We awoke to another lovely day in the Caribbean. It was 27 C - and felt a lot hotter than that with humidity! I'll take these temperatures and humidity over snow any day!
We had booked an independent tour with Bernard's Tours and were scheduled to meet just a few minutes walk from the ship at 10 am. The friends we met on yesterday's tour from Oregan decided to sign up for the four hour tour as well.
The port area around St. Maarten has been beautifully developed with shops, gardens, signage, shade and washrooms.
Nine of us loaded into an air conditioned van and set out for our tour with our driver and guide, Jay. He was a competent driver (in some very tight quarters on streets) and a knowledgeable guide.
St. Maarten signed a treaty to peacefully co-exist as an island owned by two countries (the French and the Dutch) in 1648. Quite the foresight to peacefully work out differences almost 400 years ago! There are about 100,000 residents on the entire island. People can simply cross the border from the Dutch side (where we docked) to the French side and back without any passports or even stopping for any reason. Each government has their own schools, police forces etc operating separately. The island is known as St. Maarten on the Dutch side (40% of the land) and St. Martin on the French side (60% of the land).
The island has some amazing statues paying tribute to their history at roundabouts on the roads. As we circled the Great Salt Pond, we saw the Salt Pickers statue, which illustrates the traditional method of salt harvesting from days gone by.
We had amazing panoramic views of Dutch St. Maarten from the top of Harold Jack Hill lookout point between Cole Bay and Philipsburg. It did require a bit of legwork to get to the top of the Hill - but only a couple of minutes of effort.
We stopped briefly at the border monument between the French and Dutch territories of the island and did not need to show a passport!
We then drove to Marigot, the French capital of the island. We climbed the 99 steps to Fort Louis.
At the very top of Fort Louis, with the French flag flying over my shoulder!
After Fort Louis, we had some free time to get out and explore. J and I chose to go to Rosemary's Creole Seafood to try some local cuisine. J in particular wanted to try conch. So we did!
It was interesting to see most shops were closed on Sundays - a tradition all but forgotten in North America. There were a few vendors open selling souvenirs and clothing at an outdoor market.
We all met Jay our driver and loaded back in the van for the drive back around to the Dutch side of the island. A few of the women had plans to go shopping for jewellery on Front Street, so we decided to hop out and explore the area before returning to the ship.
St. Maarten has developed a beautiful walking path to follow back to the ship, seen above.
The heat of the day sapped me of my energy and I appreciated cooling off with a shower back in our stateroom. After another lovely dinner, we went to the Theatrical show: Fantastic Journey. Another great show, with dazzling technology, many costume changes and a high energy rock concert show!
We were happy to make three calls today - the first to my 93 year old Mom to wish her a happy birthday! Then we spoke to our boys JG and P. Great to catch up with them all.
Now we need to figure out what we will actually do in Antigua tomorrow. I made a reservation for an eco-tour and now can find none of the meeting place details! Ta ta for now!
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