a Day in Sint Maarten

Travel Blog   December 26, 2013

Sint Maarten, West Indies

Today is a port day.  Because of strong headwinds in the Atlantic the last two days, we arrived in port a bit later than expected.

We ate our typical leisurely breakfast on the short deck aft of the buffet on the Pacific Princess.  The food has been excellent and the service staff quite friendly.  The temperatures have been absolutely ideal.  What a wonderful place to be on Boxing Day. 

The ship was secured and we were ready to go ashore by 10:30.  Since we had spent much time on the island on previous visits, we chose to stay right in Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch Side.

The island is split between two countries  Sint Maarten, occupying the southern portion of the island, is a self-governing entity under the Kingdom of the Netherlands.  St. Martin, in the island’s North, is French territory.  There is not border visible between the two parts.  The island is the smallest geographic piece of land occupied by two different countries.

John enjoys Philipsburg beach

We decided to take a walk from the port area to town, a distance of about 1 ½ miles.  For us, this is a leisurely stroll. 

We coated our pale winter skins with sunscreen, topped off with a layer of mosquito repellant and set off toward the commercial center of Philipsburg.  It was a very pleasant walk, although we soon got in the habit of sticking to the shady side of the street.  It may be midwinter, but we are definitely in the tropics!  We walked down the boardwalk at beach-side and then went inland one block to Front Street, the crowded commercial center of the town. 

We had a list of a few items to buy that we needed to bring with us and Philipsburg is possibly the best place in the Caribbean to shop.  We had soon purchased everything we were looking for and were ready for a break.  After reaching the end of town, we returned to the beautiful beach fronted by the boardwalk and found a little beach-side bar that had wi-fi as well as cold beverages.  We listened to the live reggae music performed for us as we Skyped our daughter, Kari, from our table.  What a perfect way to spend the middle of the day! 

We hauled our purchases back to the ship and headed up to the buffet for a 2:00 lunch.  This gave us a few hours to relax and clean up, since we were scheduled to answer questions at the excursions desk from 5:00 to 6:00.  We had a number of questions from the passengers about our next stop, St. Lucia, and were pleased that Kari had been there only a few weeks ago and had given us fresh information.

We again chose to dine at our scheduled 8:15 time in the Club Restaurant and traded stories about our day ashore.  The meals were excellent, as usual.  The evening show featured a pair of twins, performing on the electronic violins, which seemed to be enjoyed by all. 

John turned off his reading light at midnight.

Friday we would be in St. Lucia.