Our first port and, after three days, I”m happy to have some time off the ship. When we arrived at port, we were one of eight ships. So lots of tourists in town. The locals are friendly and happy to have us visitors. It feels safe too.
We had the third largest cruise ship of the world, Wonder of the Sea, (6,988 passengers- our ship has 670!) just across the pier from us. The really amazing thing is that I saw a green turtle right next to the dock as we pulled up. It was so weird to see the turtle next to that huge cruise ship.
My original excursion to go snorkeling was cancelled so I wandered around port. It’s 84 degrees fahrenheit and the sun is strong so I didn’t stay out long. Just long enough to walk to & from town, visit the shops, visit a local museum and to put my feet on the amazingly fine, white sand and in the cool-ish sea.
There was no shade on the walk and as much as possible I walked in the shade of the buildings around town and enjoyed any stray sea breeze that past by. It was a 15 minute walk from dock to town.
As soon as I returned, Jennifer suggested a root beer float. It sounded great but they don’t have any root beer on board so I settled for a strawberry shake. It took about an hour to cool down to normal temperature. We’ve seen a number of ambulances go to the cruise ships and I found myself wondering if heat stroke was the cause.
Half the island is Dutch and half is French. I was really hoping to have a Dutch meal but couldn’t find any- not sure if I even got to the Dutch part of the island!
The French side freed the slaves before the Dutch side so the slaves just crossed the ‘line’ to become free. Slaves were treated ok as most owners were more interested in drinking rum than farming. Slaves ‘ran’ the farms so everyone could eat. The main crop is Sugar Cane which was grown for sugar(white & brown) and rum.
The island can be listed at Sint Maarten(Dutch), Saint Martin (French), St. Maarten, St. Martin….