The starts kinda early this time, as this was one of the "longests" dock times during our cruise. It was time for Sint Maarten.
The day before, We purchased some tickets. Sadly since it was not high season.. there were some stuff that was not available, sold out or simply canceled.
We wanted for example, visit the "Submarine" in the morning and take the island bus tour in the afternoon. But alas. the city tour had only one go for the day we were there. Since we might never visit Sint Maarten again... we decided for the bus to know as much as possible of the Island.
Did I mention you guys that I seriously hated the shopping pushes of Royal Caribbean? They were insane the day before docking, with watches at 70% discount on average. And pushing "linked and recommended vendors" of Phillipsburg (including guides and maps)
There was total mayhem in the Royal Promenade at this moment. The good is that the people were crowding for watches that there were hardly people in line to purchase tours. So we did the whole thing easily.
Anyway, that small island is famous for selling jewelry and clocks for "cheap" (be careful, most of the watches are cheaper online on Amazon. But they are very pushy and savy salesmen. More of this later). The interesting part is how the island is divided in two: dutch and french sides.
Weird part that the Dutch side seemed very peaceful but the French side had quite a bit of armed commandos (full assault gear, submachineguns and Beret with some flags)
The weather was gorgeous, a bit of wind, with a few clouds, very little chance of rain.
As past reports said, we again lucked out, moved right between storms. Sint Maarten had a huge rain the day before according to some locals. Having it completely rain free was a blessing. (Tomorrow another storm row was supposed to happen).
The ship docking is definitively awesome to see.
We ate breakfast in the windjammer as the ship approached. It was cool to see the small houses, boats and buildings. Including passing some military ships (french?)
The docking area, by Phillipsburg Sint Maarten (the Netherlands side). Is gorgeous. It has different shades of blue.
That is something that made me very interested of the whole trip.
Most of the sea was of turquoise and transparent green. In the pacific ocean is more blue and more dense (less transparent).
Apologizes for the awful overblown panorama. Turns out I forgot to change my camera settings after taking photos in dark environments and the images looked heavily overblown.
Also a few boats in the harbor made the whole thing more picturesque.
Bonus point for a giant dish installed aiming at the cruise dock with a huge banner "fastest and cheapest internet of Sint Maarten". Probably to cater to the crew members of the cruise ships.
After we were all ready to go, packed all our stuff and we lined up outside the ship to get to our specified tours's waiting areas.
We were met with a guy dressed as captain with a very broken suit (very funny). He spoke a bit of fluid spanish and he was making quite a bit of jokes.
Considering the laughing of the rest of the cruisers waiting for the same tour. I suppose he was very well received in his delivery.
Did I tell you guys that the hours are very flexible in this cruise? We waited around 20-30 minutes in the Sun, good thing we had sprayed ourselves to dead by sun block cream lol.
And then we were off. We all were guided towards the bus station where each tour was sent to their destination.
Something that I was not prepared was... our seats.. despite being leather.. were completely soaked like sponges. The staff told us that it had rained very hard and the top cover was no match for the rain. We braced the entire tour with our wet butts (we purchased towels later on lol)
The first parts of the trip were quite boring. Some historic sites (which there arent that many surviving thanks to constant storms)
Or just point where the current leaders lived.
Speaking of leaders.. both sides of the island were completely littered with flags and ads about districts and leaders.
It was election day or close to election day lol!
Our first stop was first getting to the French side.
Which as I said before.. It was heavily defended by French navy (or swat?) officers.
The bus had no problem crossing the border. Even the bus driver joked about how the trip was ending there because the french were currently armed and not surrendering this time (ouch lol).
After crossing the line. We headed towards L'Orient beach.
A gorgeous beach area with a community and attached hotel that catered exclusively to the nudist tourists.
The bus had to pass thru rough terrain, damaged roads (they are almost at sea level, so any storm would send waves that destroy any road anyway). Tons of animals, crabs, birds, some alligators, tons of iguanas and lots of swamps.
The part where we headed to was open for all public and no nudists (thanks god) were nearby at the moment.
As I said, the place was beautiful. Not so many rocks and the sand was soo fine.
The transparency of the water is what I loved.
Sadly, We only had 30 minutes to check the place, buy water..etc.. before we went our way.
My mother used the time for a quick restroom trip and I to buy one towel and some souvenirs.
The towel was godsend as I looked like I had peed myself. So that towel was used to keep my butt dry on the rest of the trip
Anyway, after leaving L' Orient beach.. we went towards the french "rich" side. Which was littered by millionaires who had purchased land there with view towards the many "bays" in the french side.
There were some nice villas, and a ton of new construction areas ready to be developed.
Apart from that, there wasnt much to see on the french side. But it was nice to see the huge difference in architecture. The Dutch side is very colorful, with the french side more classic with no bright colors.
The villas are also way different. The dutch side favoring Box type buildings and the French side with tons of buildings that are one or two floor sprawling villas like the picture above.
Our next stop was the capital of the French side. Marigot.
The town reminded me of my own town 20 years ago. Small, full of small roads and with a pretty marina onlooking the bay.
They had some buildings that looked like old forts.
Note that we went down from the mountain near where the fort was.
The interesting part was .. the trees along the route going down.. was completely and utterly filled with Iguanas of different colors.
Id say there were at least 5 iguanas per tree, and some had like 10 or 15.
Heres a shot of the Marigot's marina and bay.
There were also several damaged ships, that were stranded or pulled by hurricanes.
They were quite a sight to see.
We had 45 minutes here and my mother wasted no time to find something cheap to buy to remember the area. I, as usual bought a magnet for the fridge. Also some cold water for us.
Continuing in part 2..
Every Thanksgiving he alwayd made sure I got the drumstick. He knew it was my favorite. Although every year he'd ask if I had changed my mind about the mashed potatoes. Er...nope.
It is October 7th.
Actually, that is my reaction to sauerkraut all the time. I make Uncle Ben's Original wild rice dish in place of green been casserole (unless my sister's family is coming over) then we have both.
