Day 22 – West Aussies in the West Indies

We docked over night at St. Maarten or St. Martin (depends if you are in the French or Dutch side as to the spelling) in the West Indies.  We had a full day in port so we took our time getting off the ship to avoid the exiting stampede.  It was a funny day weather wise, probably only about 25 or 26 deg’s C, it rained a few times, and was even a bit windy (certainly not on par with Geraldton wind but).

We caught a cab to Muho Beach, more commonly known as ‘Airport Beach’.  Google it, there is heaps about Airport Beach St Martin’s on You Tube. Basically it’s this lovely beach at the start of the runway and there are people everywhere.  We were there around noon, there was this outdoor bar that was packed to the max, there was a reggae band playing and they were excellent. We waited about and watched a few planes land and take off, but we left before the big American Airlines plane came into land - bummer. 

 

 

 

There are so many private jets of all sizes at this airport just parked up waiting in their occupants to fly back out St Maarten after their vacation.  There are also heaps of private luxury yachts dotted about the place.  Supposedly a lot of these people fly in on their private jets to meet up with their luxury yachts.  How the other half live eh?

 

 

We then got dropped off at some Beach Resort (name eludes me), that sits in this protected bay and it’s called Little Beach.  It was protected from the wind, we all plopped down on beach chairs for about 15 minutes for a  little relax, we thought it was going to rain again so we upped digs and sat at the bar.  The adults had a strawberry daiquiri the boys had a soft drink.  As we were talking to the bartender, I noticed him pour the contents of a stubbie into a take away coffee cup, I’d be interested to know how many ‘coffees’ he drinks a day on the job.

 

The coffee swigging bar tender, with my drink in view

The Duplex Men at Little Beach with Nicholas showing off his lovely coconut

 

There had been 5 or 6 huge ships docked when we arrived to port this morning, but after our adventures today there were only 3 left in port when we arrived back to the cruise ship terminal. There must have been 20,000 tourists or more hit the island today, this probably happens on a daily basis.  Back at the terminal there were these two dudes playing a Rihanna song on the Calypso drums, I grabbed a mojito and the boys and I listened to these guys for a bit, they were ultra cool, I even gave them a tip. The mojito was tasty too.

 

One of the calypso drum players, flashing his pearly whites.

 

We board the ship, time to shower and head off for a family dinner, which once again was top notch. I was asleep by about 9.30, Peter and Sue tell me they stayed out til about 1 or 2 am.