At only 37 square miles, St. Martin/Sint Maarten is the
smallest land mass in the world divided between two governments. Having been
abandoned by the Spanish in the mid 17th century, the French and
Dutch moved onto the island at relatively the same time and, after some
conflict, decided to split the island in two. While some historians may
disagree, legend has it the border was originally decided by a drunken wager
between a Dutchman and a Frenchman. Each agreed to see who could claim the most
land by walking in opposite directions around the shore of the island and
meeting on the other side. The winner, by a small amount was the Frenchman, and
still to this day, as the French now govern 21 square miles to the Dutch 16. It
is said that the Dutchman had too much gin before he started his walk. Despite
the French owning more land, it was the Dutch who came out ahead economically
by creating the first duty free port on the island. Philipsburg, the capital
and main port of the Dutch Sint Maarten, is unique in that it is only four
streets wide and a mile long but manages to captivate most of the islands
visitors. Established in 1763, the small capital soon became an international trade
center and created a bargain hunters dream where shop after shop compete to
give the best products at the lowest price. Anything can be found on this one-mile
stretch, from alcohol to fine jewelry.
As we have been here many times before, we did nothing unusual.
We went into town with two of our Australian friends, Helen and Diego. This was
the crowded I have ever seen this port. There were six ships until noon, when
the Rotterdam left and another ship came in. There were two RCCL (Harmony of
the Seas – 6500 passengers and Freedom of the Seas), Carnival Pride, Rotterdam –
replaced by AidaLuna – German – owned by Carnival, and the Britannia (PMO) –
doing a seven day cruise from London. So to say the least it was crowded. For those
who have not been there, right at the port there is a large dock area with tons
of shops.
We walked into town and Diego and Helen went swimming and we
had a couple of beers. When they go back we had some wonderful Plantains and
came back to the ship via a great cheese shop.
And that was it! Wonderful cruise, magnificent scenery,
great people, but it is always nice to come home. Two days at sea and we will
be back on Saturday.
