Saint Martin and Sint Maarten

After stopping at less busy ports all week, we arrived at the unique island and into the major port of Philipsburg, St Martin today. The uniqueness comes from the fact that the small island of St Martin comprised of two countries, Dutch Saint (or Sint) Maarten and French Saint Martin. The countries are split geographically fairly evenly with the French side in the north and the Dutch in the south. This arrangement was formed by the Treaty of Concordia in 1648, which our guide said is sometimes called the picnic treaty but I think he was pulling our collective legs. The Treaty is one of the oldest in effect, and is only about one page and 10 points long. It allowed for the ability of the citizens of each side to move freely around the island.

It’s interesting to someone from a country like Canada, which has factions wanting to separate from time to time, that here in St Martin there is bit of a movement among some people from both sides of the island for it to be combined into one. However, it’s unlikely to happen since each of the two territories would probably have to get their independence from the parent country and neither are likely to give up control.

Of course, each side is governed differently, but neither of them is independent.

The Dutch side has a governor as the representative of the Dutch Monarch and a prime minister as head of government. A representative from St Martin sits on the Netherlands Council of Ministers. The Parliament has 15 members elected by proportional representation. Like many territories, St Maarten has control over internal affairs but the government of the Netherlands maintains control of things like defense, and foreign affairs. Other territories with similar relationship to the Netherlands are the islands of Aruba, Curaçao, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.

The French side of Saint Martin used to be part of the Territory of Guadeloupe, however, in 2003 they voted to separate from Guadeloupe and form their own collective. They are now governed by an elected Territorial Council consisting of 23 members. The head of state is the President of France, whose Minister of the Interior appoints a Prefect to represent the head of state in St Martin. In turn, St Martin elects one member to each of the Senate and National Assembly of France.

Historically, the island was “discovered” by Christopher Columbus in 1493 who did a drive-by claim of the island for Spain without ever stepping foot on the island. The Dutch first settled the island in 1763 as well as the island of Bonaire and Curacau. The historical interest in this island, were the salt deposits, (called white gold) however, tourism is now by far the number one industry at 80% of the economy. They received 2.5 million tourists per year, the largest percentage being from cruise ships.

Both sides of Saint Martin were damaged by hurricanes, Luis (1995), Maria (2017) and Irma (2017). Buildings and infrastructure were destroyed, as were some of the beaches. Work is still being done on the hurricane resistant airport which was severely damaged by Hurricane Irma. Hmmm.

On board the Star Pride we had a bit of a rocky start. We were all set to head off on our various excursions but we were told the ship was bouncing around too much at the dock in Philipsburg, and the usual gangway couldn’t be used. So I think they were on to plan c or d before they found something to work, and that included using a shore gangway on top of a metal platform to reduce the angle of the gangway which would have made it hard to walk down or get goods up. This was a major provisioning stop from the looks of all the cargo sitting on the dock ready to be loaded. We could tell how hard the crew were working to find a solution and I’m sure it was really frustrating for them. The problem was compounded by the fact that we were scheduled to have a really short time in port at this stop. But about an hour late the gangway was ready for us and we headed out on our excursions. The departure time was pushed back an hour to make up for lost time in the morning and to accommodate the excursions.

Today I did not snorkel and I think my knees are really glad that’s the case. They’re feeling the brunt of the action of kicking differently using fins three times this week. So I decided to see St Martin from the land side and signed up for the Two Flags tour, a tour of the major highlights of the island by small bus.

We started the tour on the Dutch side where the cruise ship terminal is located. Our guide was great and he provided so much information that I’m pretty sure not all of it stopped in my memory so bare with me. As we drove from the cruise ship terminal to Philipsburg he noted some examples of peculiarities of the two country island situation. The French side of the island uses 220 volt power and the Dutch side uses 110. The phone carriers are different on each separate country, and it’s an international call to call from one side to the other.

Surprising to me, the Dutch side of the island has legal brothels, and many casinos. The guide said there were 16 casinos on the Dutch side and it’s 16 sq miles so one casino for every square mile of the island. On the French side, there are some nude beaches as one might expect but not on the Dutch side. They use the Euro on the French side, but Guilders on the Dutch side and in fact take $US on both. When students want to go to university on the French side they must go to France for it, whereas there is a university on the Dutch side but many end up in the US or Canada for their studies.

We had a stop at Philipsburg for about 30 minutes to check out the beach and boardwalk along the water of the downtown area, and do any shopping. To get to the boardwalk from the bus, we wandered through a market of souvenir sellers tents and kiosks. It was pretty much the same things we’ve seen all over the Caribbean. I also saw the Parliament Building which is underwhelming and the courthouse, which is adorable. Philipsburg has a beach right in downtown so you have everything you need in one place with the beach on one side of the boardwalk and restaurants, hotels and shops on the other. The boardwalk looks relatively new and there is some (re)building still going on so they seem to still be recovering from Irma. We wandered for our allotted time and I didn’t help the economy I’m afraid.

Then it was back on the bus and over to the French side. The only reason you know you’re changing countries is that there is a sign and some flags and that’s it. There is free movement of people and things between the two. We stopped at a lovely viewpoint and the thing that jumped out at me is the different shades of blue we could see. They don’t stand out too well in pictures.

The traffic from our look out onward was horrendous. We sat for quite a long time, not moving, and our guide did his best to keep us engaged while the driver inched ahead when he could.

Marigot, (named after the marshland that was there before the capital was built) the capital of the French side was the next stop and we were in search of two things there, a bakery and a bathroom. We had only 20 or so minutes there, but I managed to enjoy an absolutely fantastic ham and cheese croissant at the bakery. I’ve resisted all the tempting pastries on the ship so far but could not say no to a French croissant. I was so anxious to eat it that I forgot to take a picture! But I did take a picture of the view we had! The highlight in Marigot was the food whereas the jewelry shops in Philipsburg were the main attraction.

As we headed back to Philipsburg, the traffic on the way to our last two stops was much better and we made better time. You may have seen videos of one of the 10 most dangerous airports in the world where the planes fly really low on their approach to the airfield over top of a beach. Well, the videos are probably of the airport in Philipsburg. That was our next stop. Just as we were approaching the road that runs along the end of the run way and Maho Beach we saw a jet at the very end of the runway getting ready to take off. And lined up at a fence not that far from the end of the runway were dozens of people. Behind the people was a sloped beach. When the jet revved his engines and started his takeoff, the wind from the engines literally sent the people tumbling backwards down the slope of the beach. It was the most bizarre thing. We went a bit further and turned around to see if we could see an incoming flight landing just barely over the heads of people on the beach. We did see two small planes land as we went along the road by the beach and it definitely looks like they’re coming right at you as they’re so low to the ground as they go over the road. I couldn’t get very good pictures of it from the bus but it was an interesting experience.

Somewhere along the drive today we were able to see the chair lift and zip line going to the top of the highest peak we saw on the island. The zip line is called the Flying Dutchman and it is so far the steepest zip line in the world. Someone that had been on it said you went really fast, but that you were harnessed into a seat-like contraption so it’s not like a regular zip line. If I had some time on the island I’m sure I’d give it a try but not when our time is so limited.

There was one more view point stop for Kodak moments and then we were on our way to the cruise ship terminal and our return to the Star Pride. At the cruise ship terminal the shops are just starting to come back since COVID but there is still some huge pieces of retail space available for rent. The jewelry stores are back in full force but there wasn’t much else so I headed back to the ship.

I have to say that St Martin is not my favourite of our stops. The traffic, the retail, and the noise were all a bit much after the quiet, smaller islands we’ve spent time on this week.

I have been careful all week to be lathered up with sun screen (coral and fish friendly) and covered up while snorkelling to the point where you barely can tell I’ve been in the Caribbean. So once back on board this afternoon I sat on the top deck for quite a while and said some goodbyes and chatted with folks.

Tonight was the final good bye for most of the passengers with whom I’ve spent the last week. Only 33 of us are staying over to next week. The Captain introduced his officers to the passengers one more time and they and some of their staff stood for a group shot around the hot tub and pool area.

We are into port in San Juan tomorrow for the turnaround, and I plan on staying on the ship to just chill and enjoy the quietness of the ship. Between 9 and 1 there will only be the 33 of us and the crew on board, and even some of the 33 will be off the ship exploring San Juan again. So I will take a break from blogging tomorrow unless some news of great importance comes up!