This morning we had breakout sessions again from 8 to 10 am. It was also our first port day Saint Maarten and all its different spellings. Most of the cruise tours were early morning offerings so I arranged a group tour for a group of 30 agents with St Maarten Presidential Tours. They did pick us up at 11am and we were able to customize where we wanted to go so we were able to see both sides of the Island.
This was our bus. I missed the arrival picture they had a red carpet out for us
The country was gearing up for its first carnival in three years. It was scheduled for May 1st so you could already see the setting up of shacks along the parade route where people would be able to enjoy lots of local food and products. In the past, the celebrations would last longer, and hopefully, once we make it past this year safely that will resume.
The island of St Maarten is 37 miles long and it is divided into two countries 16 square miles is the Dutch Side and 21 square miles is the French Side. The French Side operates with Euros and the Dutch the Kronos although they both happily take US dollars at par. There are two governments, police forces, etc.. However, there are people from over 80 different nations who call this country home so the cuisines are eclectic, to say the least. The French side is on the Atlantic ocean and tends to get hit hard by hurricanes. They are still rebuilding from Hurricane Irma that hit in 2017. The Dutch side sits on the Caribbean Sea.
Here is the front half of our bus entering the french side of the Island. The back half was still on the Dutch Side
Our first stop was a lookout on the French side. Where some agents climbed to the top of an outlook and a few put their feet in the ocean,
The second stop was at a small shack selling local wares a man feeds the iguanas there so you can see them up close and personal and he lets you feed them as well. Here are some pictures of them.
After our stop at the Iganuas, we moved on to Orient Beach. Orient Beach is famous for being a nude beach. We did see one nude person at the far end but the beach seems to be filled with more tourists fully dressed hoping to catch a glimpse of nude people. We did have a rather long stop here. We were supposed to stop for an hour. A group of us headed to one of the restaurants on the beach for food. Sadly they failed to tell us they had pre-orders from a large ATV group and so meals took a really long time. Maybe half of us got our food and we were much longer than the hour we intended to stay. I won't disagree the service was not up to par and they should have been honest with us from the time we sat down to place our orders as about half of the group chose to eat here. The food we got was amazing but I would choose one of the other restaurants over them should I visit again.
Caribbean Lobster Sandwich with fries
Eeyore waiting patiently for the food to arrive
Posing in the proper attire for the beach
Our next stop was back on the Dutch side and the famous Maho Beach where the airplanes fly overhead while landing we made it just in time to have this amazing experience. I would definitely recommend checking this out. The last plane touches down around 3:00 pm and the bars, and beach shuts right down afterward. It was very interesting to watch this happen as well. I have put my Tik Tok info down below you can see my video of the planes flying in there.
I tried the Jet Fuel. Very yummy!!!
People enjoying the beach waiting for the planes to come in
The airstrip. They have added barbed wire on the top to keep people from climbing in
We made one last stop after this at Toppings Rum Distillery. We had two other stops planned but we needed to be at the ship earlier as some people had dinner reservations. I did not take a moment to go into the shop as it was busy. A few people came out with rum flavoured ice creams and bottles of flavoured rums. I am sure I will be back and will get an opportunity to check them out in the future. When we got back to port I did have to check out the Pandora shop and I did indeed purchase not one but two charms for my travel collection. Sadly they were sold out of the St Martin charm.
We said au revoir to Saint Martin but as I said we will be back again for sure!!! My next blog will discuss my evening on the ship as we did a specialty restaurant for our dining and it does deserve a blog to itself. Stay tunned
Where you can find me:
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Email: slough@exclusivetoyoutravel.com
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Toronto, On M5J 1R7
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Please keep in mind that while my head office is in Toronto. I am a home-based travel agent and I live in South Dundas I can service clients anywhere in Canada. But, I meet with clients in the SD&G area
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