St. Maarten,West Indies

St. Maarten and St. Martin are the two sides of the same island, an island shared by the Dutch and French.  Grabbed a taxi for 3 hours and went where he wanted to take us.  He was very upbeat, and talkative.  Fascinating to us to see two distinct cultures on the same island.  We learned a lot.

 

                 See Don, half in the Netherlands and half in France. 

 

A new bridge had recently been put in.  It is a draw bridge (typically a draw bridge goes up and down) that rotates to let in or out the sail boats. 

 

A visit to some of the beaches was interesting and beautiful, very "French" with us eventually ending up back in Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of the island.

 

The West Indies islands of Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, and St. Maarteen (Dutch side)/St. Martin (French side) were all very beautiful and interesting for different reasons.  This was the end of the Caribbean cruise season and the majority of the ships have left for Alaska or other northern ports for the summer.  Typically there are 4-5 ships in these ports at the same time.  Because it was the end of the season, we were the only ship in each port.  Nice!

Epilogue – Heading for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida now, a two day sail from the West Indies. We are excited to see everybody at home.  So, after 4 months at sea, 33,500 nautical or almost 39,000 land miles, 9,000 airmiles, we are now convinced the world is round and that this is a beautiful planet.  We saw many great sites in the world from Machu Picchu to the Great Wall, but the best memories are of the people we have met on and off the ship.  There is still so much of this planet to be explored.