[This was supposed to be posted a few weeks ago but...]

I've just finished a couple of weeks of vacation in Treasure Beach and thought I'd write a quick trip report, mainly as a follow-up to Ivan and some of the questions that have been asked about it.

When I first arrived, Ivan was one of the first topics I brought up with friends, and everyone had a story about their experience, whether it be where they were, how the house shook, or one man's ability to sleep right through the worst of it. And to a person, everyone said they didn't want to see nothing like it again! But they also all say they're happy that there was no immediate loss of life and how they're OK and thankful for that.

I admit I was a bit shocked when I saw Calabash beach, especially down towards Sunset. The sand is almost gone in that area, and much more sparse than it used to be in other spots. Having said that, we still played a lot of Frisbee in front of Calabash House, so its in good shape for swimmers and beach goers. From the initial pictures I saw, the cleanup has been incredible.

And that's one thing that caught my attention throughout the area. The damage is by and large cleaned up and, if you didn't know already, you be hard pressed able to tell a hurricane had come through. Respect due to all who participated in the rebuilding, either through contribution or work on the ground.

That's not to say that there aren't still buildings without roofs and people still hurting from its effects. They exist to be sure. But for the most part things are good. And better, in some cases. Pelican Bar was rebuilt bigger and Jack Sprat has had some major additions added. Which demonstrates a second theme I found: things are growing back twice as strong as before, especially the trees and plants and nature.


With the exception of bananas and limes, veggies and fruit seem plentiful. The vegetable trucks were continually coming by filled up. The leaves are all back on the trees, as the attached button wood attests, though some trees will need another season to fully regrow its green before bearing again.

For their part, the farmers are ready to plant if they had water. But there's been a heavy drought on for the past months, which is extremely odd to fathom when you see Great Pond with white caps on it and lots of fields full of water. But this is all left over from hurricane Charley last August. Water is a bit more scare than usual, requiring good management to capture the water when its in the main and store it for later use. Its not an emergency situation at this point, but the inconvenience level is there.
[Note: It has since rained and the water main is much more reliable now and farmers are happy.]

Overall, the people were still smiling (and yelling :-) as much as they ever were. Jack Sprat (and others) was full of people. And the sea was still so warm and refreshing and the sun still bright.

Everyone in my traveling party had the usual awesome time there, and plans were made for next year in the car back to the airport.

dont know if my last reply got there, pc crashed, so here i go again, just delete if it is a repeat. great report eric. glad to hear all is getting back to normal. i know the beach is also small in great bay, but, my dad always said it will come back, hope he was right this time, although, i also hear that one can walk out almost to "white rock" in waist deep water, so this makes it really good for visitors with kids. looking forward to seeing anymore pics you might have to post.
walk good