Art Gallery makeover

Planning on visiting the Maho Bay art gallery soon? As of today you'll greeted with our new custom crushed-glass and cement counter top at the entrance. The project has been underway for the past couple of weeks right next to our glass studio. First the molds were made for the entire counter top. Next the poured concrete and fiberglass was mixed. All the custom glass work was then placed into the wet cement/crushed glass. The sanding and polishing (all 8 hours worth) was next, which only left the installation! Whew!


Above is the counter top after being removed from the mold and pre-sanding/polishing.



The final result (below & above) takes some time to appreciate and find all the custom pieces of glass that were placed into the concrete.

Watapana

Guests staying with us this week have the rare treat of seeing our Watapana tree in full bloom. At best we see it in full bloom once a year, and it only lasts a few days when it does bloom: wind and rain are not its friend. The smell and color of the tree is absolutely incredible, its a wonder how all the bees in the area are not flocking to it!

Those of you with more information on this tree please let us know; there is little information online and we're not even sure if we have the right name for this beauty.

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Pictured above is a very hungry Pearly-eyed Thrasher – often found perching just a few feet away from whatever food you’re currently enjoying. The moment of this picture was during breakfast at the Maho Bay Pavilion Restaurant, and by the looks of his eyes he's very much upset with me chasing him away from my food. Some words of advice: keep a close eye on your grapes and leave no French toast unattended! These little thief’s will consider any and all food not watched their own, and won’t stick around to thank you for it. The next time you go for a snorkel be sure to put that bag of chips into your backpack. Even then you may not be safe; I think our St. John Pearly-eyed Thrashers have been teaching each other how to unzip backpacks.

Scaly-naped Pigeon

Each morning for the past week I've been waking up to the flurry of noise outside my tent created by the one and only Scaly-naped Pigeon. One of the greatest things about living here at Maho is how close to nature we are at all times, including while we sleep in our tents. If you're not familiar with the sounds of what a Scaly-naped Pigeon makes at 6am in the morning then perhaps you've never stayed here at Maho!

The sounds? imagine the "coo" of a pigeon, and now pretend you're shaking the top of a large bush and listening to the leaves rustle: that's the sound of them trying to find their perch but failing miserably and making entirely too much noise in the process with their very large wings. Multiply it by 4 or 5 that have taken to eating the newly blossomed tree outside my tent window and you've got quite a commotion!

@Work: Maho Bay Watersports

Each Sunday one of our local newspapers does a feature/interview with someone here in the islands about their work and life. It's a piece that has become a favorite of mine over the years each Sunday, and this past week we were pleasantly surprised to see a face very familiar to us here at Maho: George Kremer

Some of you may remember from a few months back how they had "The Peppers" in a similar feature, the St. John Source really likes us here at Maho!

George has been the owner/operator of Maho Bay Watersports, a part of Paradise Aqua Tours, for over 20 years. For an interesting history about who you'll meet down at Watersports on your next visit, enjoy the article here.