Day3 (November 9, 2019):

This large iguana was sunning by the hotel pool, oblivious to nosy guests like me.


We spent a good chunk of the day soaking up the sun right there, watching plane after plane come in for landing.


After spending a long time floating in the warm water directly in front of the end of the runway, with planes landing literally over our heads, we got into position to experience our first "full thrust experience" with the 1:30PM JetBlue Airbus A321 departure to Boston.  What a rush!


Early this afternoon, we set out in our rental car to explore the southwest part of the island.  It's the only island in the Caribbean where you can pass the border freely from one country's territory to another.  (Haiti and Dominican Republic share the same island, but the border is controlled.)


The island was whallopped by hurricane Luis in 1995, Lenny in 1999, Gonzalo in 2014 and Irma's Category 5 in 2017.  We were actually surprised to see how much of the infrastructure has been restored, Yes, there are still signs of damage, although we couldn't tell which hurricane was the source cause of what. This photo and the next three show some of the damage and restorations still underway,

The capital of the French side of St. Martin is Marigot, which was virtally levelled by Hurricane Luis in 1995.  Fort Louis from 1789 dominates Marigot.  We enjoyed our walk up to the Fort, with the sweeping views of the southwest of the island.




The French Tricolour proudly flies atop Fort Louis.


The view of Marigot from Fort Louis.




Looking out towards the island of Anguilla from atop Fort Louis.

Marigot Catholic Church


"Scouts and Guides of Saint Martin".  St. Martin still follows the Canadian tradition of Scouting and Guiding, unlike the USA, where Guiding is replaced by Girl Scouts.


A typical street corner market vendor in Marigot.


And so do we!

As we were leaving Marigot, between 75-100 bikers came rolling into town.  It was a charity ride event, apparently.


The border marker on the way back into the Dutch side of the island.


These huge cement birds stare eerily at drivers at a roundabout near the Princess Juiliana International Airport.

More hurricane damage.

We just made it back to our hotel in time to see the largest aircraft servicing the island during our stay take off.  Compared to the Airbus A321 take-off we experienced earlier today, this is an Air France Airbus A340-300 with four turbofans, each producing 34,000 pounds of thrust.  And let me tell you, the total thrust was somethin' else!  We got a veritable sand-blasting from the experience, and Pam was literally blown back towards the water's edge.  But what a thing to experience!