St Maarten

While doing my morning email, I decided to check out the 5 day forecast for Dearborn.  BRRR!!  At least there is a "warming" trend all the way up to 28 by Saturday from sub-zero wind chills and a high of 16 today.  Guess that will temper my "complaints" about the heat and humidity on the islands this week.  But it is a good week on be in the Caribbean instead of Michigan.

They really pack the cruise ships in here as shown in this picture of a Welcome sign.  We had 6 here today as shown on this sign.  Ours was in the back of the second row from the left which meant we had  a very long walk just to get off the pier!  With 6 large ships docked, the town was busy, but not overly crowded - I suspect a lot of people were on excursions instead of hanging out in town. 

We've been to St Maarten once before, but only saw the Dutch side. After getting some quality shopping done this morning, our excursion this afternoon took us to the French side of the island.  There really is no border to cross, just an administrative division of the island that has been in place since 1648.  We had an hour to kill at an open air shopping area in Marigot, the capital of the French side, so we cooled off with a beer.  Check our that bling on her right hand -  a ring with an Alexandrite stone, a rare gem that changes color in different lighting.  Like I said earlier, we had a very good shopping trip in the morning! 

The 37 square mile island is the smallest island  in the world shared by two countries.   In this picture the Dutch portion is in the foreground while the French is from that spit of land that crosses the bay and farther in the background. Each side has its own currency and utilities, but it is a totally open border.  Our guide pointed out that the Dutch side has a 110v electric system while the French side is 220v!  

It was a busy, but very interesting and productive day.