St. Maarten/St. Martin

Today we visited two nations on one island, St. Maarten and St. Martin. This land mass of only 37 square miles is divided between St. Maarten, the Dutch side, the capital being Phillipsburg and St. Martin, the French side, the capital being Marigot. Although the two countries share a land mass they are distinct and separate. St. Martin has the larger landmass and a smaller population...combined 85 000 people live on this island.

They use separate currencies and unit of measure. In St. Maarten, gasoline costs 5.50 USD per gallon. In St. Martin, gasoline costs 1.20 Euro per liter. The French side, St. Martin uses Euros, it has outlawed gambling, fast food and if you commit a crime they do not have a jail to send you to, rather they simply deport you to Guadeloupe. Basically if things are one way on the French side they are the opposite on the Dutch side. In St. Maarten, they use US dollars, you will also find every US fast food joint, a plethora of casinos, however no nude beaches...those are illegal in St. Maarten, but legal in St. Martin...there are a number of strip joints in St. Maarten, but they are illegal in St. Martin...you get the point....just a point of note, we may have had the worst tour guide in St. Maarten/St. Martin...if you're here and you get a guy named "Wilson" I'd reconsider....

Neither country cultivates or makes anything. Everything, including produce and consumer goods is imported. The sole industry for both countries is tourism. The sugar plantations stopped running in 1948 and tourism took over. Incidentally, milk costs 8 euro a gallon and is therefore more expensive than beer and liquor...2 cans of coke and 2 mini bags of chips cost us $8 USD in Marigot.

This morning started a bit rough...last night before going to bed we set the alarm on Peter's iPhone, as we had to be up and on the dock for 9:15 for a tour that would take us to a butterfly farm and to Marigot. Unfortunately, Peter failed to remember that he had not changed the time on his iPhone when it changed in San Juan.....this meant instead of getting up at 7:30 and showering and having a leisurely breakfast, I was drying my hair when the captain announced we had docked and could begin disembarking....at this point I grabbed my watched and realized it was 9 AM!! We had to quickly get dressed, slather on sunblock and grab our tickets and go without breakfast! We did however manage to make it outside and join our tour.

We started out driving from Philipsburg to Marigot, along the way Wilson, our guide, showed us all the high points...gas stations, funeral homes and a crematorium for good measure. Now the traffic in Marigot was terrible, many times I closed my eyes as the bus was dangerously close to opposing or perpendicular traffic this was apparently due to the Heineken Regatta which is occurring tonight. anyways, he dropped us in a tourist trap in Marigot, no little bistros or shops which the brochure had advertised, instead an outdoor market, where venders were hawking souvenirs for the tourists. Given, we missed breakfast we were starving and so looking around we settled on the chips and coke....

Anyways, after a short time there we were loaded back in the bus to go to a butterfly farm. There were hundreds of them with all sorts of colors and patterns. After the butterfly farm we were taken back to Philipsburg, the driver/tour guide offered to let you off to shop in downtown Philipsburg( two streets, either Front Street or Back Street) but warned you were on your own to get back to the ship...we passed on shopping and headed back to the ship for a bite to eat. We then sought out a quiet shady spot on deck 4 to read and watch the water. Currently, we are sailing from port, watching the sun set on the Caribbean Sea!

Going to head to the dining room for dinner.... I'll try to post a few pictures later tonight!

Tomorrow we sail to St. John, Antigua...not sure what we'll do as we have not signed up for any excursions...stay tuned!

Good Night!

Megan & Peter