Caribbean 2014

Desperately needing a winter escape we planned a trip to St Maarten/St Martin, the 32 sq mi Caribbean island shared by the French and Dutch. The island is famous for it's airport (where planes come in low right over the beach) and it's 37 beaches. We chose to stay on the French side in a small Mt Vernon condo which is right on Orient Beach. Even so we explored both sides over our two weeks and thoroughly enjoyed our time there!

If you're interested you can read the blog about our trip or for more info about the island itself check out the St Maarten Portal, Beaches of St Martin, and for real time insight the discussion forum Travel Talk Online.

Obviously I have all these pictures in higher resolution, if for some reason you want a copy of one just email me and I'll send it to you.
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So, some people ask "where is St Maarten/St Martin"? Well, It's a little east of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean Sea. I've even traced the line of our flight from Winnipeg-Toronto-St Maarten!  To give you an idea of where some of the places I'll be talking about in the following pictures are I've annotated this map too. The airplane represents SXM airport at Maho Beach.  We started our journey early being upgraded to First Class by a friendly WestJet attendant in Winnipeg! In Toronto we get our last look at snow and ice for a few weeks!  Their customs card is a little more colourful than ours! 
A view of Cupecoy Beach from our plane on the way in. Unfortunately we were 45 minutes late because of de-icing in Toronto. The flat island on the horizon is British owned Anguilla.  Maho Beach late in the day on New Year's Eve. During mid day it would often be much busier than that.  Ok, not our plane obviously but it is the one Paula left on and probably what ours looked like touching down on Dec 31st.  Welcome to St Maarten! The sign on the Dutch side of the border between the two sides of the island. 
My first sunrise on the beach, New Years Day 2014! Not bad at all!  The entrance to our home for two weeks, Mt Vernon. It used to be an all inclusive resort but now it's a bunch of individual condos owned by separate owners. We found it on VRBO and loved the location and rate.  The view from the patio of our condo, quite suitable in my opinion!  Paula enjoying a book on the patio. 
Owners photos of our condo.  Owners photos of our condo. The patio is to the left, the bed on the other side of the curtain to the right.  Owners photos of our condo. A washing machine but no dryer. Also there was a toaster oven not shown here.  Owners photos of our condo. 
Owners photos of Mt Vernon. We were in the pink building in the middle of the front row. Very quick access to the pool or beach. Pinel Island is the little island off to the right.  Owners photos of our condo pool. That's Orient Beach in the background. This beach is on the east side of the island and as such was a little breezy. I think I would have preferred a little less wind but it wasn't a problem by any stretch of the imagination.  Again, this is Mt Vernon from the beach.  Sometimes you caught a glimpse of sexy women walking around the resort! I hooked up with this one! 
This is the south end of Orient Beach. This section of the beach is clothing optional and home to the CO resort Club Orient . In our opinion, clothing optional or not, it was the best beach. There's security there so you needn't worry about watching your stuff if you go for a swim, the beach is raked every morning, vendors aren't allowed to sell stuff there, and it's less crowded than the other section. On the Fench side, all beaches are considered topless.  Paula on the coral at the end of Orient Beach. Unfortunately she cut her foot here early and it bothered her a bit the whole vacation. The water is kind of shallow behind her and the breaking waves were quite interesting to watch. I think the waves were often about 6ft high or more!  Early morning shot of the main beach, ready for the throngs of cruise shippers that arrive every day. Orient Beach is very popular and some days there are 5-7 cruise ships in at once! they dock in Philipsburg but buses and taxis drop them off here. You can see our condo at the north end of the beach, just above the jogger.  Row after row of chairs await the throngs! A little too congested for my liking. 
Orient Beach in front of our condo. It's a 4 km walk down the beach and back and I often walked it at dawn since Paula usually slept in a little later. A very pleasant walk indeed!  This is among the coral at the south end of Orient Beach.The blowhole is what I was trying to get a picture of. As the waves roll in the water rushes into a passage and shoots out this hole under pressure. On some days it shoots quite high!  The beach was often busy with kite surfers. This looked like a hell of a lot of fun. They were able to corral the wind and surf back and forth along the beach all day. I'd like to try that sometime!  Another kite surfer shot. 
You might even see a horse on the beach! I never saw anyone riding this horse but I'm sure there was a business opportunity here somewhere. In general the island's horses are much smaller and slighter than the horses you see here.  There's several hotels behind the beach and they set up beach chairs for guests. If you stayed at Coco's apparently you could set up in this cabana and get a massage too!  Snorkeling used to be really good on Orient Beach but with the Christmas winds the water was a little murky and apparently the snorkeling wasn't as good. Regardless, we enjoyed the little bit we did!  I couldn't believe how gorgeous the water was. This is obviously shot from in the water looking back to the beach. We took an Olympus waterproof camera but it decided not to be waterproof at the worst time. This was shot with a new Nikon that we bought while there. In the end we didn't use the new waterproof camera much after we bought it but it's good to have one. 
The main section of Orient Beach. As I mentioned all the beaches on the French side are topless even though only a few women actually are. Check out the woman just left of centre on the beach, not only topless but a string bikini! Anything goes!  The other side of orient is clearly marked with a sign that Paula posed in front of for me!  This is the clothing optional section of Orient and you can that it's less congested than the other side. It's common for curious cruise shippers to stroll the beach to have a peek.  The entrance to Club Orient where the entire place is clothing optional. 
There were several cats outside our building. They were quite wary and not many were interested in being petted.  Paula's lovely beach hat bought from Francois on the beach. We didn't have enough money for the hat and the wrap she wanted so he said "Take them and come pay me the rest tomorrow!" You don't see that attitude from vendors here! We ended buying several items from Francois so it was a good strategy on his part to trust us!  In general the roads were in pretty poor shape. This is Rue de Mt Vernon which leads from our condo to the main road. It's riddled with potholes and this day workers had come, mixed up some cement by hand and filled in several holes with shovels. To prevent people driving on their fresh repairs they place garbage cans, rocks, etc across the road.  The night we arrived I had a hard time finding our accommodations. I had a pretty good idea of the layout of the island but wasn't getting much help from streetsigns. Here's an example. Only the thin, top segment is actually useful, the rest is advertising! Try reading these at night, in the rain, on busy narrow roads! 
Another example of the road signs, this one is a little better than the last example.  You never know what you're going to see on the road! Not only do you have to watch out for crazy motorcycle and scooter drivers but you need to watch for pedestrians, dogs, goats and chickens too! That's the main road between the French and Dutch side in the background and those are untethered goats roaming around getting a feed. I presume they belong to someone.  Crappy shot through the windshield but this is a shot of the main road through Marigot, the French capitol. There is road repair going on here which causes traffic to be a bit of a pain. On the left you see a bus stopping for a passenger and a looonnnggg line of vehicles held up behind it. This is quite common but there's nothing to do but wait it out and carry on. I will say one thing though, the drivers in St Maarten/St Martin are very courteous. They often stop to let you in to traffic or cross over.  Another shot of the roads around Marigot. In this case the road is in pretty good shape but the buildings aren't exactly palatial. There seemed to be quite a disparity between wealth and poverty on the island but I guess that's not unusal on a small island heavily dependant on tourism. 
This is Ans Marcel , which we accidently happened upon while trying to find our way to Grand Case. There is a Radisson Resort nestled at the base of mountains on three sides and a bay overlooking Anguilla on the fourth. Being on the leeward side the waves were gentle and this was a beautiful little beach. One of our top three.  The water was so calm and pleasant you could just lie in the surf and relax.  Paula on Ans Marcel beach while she still had her sunglasses (you'll see).  Again, Paula enjoying her last few moments with these sunglasses. 
We decided to take some shots of Paula floating leisurely on the swells as gentle waves caressed the beach. Then, I saw one big wave coming in. I knew I had just two choices... warn her, or capture the moment. Here's the moment.  When you're out "catching some waves" you tend to take on a little sand in unwelcome places!  The gorgeous Ans Marcel beach with the sun shining down on it. When the sun is out the water is often the most breathtaking shades of blue-green! The bikini clad girl walking towards us took the next shot of the two of us. People were very friendly everywhere we went. Then again... we're pretty lovable!  We didn't have much sunblock so I graciously left most of it for Paula. 
You'd think I'd pull my shorts up once in a while. Sheeesh.  The closest Paula will likely ever come to surfing! She really loves beaches!  On the 5th we decided to go to the Butterfly Farm . It was actually quite interesting and they have many types of butterflies and moths. Here the host is explaining about the camouflage of the Owl Butterfly . The circle on the bottom looks like an eye which is what many predators would attack as it is part of the head. In this case the predator would only get a section of wing, unfortunate but not fatal to the butterfly.  This is a moth I believe since the wings are flat. 
One of the butterfly and moth hatcheries they maintain. Many of the butterflies in the picture emerged from their chrysalis that morning.  The colours on many of the specimens were very striking.  This one blended into the foliage quite well.  This guy was quite attractive to butterflies as he had at least one on his head most of the tour. The guide, in the background, wondered if he'd been drinking the night before or if something in his hair product had attracted them. 
2014 01 05 080  2014 01 05 081  A deserted area in Philipsbug where the cruise ships normally dock. We wisely picked a day when there were only two cruise ships in.  Paula with her $1.50 beer bought at a roadside vendor. It was quite a warm morning (yes morning) so when we first hit the beachfront we were pleased to see someone selling cold beers for $1.50. Beers are normally about $2 unless you're in a fancy restaurant. 
The marina along the beachfront in Philipsburg. Obviously this yellow boat made for a shot I simply couldn't pass up.  Again, on the beachfront in Philipsburg. This time, I think this boat was purposely placed here as a photo prop for tourists. Still, I coudln't resist anyway!  A very quiet beachfront boardwalk in Philipsburg. Just the way we like it! There were many restaurants along here, all anxious for your business!  Paula does an excellent imitation of the popular Captain Morgan! Or Sir Guy Somebody or other. Sure looks like Capt Morgan to me! 
My boring pose :-(  A panoramic view of the beach on Great Bay in Philipsburg.  A look at the Philipsburg courthouse on Front St from the boardwalk.  Great Bay beach in Philipsburg form another angle. It's hard to tire of the view. 
Paula walking down Front St. This is pretty much it at it's narrowest and if you want to park here you have to get up on the curb or sidewalk, which many drivers did!  One of the churches in Philipsburg and conveniently someone has parked on the sidewalk so you can see how it's done!  An old style sailing ship in the marina at Philipsburg.  We had fresh mango most mornings for breakfast and loved it. Apparently mangos are in season over the summer and they're plentiful on the island then. It would be great to try a mango right off the tree! 
Why did the chicken cross the road? No idea, 'cause this is a rooster.  Here we see the grandeur of the dock and ferry to Pinel Island . Pinel is a small, uninhabited island that supposedly has great snorkeling. The ferry is about a 5 minute ride and costs $10/pp, paid in cash! (In case you didn't notice, the ferry is the grand vessel on the left)  The view as we arrive at Pinel Island. Yes, those lucky bastards are all drinking beers around tables set in the calm waters of the bay! Even though it's uninhabited there are two restaurants on the island (if I recall correctly)  The view from the southeast corner of Pinel Island looking over to Tintamarre Island on the horizon where we planned to take a catamaran cruise to on the 9th. 
Paula celebrates reaching the peak of Pinel Island! It's a grueling rise of about 12 m. Grueling if you're wearing flip-flops and carrying snorkel gear that you never did get around to using!  On the east side of Pinel Island Paula gazes at Tintamarre Island. Tintamarre is a popular place and several boats are achored there as you can see.  The north beach of Pinel Island with the mainland of St Martin just beyond it. Paula suggested this shot and I think she made a good choice! Good eye Paula!  On the north beach of Pinel Island. It's an interesting beach, a coral shelf just off the beach then another one further out as you can see by the water breaking. Very quiet, only about 3 or 4 other people on this beach. 
After our arduous trek around the island we stopped in at Le Karibuni for lunch. We started off with a couple of cold ones of course! Carib and Presidente are the two most popular beers on the island although I'd bet Heineken is a close third.  My grilled Mahi Mahi and Paula's ceviche were very good choices!  Again, you just never know when a rooster or goat will saunter by. This shot was taken from our table at Le Karibuni beach restaurant. It's awesome having your feet in the sand as you enjoy your lunch!  Paula wanted my picture on this driftwood since we never seem to take many pictures of me. In my opinion why forsake the beauty to take picures of the beast? 
Onboard the Bluebeard 3 ready to depart for our cruise to Anguilla .  Martin, rigging the main sail.  Our captain, who expertly guided us through 10 or 12 miles of open ocean to Rendevous Bay in Anguilla. The way out was against the wind and kind of choppy. Despite a breakfast of drammamine Paula's stomach was not quite enthralled with the experience.  Martin stowing the main sail as we motor into Rendevous Bay. 
Martin and Ingrid were quite busy and very capable hosts manning the catamaran while serving snacks and drinks too!  Our first view of Rendezvous Bay in Anguilla. While St Martin is quite mountainous (very hilly at least) Anguilla is very flat. 3 miles wide and 18 miles long it's about the same area as St Martin. The resort on the beach is Anguilla Great House Beach Resort and looks like it'd be a great place to stay sometime.  With the catamaran anchored offshore we're ferried ashore in their dinghy, 8 at a time. There were about 20 onboard the Bluebeard 3.  The very quiet beach in front of the Anguilla Great House Beach Resort in Anguilla. 
Scenic overlook of Sandy Ground, Anguilla. Easy to see why they deliberately brought us here for a photo op. Being on the leeward side this'd be a very calm place to anchor for a few days.  Paula enjoying her book on the beach at Shoal Bay while some of our cruise mates try their hand at snorkeling. $10 for a pair of chairs and an unbrella here, good deal!  OK, OK. I know you're supposed to wear it in the water but you wouldn't have quite got the monster from the blue lagoon effect if I was way out there. And by the way, don't try to walk into the water with flippers on. It's like Keystone Cops meets the Three Stooges for anyone watching. (it's best to put them on in the water or at least back in if you must don them onshore)  Paula just moments before she was hit on by the two young studs approaching. No worries, I scared them away with my big muscles! 
Anguilla was very accepting of interracial couples. Good thing or we might have been in trouble! (OK, I'm not that dark but wow, she is mighty white!)  Club orient offers massages on the beach and you can see it would be a very relaxing location with the waves washing gently up on the shore.  Yeah, this doesn't look too good with his hands pushing her face into the table but she said she enjoyed it! What else can you ask for!  Why can't we have something like this here? I don't even want to think about what that back section is but this whole thing is the party bus which tours you around the island stopping at different bars along the way. Sounds like a great time. The next day might not be but whatever. 
This is a Transformer guy at the street fair in Maho.  This is just off Maho Beach on the Dutch side. There's a couple of resorts and a casino here and as you can see the road is quite busy at times.  A customer picking his own lobster from the tanks at Bistro Caraibes in Grand Case. Grand Case is famous for it's gourmet restaurants. We had three great meals there although we like Piazza Pascal as better value and L'Estaminet as better food than Bistro Caraibes. It wasn't bad, we just liked the others better.  Our meal at Bistro Caraibes, I have the sauteed scallops and Paula had the snapper I believe. The flavours were very exciting and the meals well worth going out for. 
Dessert at Bistro Caraibes was their chocolate cake. I wasn't sure I was crazy about it at first but once into it found it delicious! You can see from the truck in the background how close to the road all the open air restaurants in Grand Case are.  We went horseback riding with Lucky Stables mostly because Paula loves riding horses in the surf! We own horses at home but this is still a special ride. We did it once before in the Bahamas. Again, as you can see in this picture the horses are anything but fat. Regardless, they seemed quite up to the task but Lucky Stables limits riders to 220 lbs. Whew, close one for me!  Paula's horse was Rusty. When they gave her her horse she thought they were telling her that he was a little rusty, then realized that was actually his name. At the front of the line is our excellent guide Remy as he leads us down to the water in Le Galion Bay , also known as Baie de L'Embouchure.  We're supposed to remain in single line lest the horses try to start racing each other. Being the rebel I am I risked death to get this shot of Paula in the water! 
The horses actually seem to like this part of the ride as it's a nice cool down for them. In respect of the environment they all do "their business" before entering the water. No kidding, I'm not sure of the reason but they do that before going in the water.  Just to prove that I actually went on the ride and smiled while doing it! My horse was Joker and was the biggest of the bunch. Probably entrusted to me because I seemed the most experienced rider.  Every chance they got the horses wanted to graze. On the other hand I wanted his head up for the picture. In the end we agreed to compromise with an awkward looking shot of me yanking on the reins and Paula looking like a drunken sailor slipping off her mount. This one's going on the mantlepiece for sure!  There's a lot of things I like about Orient Beach and Chez Leandra's food was one of them. Awesome coconut shrimp! However, nothing tops a bucket of 6 beer for $10 that includes the bottle opener!!! For a $5 deposit you can take the bucket wherever you like. Bring it back, again whenever you like, and get you $5 back. Awesome! 
When I saw Paula do this I was so disgusted, believe me. I had no idea she was that type of girl.  Someone said the nectar of the Gods flowed from these fountains. Only later did I realize these were breasts and that I'd been made a fool of! Oh the shame!  Probably our favourite restaurant on Orient Beach. We tried Papagayo, the Perch, Andy and Cheryl's and Chez Leandra. All were good but this was a favourite!  At St Maarten airport (SXM) before Paula went home on the 12th. One final shot with a grand Christmas tree! When I left 4 days later it was gone. At first I thought maybe Paula took it with her but I haven't seen it here so I could be mistaken. 
A panoramic view of Orient Bay from the great viewpoint in Paradise View restaurants parking lot. Pinel Island is off shore at left, then Tintamarre Island in the distance at centre and Green Caye just to the right of that. the coloured roofs on the right side at beach front are Orient Village.  The capitol of the French side is Marigot. While the main road passing by Marigot is a bit of a PITA the waterfront and marina area is quite attractive. Atop the hill is Fort Louis, built in 1789 with remnats still standing today.  A crew member from some bigwigs yacht awaits his guest returning from lunch or shopping I presume.  From Fort Louis you are rewarded with this panoramic view of Marigot marina and harbour. At far right is a partially sunken freighter that sits in the bay. 
A view from inside the fort.  Again, looking southwest from inside the fort.  Cannon from Fort Louis facing north into the Baie de La Potence. It almost looks like it might have been the cause of the sunken freighter in the bay. But in reality that wreck has been there since Hurricane Lenny in 1999.  Another cannon facing out from Fort louis into Baie de Marigot. There are some pretty impressive yachts docked in the marina below. 
This is a shot of Maho Beach which is where the planes come in to land. However, this is a less busy section about 200 ft away from the Sunset Beach Bar and the end of the runway.This corner of the island seems a little more rocky and in fact this wall eventually leads onto Cupecoy Beach where some of my other shots were taken.  Step back a little further and you see a little more action on Maho Beach. The beach is fairly steep and so the waves come in a little hard right at the end. But as you can see if you move out 10-15 ft it's just swells.  Pretty much an about face from the previous shot shows you the Sunset Beach Bar where a sign says "topless ladies drink free!". There weren't any topless ladies during the day that I noticed but I know it does occur occasionally in the evening. About where I'm standing is right on the glide path for the runway.  Another view of Maho Beach showing the road that passes between the beach and the end of the runway. When it's busy both lanes are full and people are walking on the sides of the road. As you can see the road isn't too wide so there isn't much room for traffic and pedestrians at the same time, especially if a bus or truck comes by. 
This is a little bit more like when it's busy. A KLM 747 was due in this day and that seems to draw the crowds. The first time we visited Paula lasted 3 minutes. We were about 20 ft onto the beach and she said "So, are we done here?" It's not a very big beach and I guess it's safe to say we like a little quieter beach atmosphere.  Outside the Sunset Beach Bar there's a surfboard where they chalk up the days arrivals. You can see the KLM flight (which will be a 747) in at 12:15 and our beloved WestJet arriving at 3:50. It's a nice touch I think.  The cloud cover rolled in about 15-30 minutes before this Air France A340-300 came in from Paris kind of ruining the shot. At this point I would guess it's about 50-60 ft overhead which may seem like a lot but it's not when 150 tonnes of steel passes over your head at 250 km/h. It certainly gets your attention!  Now this is more like it! KLM 747 landing with a clear blue sky and the sun shining on the water giving it great colour and a nice shadow. Because of the distortion of the lens it looks like the plane is higher than it is but look at the tail and you'll see it really isn't very far off the water and then consider that the beach rises up to meet the runway level. I'm not sure if the dipstick lower left is trying to sell his sandals or figuring he can touch the plane with just a few more inches of reach. Either way, he looks like an idiot. 
Obligatory runway shots out of the way it was time for my old friend Carib and I to get together. This is at the Buccaneer Beach Bar where the food was pretty good and obviously the scenery was fantastic. That beer didn't last long, poor bastard.  This is a view out the backside of the Blue Mall through a pretty dirty window. Not sure why I took this shot, I guess I just like the view!  This is Cupecoy Beach where my sandals, and almost much more, were washed out to sea. As you come down the stairs (to the left of me here) there were people to the right so we thought we'd get our own section of beach by going to the left. We set our stuff down just around the first outcrop of rock and prepared to enjoy ourselves. Two guys came to look at what we were doing there which I thought was a little wierd but didn't worry too much. Just about then quite a large wave rolled in right up to the cliff face. Both of my sandals, one of Paula's and the sunblock were washed out to sea and my camera bag with about $1500 worth of gear in it was submerged. Of course I grabbed the camera stuff and was thankful the bag was zipped up. One of the guys that had checked on us before retrieved Paula's sandal but the rest was gone. I guess that's why no one was there! We moved over to the other section where the rest of the non-idiots were.  Looking the other direction on Cupecoy Beach we see the beautiful Shore Pointe Villas which pretty much sits on the border that divide Dutch St Maarten from French St Martin. You can see that people with common sense set up their chairs back against the wall, well away from the sometimes unpredictable surf! There's not much room to get in the water here but just on the other side of that big spray there is sand beach where you can head out about 15-20 ft and float leisurely on the swells. Come in any closer, though, and you'll be thrown around by the waves. This was also one of my favourite beaches. Being on the west and leeward side there was no wind and the sun was hot. 
Another part of Cupecoy Beach which is probably almost a kilometer long but punctuated by rugged rocks and cliffs that sometimes extend right out into the sea as shown here.  This is the same section of Cupecoy Beach as the last shot but right down at beach level. It was a beautiful spot, you just have to watch the waves. All along Cupecoy Beach you can rent chairs or umbrellas from Dany. He also has a BBQ set up and makes great chicken and ribs as well as sells beers and his own rum punch. You can't beat a beach day like that!  This is Happy Bay which is further north on the French side, close to Grand Case. You have about a 10-15 minute hike through a pasture, sometimes past cows and goats, to get there but it certainly is not very commercial. For starters there's no chairs or umbrellas and it's not very busy. It was a pretty nice beach that I'd like to return to again some time.  A view of the road leading down towards Grand Case coming from Marigot. In the distance you can clearly see the island of Anguilla. Again, on the left is a bus and a very long line of traffic backed up behind him. You get used to the delay after a while and truth be told because the island is so small at worst it makes a 30 minute journey take about 45 minutes. Not really a big deal when you're on vacation. 
This is from the restaurant website but it's my calamari steak appetizer at Piazza Pascal . I've never enjoyed calamari like I enjoyed this dish. Wow!  Paula's insalata caprese appetizer at Piazza Pascal . I'm more of a meat guy but Paula liked it.  My final dinner at L'Estaminet in Grand Case before coming home the next day. This is the appetizer special, octopus and snail (on the left) with lobster ravioli bouillabase style (in the bowl). It was actually quite tasty, especially the snail!  Main course at L'Estaminet; Chilean Sea Bass with a chorizo crust on a bed of risotto with lobster bisque. The vegetables were artichoke cooked in garlic butter on top, pumpkin with cinnamon, and carrots in vanilla on the bottom. I'd never had the vegetables this way but again, the flavours were fantastic! All washed down with a nice glass of bordeaux! 
Finally, vacation over, WestJet whisked us home safe and sound. Behind schedule again but whatever. Who's counting? Would I go back to St Maarten? Absolutely, I'd jump on a plane tomorrow because even though we did about as much as we could in two weeks there's still more I'd like to do and when I wasn't doing that, any one of the 37 beaches would be damn inviting to just kick back and relax on!!