We survived Sandy...

...but some of the resort didn't.

Thursday morning we got up to really see what the hurricane had done. This was the view from our balcony to what had been our lovely private pool:



And from the rear of the villa all we could see was crashed trees and vegetation. One villa had a tree through its roof:



And one of the main routes through the resort was completely blocked by a huge tree


Loads of people were out trying to clear up with rakes, chain saws, machetes. We were really impressed that by 11am one of the main pools was open:



When we got to the beach side of the resort, we saw what a mess it had made there:



With more large trees resting on villas



But some of the main damage was on the beach, which was completely unusable. All of the piers and restaurants were very badly damaged and will have to be rebuilt. This is one we intended to eat in:



Again, we were impressed that one of the pools had been emptied, cleaned and refilled by 12, so there was nothing for it but to have a cocktail, this is a Bishops Special which consists mainly of different kinds of rum:



And Stu got his daily swim in. The manager of the resort gave a briefing, thanking the staff, many of whom hadn't been home since Monday, and had worked really hard. Some had been to repair the damage in their own homes, before coming back to work here. The hurricane had been much stronger than expected, and had done a lot of damage. 500 trees had been lost on the resort. The damage has been so bad they were not accepting any new arrivals for about 10 days - I assume they were trying to fit people in their other resorts, and would only be running very limited facilities for those of us who stayed. In light of that, we were all getting a credit for the total cost of our holiday, to be spent within the next 12 months in any of their resorts. I must admit, I didn't expect this, and wouldn't have asked for any sort of refund as the hurricane was clearly not their fault. But, great customer service.
And on the way back we saw a humming bird. Never seen one before. Picture not brilliant, but they move very fast!



In the evening we ate overlooking the sea and what was left of the resort. I had one of my favourite meals, surf and turf, fillet steak and lobster, then watched a live Jamaican band playing some great reggae. We even had a dance!

Today we spent the day by the main pool, reading, swimming, drinking cocktails. Today's favourite was a dirty banana. I think it was a whole banana whizzed up with rum. One of my 5 a day obviously.

Saw lots of mongooses on way back (mongeese?), scampering around. Evening in the pavilion for a buffet and some entertainment which ncluding a fire eater. In a marquee! So wrong.

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