Tales from St. Maarten

Sorry I haven’t been as good as keeping up with this blog as I would like, but I’m actually pretty busy at work lately. It’s tournament time in world of high school sports and that means going to three-four games a week. After this weekend, however, I am left with just one team (Marshfield hockey) and thus, have some extra time.

With the boat memories all wrapped up, I’m going to venture onto the islands. Jackie, Katie, and I cruised for three full days before arriving on St. Maarten for our first port day. It was an afternoon stay and we had decided to just go to the beach. We took a water taxi over to Phillipsburg, walked the boardwalk, and found a spot on the beach. So, without further ado, I give you my favorite memories from St. Maarten:

When I want something, I’ll ask:
Walking the boardwalk was an interesting experience to say the least. As a Bostonian, I am soooooo not used to people talking to you on the streets. In Boston, we walk the street with a purpose: To get somewhere and get there fast!! We don’t stop to chat with people, we don’t saunter along the sidewalk randomly stopping in the middle of said sidewalk to figure out where we are. We put our heads down and go with gusto.
So, needless to say, I was a little ticked off when vendors constantly asked us if we wanted things while walking along the boardwalk that lined the beach.

"Hello ladies, you want to jet ski?"
"Ah, beautiful girls, you need beach chairs?"

I don’t think I’ve ever said the phrase "No thank-you" more in my entire life!! And it didn’t stop here.

After settling on the beach with our chairs, female vendors walked the sand with hundreds of bags, sarongs, towels, jewelry, etc. strapped to their arms constantly trying to get us to buy something. Even when we were laying out with our eyes closed, they’d give us an: "Excuse me miss, you like?" We dismissed them politely with more pleasant "No thank-yous", but what we really wanted to say was "LEAVE ME THE F*CK ALONE!! I’M TRYING TO LAYOUT AND ENJOY THE SUN AND DON’T WANT TO BUY ANY OF YOUR CHEAP K-MART-STYLE PRODUCTS, YOU DIG!!!!"

You see, I am of the East Coast mentality. That is essentially, when I want something, I ask for it. When I need something done, I ask that it’s done. I don’t like to be harassed. I realize I was not in the United States and that perhaps these vendors need to sell on beaches to make ends meet. But I was on vacation, people, trying to relax and it was impossible not to with these annoying women stalking us beach-bathers!!

Canadian girls rule, eh? -
So with Jackie and Katie opting to ride the jet skis, I was left on the beach to fend off vendors by myself. That is, until we met the girls sitting next to us on the beach. Jenn and Becky hailed from Canada and were cruising with Carnival on the Valor (to refresh your memory, we were on the Legend).

They were two, loud, but very fun women who we met in the water while watching Katie "riding" a long, phallic-like floatation device just a few yards away. (I took pictures from the beach…and so did a couple of male onlookers behind me!!).

Anyway, we find out they were on the Valor and that this was their first nice day of the trip!! I couldn’t believe it. These poor girls had been cruising since Sunday and it was now Thursday. They went to St. Thomas the day before and it was 50 degrees out!! This didn’t stop hundreds of people from lining up to pay $100 to swim with dolphins, according to Jenn.

We chatted on the beach for a while, making fun of each other’s accents, before deciding to go to lunch together. While there, we learned Jenn repossessed cars for a living, while Becky was a photographer. Jenn had one daughter from a previous relationship and was pregnant with another child. Becky is the mother to two boys. By the end of the lunch, we were wishing they were cruising on our boat!! That would have been cool, eh?

When Katie drinks and others drive -
When we first walked along the boardwalk, we spotted a group riding along on those stand-up scooters that hit the streets a couple of years ago. Katie was fascinated and inquired about getting a ride. The man who rented them out told us he would be up and down the boardwalk all day long.

So, after sunbathing, eating lunch, and doing a little shopping, we decided it was time to get a little toasty. All of the bars lined the boardwalk on the other side of the beach, so the scene was great at all of them. We settled at this little bar that had great drink specials: two beers for $3. None of us were in the beer mood, however, so Jackie and I bought $5 frozen drinks, deliciously concocted by our bartender Janice. Katie was doing double Crown and gingers.

After two drinks each, we were pretty drunk-ski. It was at this time that we noticed the man with the standup scooter again. He was riding along with another group prompting Katie to yell out, "hey, when do I get my ride?" Looking back at her, the man answered, "Anytime!" while blowing a kiss. Seconds later, he was on the ground. Because his eyes were on Katie and not on the road, he had drifted to the right and into another scooter rider. He took flipped over his ride and landed hard on the boardwalk. This prompted cheers from our bar and some beach onlookers. The man was quite gracious and took a bow. Good stuff!!

Why you should pray you are not from Australia -
Now ham-skied after three drinks via Janice the heavy pourer, we decide to head back to the boat via a water taxi. As to be expected, we were loud and obnoxious as we bid adieu to St. Maarten. Katie then took it upon herself to ask EVERY passenger in an arm’s length: "Are you from Australia?" This was a question she had posed the entire week when speaking to someone with an accent of ANY KIND!! Everyone she had asked replied "No, UK." Needless to say, she was really disappointed. (Not quite sure what her fascination was with finding someone from Australia, but it was apparent everyday!!). She finally found a native from the Down Under a day later, but that story will follow in my next blog on Barbados.

That’s all from St. Maarten. Tune in tomorrow afternoon for a blog on Barbados, our favorite port of the trip.