This morning I entered Caribbean Travel & Life’s “Best of the Caribbean Resorts” contest. To render myself eligible, I voted in 32 categories, including Best Island for Celeb Spotting and Best Snorkeling Destination and, most preposterously, Best Clothing Optional Beach. Each vote was a virtual shot in the dark, since the only place in the Caribbean I've been is Haiti and Haiti didn't, for sad and obvious reasons, have any resorts nominated. Even if I were a modestly frequent visitor to the Caribbean, I would have no idea what the best clothing optional beach in the Caribbean is.
I’ve only been to one clothing optional beach in my life, Gay Head Beach on Martha’s Vineyard. What’s lovely about Gay Head is a.) a fair number of people keep their clothes on and b.) many who remove their clothing cover their bodies in clay that’s available at the base of the cliffs. The result was a fair number of people who together resembled a collection of statues in all manner of pose. For the record, I kept my bathing suit on. I can be a social conservative when you get down to it. Also, I don’t believe the gentleman I was traveling with would have approved.
26. Best Clothing Optional Beach
Orient Beach, St. Martin
Hedonism II Beach, Jamaica
San Souci, Jamaica
Sorobon Beach, Bonaire
Saline Beach, St. Barthelemy
Anse de Gouveneur, St. Barthelemy
I chose Anse de Gouveneur. I couldn’t pass up a chance to win a trip to the Caribbean, specifically to one of the magazine’s “best of” winners. Note: The OFFICIAL RULES do not seem to specify the length of the stay.
To enter, click HERE.
The deadline is August 31.
That’s in ten days. Where did the summer go?
Cuba, like Haiti, was not a choice in any of the categories. That will probably change after Castro kicks the bucket. I thought of Cuba this weekend. After Isaac and I saw “Snakes on a Plane,” we went to Barnes & Noble in Georgetown. I bought a copy of Hemingway’s “The Old Man and the Sea.” I started to read it to Isaac yesterday afternoon. He fell asleep, his head in my lap. He wasn’t bored. On the contrary. He was keen on hearing how the old man caught the big fish. But he was tired from a lingering summer cold. I kept reading, and finished the novella last evening. What an incredibly sad story. Life is mostly luck. Now I wish I had made it to Cuba before Castro’s demise. Nothing short of a miracle is going to make that happen. I also want to see lions on a beach. Santiago, the old fisherman, dreams of lions on the beach. Where in Africa can I see this? Google doesn’t help. I am not interested in sea lions on a beach. Though LION'S DIVE , a resort in Curacao, looks inviting. But it doesn’t satisfy my original longing. It only creates another.