05.01.2022 - 16.01.2022: Sint Maarten / Saint Martin

Calendar:

05.01.2022 - 16.01.2022
Turquoise Beach Home, St. Martin

05.01.2022
Aruba - St. Martin Flight, Car Rental

07.01.2022
Return Car Rental, Scooter, Trip to Philipsburg, East Coast, Orient Bay

08.01.2022
Maho beach, Juliana Airport

09.01.2022
Trip to the North, Grand Case, Anse Marcel

11.01.2022
Sentry Hill, Flying Dutchman

13.01.2022
East Coast, Oyster Pond

Highlights:

The departure from Aruba was initially bumpy. On the day before the flight, we took our PCR tests in the morning, and the result should have been emailed to us by the evening at the latest. However, our mailbox remained empty, even in the morning of the departure day. Two hours before leaving for the airport, I had enough. I drove back to the testing center on my scooter. When I arrived, several people who had also not received their results were already waiting. A young employee checked the results in the system. They were stored there at least, and luckily both were negative. I had the results printed out. By the way, we never received them by email....

Incredibly punctual, our scooter rental service (Pardo rental!) showed up at Aruba beach villas with his pickup truck and loaded our suitcases. We rode the scooters to his location at the port, and then we continued to the airport by pickup truck.

Winair is a small Dutch-Caribbean airline (fleet of 8 planes). When examining the original flight confirmations more closely, they were issued for May 1, 2022, but on the day before (electronically) issued boarding documents, the correct date (January 5, 2022) was found. Apparently a system error, I thought to myself, hopefully they fly more reliably. However, the check-in went more or less smoothly in the end.

In front of the departure gate at Reina Beatrix International Airport, there is a lovely little restaurant outside. We were already hungry, and on the 3.5-hour flight to St. Martin, neither food nor drinks were offered. We settled comfortably in the restaurant and ordered Croque-Monsieurs and drinks. Half an hour before the departure, we made our way to the departure gate. But first, we had to go through security, and it took and took. About 10 minutes before the scheduled departure, we finally reached the gate, where an attendant was nervously waiting for us. We had arrived as the last passengers...

Then it went quickly, we were driven to the airplane together with the other stragglers in a minibus, and the small propeller plane took off with the short delay due to us. The flight was uneventful, and we finally landed in St. Martin at 5:30 pm.

Entry and car rental went smoothly. Around 7:00 pm, we arrived at our accommodation, the Turquoise Beach Home apartment, and were greeted by Elisa. The apartment lives up to its promises in the pictures on the internet. Even a Nespresso machine is available in the perfectly equipped kitchen, great. On the terrace, there is a high-tech Weber grill, all new. The apartment is decorated in turquoise and white, with a white sandy beach leading to the terrace and only 30 meters to the spacious pool. From the apartment, there is also a very nice view of Anguilla, the neighboring island of St. Martin.

Apparently, the number of COVID-19 cases is also increasing significantly here in St. Martin. Therefore, admission to supermarkets is limited to a few people. On the day after arrival, we drove to Marigot to a Super-U and bought supplies for the next 10 days there. Accordingly, we also had to line up to get in. A styled, loud black woman in a Prada outfit demanded special treatment. Anyway, the argument with the (fortunately also black) security guards escalated to the point that we were even allowed to enter before the Lady in Black.

St. Martin is divided into two parts: the south is associated with the Netherlands (Sint Maarten), and the north is a French overseas territory (Saint Martin). The weather is slightly cooler than in Aruba, with daytime temperatures ranging from a very pleasant 27 to 29 degrees Celsius. The trade winds are not as strong as in Aruba.

Hurricane Irma with the strongest winds ever recorded destroyed more than 90 percent of the island's buildings within 6 hours on September 6, 2017. The trail of devastation is still visible today, with numerous decaying ruins. Those who had adequate insurance at the time at least had their material damages covered. Accordingly, the official motto of St. Martin fits: "semper progressiens" (Latin for "always moving forward"). Let me briefly mention the Swiss motto again ("one for all, all for one"). Do you know which country has explicitly included this motto in Article 63 of its constitution? It is North Korea!! This was surely initiated by Kim Jong Un, thanks to his deep and valuable humanistic education at the Steinhölzli School in Bern Liebefeld....

The beaches in St. Martin are impressive, and most of them are sparsely visited despite the high season. Maho Beach is spectacularly located near Juliana Airport. Here, you can watch the departing and landing planes. Daring individuals stand directly behind the runway and let themselves be sandblasted by the jet blast of the planes. We observed the scene from a cozy bar from the side.

The capital in the Dutch part of the island is called Philipsburg. Numerous beach bars line the promenade on Great Bay. The huge cruise ships dock in the harbor. However, tourists hardly make it to the more remote beaches.

A cable car leads to Sentry Hill, it's strange to wear flip-flops instead of ski boots. From up there, you have a unique view over St. Martin, including Juliana Airport. If you're feeling adventurous, you can use the ZIP-Line (Flying Dutchman) instead of the cable car for a fast descent. Sylvia reluctantly declined due to her knee, and I declined for other reasons....

Many locals in St. Martin live in very dilapidated and run-down accommodations. It is also striking how many apparently unemployed young people there are, with one of their meeting points being near our apartment. They loiter on the roadside during the day, with Reggae blasting from oversized boomboxes. Most of them have a motorcycle, and their favorite pastime, in addition to smoking weed, is to scare tourists or hold street races while riding a bike (wheelie) without a helmet, well, they are all potential organ donors....

On January 13, 2022, we explored the east coast and passed by Oyster Pond near Dawn Beach, among other places. Two friendly characters were standing at the harbor, signaling me to perform a wheelie. I laughed, I definitely prefer to leave that to the locals. The two called us over, and we got into a conversation with Will and Fred (from Lyon). They said they work for an agency and gave us two scratch tickets, a promotion by the casino of a nearby hotel. And behold: I scratched off the lucky numbers 777 and won one of the main prizes of the lottery (alternative prize: $500 in cash, iPhone 13, iPad, or 1 week vacation in Florida), with the prize hiding under the last remaining covered field. The two said we could collect the prize immediately at the Dawn Beach Club nearby, but we just had to check out this hotel first. Well, there are worse things than participating in a one-hour hotel tour, including a complimentary drink. The "hotel" revealed itself as an architectural monstrosity and looked more like a hospital. In addition, most of the hotel is undergoing a complete renovation; Irma also did a lot of damage here. The already renovated parts are being sold as apartments in timeshare, so we once again got caught up in a cheap event organized by an aggressive sales team. First of all, we were told that the cost of our presentation alone is $4,000, they certainly have high hourly rates, I thought to myself. Anyway, the whole thing was pure waste of time, membership cost: 32,000 euros....

Despite our grateful decline, we actually received the prize in the end, of course, the vacation in Florida. However, redemption is subject to numerous restrictions, so it is unlikely that any of these "valuable" vouchers will ever be used. I briefly researched the whole thing on the internet, and it turns out that everyone here wins the trip, it's just about attracting customers for the timeshare model...

The time on St. Martin has flown by, unfortunately, we still haven't spotted any urus (breadfruit trees) here. But we won't give up and will continue our search on the British Virgin Islands from Monday, January 17, 2022.

Greetings to all of you.