Philipsburg, St Maarten

I learned an important lesson on St Maarten.  The island is actually two countries and not just one.  The Dutch half of the island is spelled Sint Maarten while the French side of the island is Saint Martin.  Darren thought I was dumb for not realizing it was really two countries but I'd never really had a reason to think about why it would be split.  This is the "boarder crossing."  No stopping, just a sign and some flags.

We once again enlisted the services of Carnivals excursions for this day but unlike in Dominica, I don't think it was worth the cost. We were picked up in a motor coach and taken the French capital of the island, Marigot.  On the way we stopped at a beautiful overlook of the coast.

Once in Marigot, we were let off the bus to explore on our own.  The problem was it was so early that very few of the vendors in the market were open and none of the stores were either.  This is a fort that overlooks the town.

From there we were taken to a beautiful beach but only give about and hour to hang out and swim.  This was also compounded by the fact that the weather was ehh in the morning and turned to bad in the afternoon.  A sad day to end our vacation for sure!

That afternoon we did a little souvenir shopping in Philipsburg before setting sail back to San Juan.