St. Marteen

So we are back from our very short trip to St. Marteen. It was our first time there and we loved it. We probably wouldn't have gone away but our friends talked us into it and we are glad they did. It was difficult being away from our 8 months old but was a necessary evil so to speak. I missed him a whole lot but can't say the same for him. He seems to have been doing just fine without us.

We heard enormous amount of things about St. Marteen. Pretty much everyone we know that has been there could not stop talking about how great the place is. We received thousands of recommendations starting from which beaches to visit, where to go snorkeling or diving, which restaurants to eat at, and most importantly to rent a car. Of course, the four of us, wrote all of this information down but didn't look at it until our second day on the island. All of this would have been fine except the car part. Our first day there we kind of just chilled at the Dawn Beach in front of our hotel (Westin Dawn - Dutch side) and then towards the late evening decided to wonder off via taxi to the French side of the island.

Well, instead of following the thousands of recommendations provided by trusted sources, we decided to ask the hotel staff, note not the concierge, and the taxi driver of where to go. The taxi driver quickly suggested Grand Case, noting that its a wonderful destination to go eat and walk around, with an abundance of shops on "both sides". We, not knowing any better, agreed.

We came down to Grand Case shortly after 9:00 PM on Saturday and decided to go eat. It is worth noting that when we got to Grand Case, the place did not look all that inviting and the "both sides" of shopping and restaurant turned to be a small street with most shops closed and restaurants emptying. The neighboring streets were swarming with locals, drinking at the local bars and listening or dancing to Reggaeton. We, finally, settled on a Seafood restaurant, the name of which I do not recall at this time, and set down to eat. The food was OK and the service was mediocre. After we had our dinner, we wondered around the Grand Case street, passed by the Grand Case beach and marina, and then went to look for a cab back to the hotel. And, this is where the fun began.

We couldn't find a taxi and while looking for one, somehow wondered off the Grand Case street to the local streets and highway, continuously repeating - "St. Maarten - the friendly island". Needless to say, the reason all of our dear friends kept telling us to rent a car is that apparently after 10:00 PM, you can't get a taxi to take you anywhere. They just simply DO NOT WORK. Not one cabby, and we found a few drinking in the aforementioned bars, wanted to take us to the Dutch side. We even stopped at a local restaurant asking to be called a cab. The waitress was very pleasant and did call a few, except all 4 of them declined to take us anywhere. All hope wasn't lost though, I had a bright idea, we asked the waitress to call the Westin and have them send someone for us. After about two hours, we finally were back to our hotel.

This is us waiting for our taxi (well I am taking the picture).

Maybe more stories to come at a later time. In the meantime, I will continue to upload pictures from our trip here.