in Saint Barth. These panoramic pictures are based on 5 to 7 pictures and are stitched with The Panorama Factory (v3.4).
Be careful, the original versions are quite big:
Not so bad, as I didn’t use any tripod…
Yesterday, before the Saint Barth carnaval, a good time at the Shell Beach.
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
Short video message, taken from the Gouverneur beach (sorry for my “French” accent ;-).
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf
First news from St Barth!
…was quite long this time ;-) We first took a flight from the EuroAirport to Paris-Orly, then from Paris to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe (about 7.5 hours and 6’800 km). Flight on time, quite good, only about 1/3 of the plane was full, as there are some heavy strikes in Guadeloupe since weeks now. When we arrived in Guadeloupe, we were “informed” (in the French West Indies, the proactive information has another definition as in the rest of the world, i.e. you *have* to get information by yourself, customer or not, it doesn’t matter!) that our direct flight from Pointe-à-Pitre to Saint Barth was canceled and that we have to take a flight to Saint Martin and then, from there, to take a boat to Saint Barth. This cancelation was clearly due to the strikes.
Actually, it was funny because we had flight-tickets with Air Caraibes, which has delegated our “canceled” flight to Air Antilles Express. After a while, Air Antilles didn’t have any plane left, so they had to delegate themselves to … Air Guyane Express! The flight was very nice (some pictures below), the landing extremely tough (lots of wind and turbulences). On the other side, we have discovered the second (super small) airport of Saint Martin, Grand-Case…
After that, we had to take the so-called Voyageur (high-speed boat) to Saint Barth. The trip takes about 1.5 hours, but this time, the sea was really awful, with a very strong lateral swell. A nightmare, specially for my wife and my son, who were both sick during the whole trip.
All in all, and as usual, I must say that the service and the people from Air Caraibes were just *extremely* bad. And I am not talking about customer-orientation, just about the minimum level of politeness we should all have among human-beings… These Air Caraibes employees just deserve … nothing! On the other side, the Air Antilles Express people were informative, polite and have really tried to find a solution for everybody. Our detour through Saint Martin was properly organized, we had to pay nothing, and we had also the full excuses from the company. Well done!
Anyway, we arrived at St Barth “by night”, in the harbor instead the airport, with about 4 hours delay, which is definitely not catastrophic ;-) We had also the chance to see some great sailboats before entering the harbor, illuminating in a fantastic way! Great experience.
We had the chance to have a marvelous sunset before landing at Saint Martin.
And a good view on Saint Martin before landing.
…is really cool, with a nice swimming-pool and fantastic views on the ocean!
The back-side of the villa, which is called “L’Abricotier”:
And the main terrace with the “infinity” swimming-pool, and the view on the Lorient beach, Saint Jean Bay and the airport, plus the Anse des Cayes in the background:
This morning, we were at the Gouverneur beach, one of our preferred. Fantastic colors, and the ocean and its waves were quite … interesting for having fun with my son ;-)
The weather is typical for Saint Barth at this time: 28°C during the day with a very strong sun, 23°C during the night, 26°C in the ocean. Some sudden rains this afternoon, but during perhaps 10 minutes.
Click on the different pictures to see the full-sized versions!
More to come when I will have time again!
Some of the fantastic sunsets we have seen last year, from the villa Ella.
In about 10 days, we will there again, so I don’t know if I will publish new ones or not till then ;-)
Let’s see!
As usual, you should have a look at the high-res version here.
http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf