Traveling Upstream
There’s a stream in St. Martin that runs from Colombier to Anse des Pères. At least, it does when there’s enough water coming down from the central mountains to fill it. I followed it up from the beach through the Friar’s Bay area recently and it’s really quite nice, with clear water, at least three kinds of fish, crayfish and a variety of freshwater snails.
As a side note, what’s going on with the beach names in this area? Anse des Pères is basically the same name as Friar’s Bay. And were there friars in the area at some point? I have a theory that perhaps Anse des Pères was actually Anse des Pierres because it is a beach of stones. Perhaps this was misunderstood at some point to be Anse des Pères, which was translated to Friar’s Bay and then used to name the wrong beach. And presumably, it should be Friars’ Bay if there were multiple friars there.
Anyhow, whether that is true or not, the stream itself is quite pretty in parts, as you can see below. If you look down on the area from above, there’s a good chunk coming from the beach that is surrounded by tall trees, a tranquil little space between the houses of La Batterie.
