Marigot, St. Maarten – April 24

Marigot, St. Maarten – April 24

We have been here 4 times before, though we have never arrived on the French side since most ships call on the Dutch side. 

We have seen both sides of the islands several times. (Dad came with us on one visit on a 7 day cruise) We have snorkeled here and last year we took the ferry to St. Barts Island. All good stuff. This time we thought we would hike and bird.

We didn’t feel the need to rush off the ship since we didn’t have much planned. Good thing, since the tendering process was slow going. We were late getting in and setting up took them quite a bit of time. We were to get in at 7:00 and it was closer to 8:00 before they started to get set up. We went down to get our tickets for the tenders and one had just left. They told us that it was slow going since it was bumpy getting on the tenders. It also was about a 25 minute tender ride to shore. Then, the one that we were supposed to get on broke down and needed to be fixed. That didn’t take too much longer, but it was probably about 10:00 before we got underway. 

We grabbed a taxi at the port and he took us to Loterie Farm where we had planned to hike. Loterie Farm is a secret hideaway nestled in the hillside of Pic Paradis on French Saint Martin. The main restaurant was damaged in the hurricane and is still closed, but they server the food in their bar area now which is a great spot that is like being in a tree house. 

We did the shorter of the two hikes. The terrain was pretty tough in places with huge rocks that we had to climb up and over. Some areas had ropes to help pull yourself up. They had zipline areas all around, but the ones we could see were pretty low to the ground. It didn’t look like a particularly exciting one, but if it was your first one it would probably be fun. 

At one point in the hike we were surrounded by lots of Green Monkeys. You could hear them in the trees all around us. They were going from tree to tree and across fallen tree trunks. It was a huge troupe of them. We had thought we would do the extended part of the hike, but I was running out of water and it was a dryer heat today and very sunny and I was overheating. Plus, I was about over “rock climbing”. We made the loop and going down was easier on that path. We got back to the bar and ordered a couple of diet cokes. The restaurant didn’t open for another 10 minutes so we cooled off watching the birds and iguanas below them. 

Greg ordered a tuna tartar “burger” and I got a chicken BLT. We split an order of sweet potato fries. Everything was delicious. My sandwich had 2 chicken breasts on it and I took off half of it to get it in my mouth. There was a full chicken above and below the middle piece of toast. 

They also had a lovely pool where you could rent cabanas or lounge chairs and spend the day. 

We grabbed a cab back to Marigot. We had hoped to have gelato, but the place we had been to a couple of times before was gone. Now, there is a French pastry shop there. There is still a lot of rebuilding to do after the hurricane, but all in all they are doing well. We didn’t get to the Dutch side this time, but I imagine it has been rebuilt for the most part. We wandered around the small area and the checked out the tents with souvenirs and then grabbed a pastry where our gelato shop used to be. 

We also went into the small shopping mall just to see what was there, but it was the usual high-end shops. We saw a lot of ships’ people there using the WIFI.

We got on the next tender and were back on the ship a couple of hours before we needed to be. We wanted a shower before dinner.

After dinner we went to see a new show by Cory Kahaney, the female comedian. She might have been a bit funnier, but still not all that funny to me. 

We now have 2 final sea days before the end of this 111 day journey.

St. Martin https://photos.app.goo.gl/eAGPeQjtEDYaMW3TA