St. Maarten

So I have returned safely from our trip. It was absolutely amazing. I have never seen so many beautiful beaches.

Let's start from the beginning.

Saturday - woke up very early (4:00a.m.) and headed to the airport where we took off around 7:00a.m. We arrived in St. Maarten around 12:30 and were at the resort shortly after 1:00p.m. We were so close to the airport that we were able to see the airplanes land and take off. It was very cool. Our room wasn't ready so we had lunch first. Fortunately once we were finished eating our room was all ready for us (Rm. 238) and we were able to drop our stuff off, change into our bathing suits and head to the pool. Raju stayed by the pool while I went for our orientation with the tour operator to find out what was important. It was the usual, here are some tours, here are somethings to think about etc.

Sunday - nothing was open so we decided to stay close to the resort. We heard of a beach not far away so we went for a walk to find it. 5 minutes later we find ourselves at a beautiful, practically deserted beach (Mullet Bay). The water is just perfect, so we hang out there for the morning and then head back to the resort for lunch and a nap and then a dip in the pool.

Monday - We went a bus tour of the island. Since St. Maarten is only 37 square kilometers it only took us 3 hours, and that included 2 hour long stops at the biggest "cities". Phillipsburgh and Marigot. St. Maarten is made up of two distinct cultures. Dutch and French. On the Dutch side you can gamble and on the French you can go topless. There are also very different school systems. Although they are different everyone manages to coexist peacefully. Our tour gets us back to the resort in time for lunch, after which we take a dip in the pool and then of course it's time for another nap. For dinner we decide to go to a restaurant called Le Charolais. I had lamb which was very tasty.

Tuesday - Today we took a bus over to another beach called Orient beach. This is the beach you go to if you want to parasail, jetski etc. There was also a huge trapoline on the water. We didn't try it out but some other people we met did. They said it was quite difficult but fun. After a few hours on that beach we made it back to the resort for lunch. And of course after lunch it was nap time.

Wednesday - Raju and I decided we needed some downtime after travelling around to beaches all the time. I was also not feeling very well (too much sun) so we decided to stick close to the hotel. We made our way to Mullet Bay again and spent the morning catching up on reading and swimming in the ocean. Around lunch time we headed back to the resort, and you guessed it took a nap and a dip in the pool later in the afternoon. That evening was a seafood BBQ. For an extra $20 you could get a whole lobster. Raju was going to try it but was too full.

Thursday - My Dad told us that if we were in St. Maarten we had to make the time to go to an island nearby called Anguilla. This Island is 35 square miles. We were a little tired but decided to check it out. We took public transit (which was so much more comfortable than the TTC) and headed to the ferry docks. We even had to take our passports because it is a different country all together (it's a British island). At the ferry docks we met Nell who became our taxi/tour guide while in Anguilla. We were told that the beaches here were the most beautiful, but after seeing the ones in St. Maarten we couldn't imagine how this would be possible. As you can tell from the picture above...it was gorgeous. We spent about 3 hours here before heading back to St. Maarten. Since it was low season there was hardly anyone around. For a 2-3 km beach there were maybe 30 people on it.
This evening we had dinner at the "nice" restaurant on the resort. I had lamb again and it was very yummy. Presentation is everything though, and I just loved the way they plated the dinner.




Friday - As the week came to an end we realized there were a few things we still needed to do (shopping for souvenirs being one of them). After spending the morning by the pool and then eating lunch we decided to go for a walk. One of the other things St. Maarten is known for is it's jewellry. They are quite clever by setting up their souvenir shop so you have to walk through the jewellry area to get to the T-shirts. And also, to pay, you need to pay in the jewellry area. They also like to give you drinks so that you become more willing to buy things. Let's just say, I now have diamonds on my ears, to match the ones on my finger, wrist and neck.
After our walk we realized that we had not spent time on our beach at the resort. The other thing Raju wanted to do was be behind a plane when it was taking off. Air France was the biggest plane. Take a look at the video to see what happens.



This night we had dinner at another restaurant which was so delicious. Check out my appetizer (yes, that's just an appetizer)





Saturday - We woke up early and packed to come home and said our final goodbyes to St. Maarten. An Island that really does deserve a repeat visit.