Cruise Day 5

This was a day in St. Maarten (Dutch) and St. Martin (French).  The port is on the Dutch side.  The Dutch are way ahead of the French in terms of tourism, which again is the main source of income for the island.  The French, in order to catch up have provided incentives for those living in France to invest on the island, but they are still the French and are not near as "tourist friendly" as the Dutch.

The island was inhabited by the dutch because of the salt found on the island.  However, when slavery when away, it was not very profitable mining salt, so tourism is about the only industry.

A couple of good looking tourist with a view of the bay.

This is a joint monument between the Dutch and the French erected in 1948 to celebrate 300 years of peace between both sides of the island.  At first they would fight (usually pirates) individually to protect their claims and once in awhile between themselves.  Then they decided it would make more sense if they would agree not to fight each other and direct their efforts to protect the entire island regardless of which side would be attached.  As you can see from the monument this strategy has worked well for over 350 years.

The sign says it all

One of the forts on the island.  This one is on the French side.

Across from this shopping mall, there was a small cafe.  You can say what you want about the French, but they eat well.  I had the best chocolate eclair I've ever tasted.  The rest of the food looked great also, but after the eclair, I was stuffed.

One of the attractions on the French side is the Orient  Beach.  It's clothing optional.  There are also a couple resorts that are clothing optional.

As in several Caribbean islands, you can see topless bathing in a lot of places. However, when they say clothing optional, they mean no shirt, no shoes, no clothes are acceptable.  I didn't want to show anything x-rated, so if you look close you can see a gentleman from behind enjoying the sun.  It did not take us long to see more than we wanted.  We decided the French, even with all over tans, are not as good looking as they think they are.  What was more interesting were those that had white spots on their body, obviously tourist enjoying the option.  We decided not the take advantage of the option so we returned to a nice beach bar on the clothing side for another drink before heading back to the ship.

This was the last port of call for us.  Of the three islands, St. Maarten would be a nice destination for a week's vacation.  I recommend you stay and enjoy the Dutch side, eat on the French side and don't bother with the clothing optional beach.