Maho Eco Resort Closes: End of an Era

Leslie in front of a "tent"

tents and walkways

The Maho Bay Eco resort started in 1976 with a vision of a resort which is made of recyclable materials and whose buildings blend in and have a minimum impact on the flora and fauna. So the resort is about 100 tent platforms raised above the ground with canvas cabins on them.

Beach snack bar

George and his water sports rental

 They are connected by a series of elevated wooden walkways and stairs to each other and other areas like the beach, water sports, bathrooms, showers, restaurant, activity centers and stores.

The restaurant

Dinning Room

General store with $2 cold beers

Leslie at the craft gallery

Glass blowing studio

Clay studio

The resort also had a vision of ecological activities to offer its guests. As a result each week had a schedule of activities like hiking trips, sailing, snorkel and scuba trips, kayaking, daily yoga, glass blowing, clay work, paper making, tie dyeing, fabric batik and others.

The dive boat and small sail boat

Down to the beach

The resort seen from the bay

The beach

Reception and activites center

Turtle with Remora at Maho

The uniqueness of the resort has been copied by other resorts, but the Maho Eco Resort still remained the most sought after. It served a couple of generations of ecology minded guests and it is a shame that it is no more.

I was fortunate to go on the last scuba trip they offered, and Leslie and I ate the last meal the restaurant served as we watched a slide show on the many happy guests the resort had served over the years. I also drank the last beer sold at the little store as we took a last walk around the resort. That night we drank a toast to the end of an era, the end of the Maho Bay Eco Resort.

Sunset from the Maho Eco Lodge "dinning room"

Strange things happen when you cruise. When we went to go to bed in the starboard cabin we were hit by the smell of dead fish! We smelled around and it seemed to be coming from the porthole. So we shut the porthole and went to bed, but it still reeked of dead fish! About 5 in the morning Leslie starts rummaging around and soon finds a dead fish under our mattress!  A couple days ago Leslie said she found the porthole screen ripped down. She thought it was odd but saw no cause and so repaired it. Apparently this fish, about an 8” Jack, had jumped through our screen and landed by the mattress and worked its way under it before dying. There it had lain for two days starting to decay. We got rid of the fish and stripped the mattress and put vinegar on the wood and mattress and put it up to air and the bedding in bleach and vinegar water before going back to the port side for some more sleep. Upon getting up we worked further to eliminate the odor, but it looks like we will sleep in the port cabin for a few days. Unfortunatly in the early hour and our haste to get rid of the smelly fish, we forgot to get a picture. Oh well!

Carnival

Every island in the Caribbean has a carnival each year which consists of parades of mostly women in bikini costumes and huge sound trucks going down the streets along with a concert and vendor area. Carnival appears to have started in Italy as the festival, carnevale — which means “to put away the meat” as it was the day before lent and people gave up meat for lent. It spread thoughout Europe and over to the new world. After slave freedom it was started in Trinidad and Tabigo to celebrate freedom and spread from there. If one was very organized and did his research, one could schedule a cruise to hit each island at carnival. Neither of us are that way, or maybe we have become mature so it isn’t that important.

One of the boats

vendor booths on the harbor

 

However, we were in St. Thomas during their carnival. Carnival lasts a week and we missed many events. We did try to see the boat races the day the O’Connors left. We were told they started at 10 AM so we arrived at Charlotte Amalie’s harbor shore at 1 PM and they hadn’t started yet.



a practice run

Boats " waiting to race"

The harbor front was packed with people and food and drink stands, as we waited various boats roared by in practice runs, but no race.

 

 

 

water jet boards

Amazing board

We had some drinks and food and a couple people on water jets showed up to demonstrate how to fly in the air with these jets. Finally about 3 PM we started to leave and a couple of orange markers were towed into the harbor. We waited and eventually two jet skis took off around the course. I don’t know who won, or even where the finish line was. 

There the jet skis go!

Leslie talks to the police about the fire

 

We gave up and caught the ferry back to St. John’s only to find that the block by Woody’s had had a fire and lots of smoke damage.  Lucky, Woody’s only closed for the day.

Our new kayak

boater's beach party

Our inflatable kayaks arrived and we were back in St. Thomas to receive them, some things actually arrive in reasonable time so we tried one out paddling around the bay. That night we had our own carnival beach party with other boats anchored in Brewers Bay.

kid's steel drum band

The health center got into it

 

Later in the week was a kids parade, J’ouvert, an adult all night dance that started at 4 AM, and the adult parade on Sat. It started around 10 AM and when we got there at noon it was in full swing! The theme was a Caribbean celebration and the costumes were really great. About 4 PM it looked like the parade was over, we did not realize that it was just a very long break, so we left for dinner only to see the rest on the parade on TV! 



 

 

 

 

 

Leslie will not be left out!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The king and queen

Suzanne and Leslie with the bird

 

The Carnival town was in a big parking lot with vendor plywood shops now lining 3 sides with a big stage in the front. It was definitely quite a week, ending with fireworks over the harbor.  They made all the boats in the cove by the Coast Guard station re-anchor for the fireworks which lit up the night sky for a colorful culmination of Carnival.