Bowsing in SXM

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Trip Reflection

Culture

Named the "friendly island”, I unfortunately was slightly underwhelmed. Maybe I set my expectations too high but compared to Costa Rica and Portugal, I did not find the culture overly friendly. Don’t get me wrong, people were nice but just not overwhelmingly so. One thing I would commend them on is the driving; definitely very friendly driving. The people here are also very laid back. As an island with both a Dutch and French side, I can see the difference in the culture. The Dutch side is definitely more lively and laid back.

Weather

Perfect. Hot but not suffocating. Not humid but enough to allow my skin to be eczema-free without moisturizing. No rain. Just spitting.

Language

It is difficult to practice my embarrassing French when everyone can speak and understand English here. I will try harder next time.

Top food picks

Lobster Thermidor - Bistrot Caribs

Runway punch (I think) - Sunset Bar

BBQ - BBQ place at Shoal Bay

Top sights

Watching huge planes take off and land at Maho Bay

View at Pic Paradis

All the beaches were beautiful… Can’t choose.

Firsts

First trip with Aaron as husband and wife

First time kayaking as a means of transportation and not just for the sake of kayaking

First stay at a penthouse condo

First time sailing on a huge catamaran

First time eating lobster thermidor

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Travel sandwich in front of a beautiful view.

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Mimosas and almond croissant french toast to start off the day.

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Day 7 - Mullet Bay - St. Maarten - Toronto - Ottawa

Happy Valentine’s Day! 

Nice start to the day by having breakfast at “Zee Best” breakfast place on the island. Aaron definitely fell for the marketing efforts re: have a champagne with breakfast for Valentine’s Day with some mimosas. I had the banana almost croissant french toast whereas Aaron opted for the Huevos Rancheros. Maybe we’ve been spoiled by Ottawa’s amazing brunch spots because we were not blown away. 

We took advantage of our last day here by hitting up once last beach before we go - Mullet Bay. The waves were intense here today and I almost got swept away while getting sand-blasted. The weather has been nothing but perfect since we got here. Even the bit of spitting today was more refreshing than anything. 

We return to the condo to get all cleaned up and to pack up only to run into the cleaning lady for the condo who showed up earlier than expected. We felt so bad as brought in a hurricane of sand with the nicely cleaned place. Sorry Linda! You’re awesome for cleaning up after us! 

The trip must not end without a travel sandwich in the car from “Zee Best Bakeshop" by a great spot between the sandwiched (no pun intended) between Cole Bay Bridge and airport. Again, this brings me back to our European travels where we would often by a delicious sandwich to eat on the trains during our travel days. 

The time has come to return our car and head to the airport. Aaron was sad to leave his nature habitat in the sun, on an island. While awaiting our delayed flight (coming from Toronto - oh the cold weather is slowly inching it’s way back into our lives…), we proceeded to do some of the most enjoyable things for us in life - Aaron: enjoying a drink and looking out the window (wishing he was outside) and myself: travel blogging. We board our first Air Canada Rouge plane with a pretty high-tech entertainment system - most specifically a wifi-empowered, use-your-own-electronic-device-so-we-can-save-on-overhead-system, only to find out that the app is required for this is work. I did not have the Air Canada app on my ipad and I decided that it was not a good idea to watch an entire movie on my phone. We finally arrive in Ottawa, greeting us with -40 degrees C weather, and that marks the end of our 2 week adventure in warm paradise.

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Lots of coleslaw. Seafood soup. Lobster galore.

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Day 6 - Pinel Island/Pic Paradis

We have been far too lazy on this trip so we decided to get all our physical activity in all at once. We started the morning kayaking from Cul de Sac to Pinel Island, enjoyed some tapas at the "Karibuni Restaurant”, then you guessed it, beach bummed. The heat was definitely getting to me but this quickly resolved with some much needed H20. We then hiked around the small island then ended with some more kayaking before having to return our boat. Love the laid back nature of this island as there was no one at the booth when we went back to return our boat. 

Since we were in the hiking mood we drove up to Pic Paridis for some more hiking to the peak for an amazing view of the island. To be quite frank, it was not much of a hike as we got up in no more than 5 minutes. The view was gorgeous though! We did some more exploring then inched our way down the hill timing it so we wouldn’t run into on coming traffic as the road was really just wide enough for one car.

Just as we headed home, we saw a huge Air France plane awaiting to take off. We could not lose this opportunity to experience the jet blast from this huge flight, so off to the beach we go again on full adrenaline rush anxious to miss this moment. Grateful that parking is never an issue here we scurried along to the beach just in time to get sand-blasted! YOLO moment #2. I know Aaron really wanted to do this for the entire trip and we had given up the 3pm huge plane departures as it didn’t work with our schedule today so I’m glad we came across this opportunity. This calls for a celebratory drink at the “Sunset Bar” watching the sunset. Apparently "topless ladies drink free here", but we opted to pay for our drinks.

Dinner time! We decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day early as we will be on the plane during dinner time tomorrow :( We again head to the culinary core of Simpson Bay for some Caribbean grill one more time at “Lee’s Roadside Grill”. We have been meaning to come here for a while as the delicious scents from the grill were always so enticing as we drove by. What better way to celebrate our last night here in St. Maarten than with some lobster (once again), ribs and reggae music. I was actually quite disappointed how the reggae music scene was not as abundant as I expected on this trip but this made up for it. We left just in time to avoid the singer calling upon us to join him.

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Chickens need to sunbathe too!

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Shoal Bay

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Day 5 - Anguilla/Grand Case

It’s party boat day on the “Heineken Catamaran” to the nearby island of Anguilla! The wind was not ideal for sailing so our captain had to use the motor but it was still a very enjoyable ride with good company, a nice view of St. Martin/St. Maarten, snacks, rum punch and of course, Heineken.  They’ve held our sandals hostage, so off the boat we hop with our bare feet onto a bus to Shoal Beach. The bus driver was apparently really funny and gave an overview of the island but I cannot confirm that as I was fast asleep on the nice bumpy ride. We arrive at Shoal Bay - THE beach of Anguilla. And had some time to beach bum for a bit before diving into some delicious Caribbean BBQ. Amazing. I ended up skipping the snorkelling bit as the waters were not optimal and other travellers and Aaron confirmed that it was not worth wading around in murky water. Time flies when you’re having fun as it was time to hop on the bus again. Again, I took another nap. Sounded like everyone else had fun as I heard a stream of laughter in-and-out of sleep. I believe I have paid back my 15 hour slept debt from the crazy wedding anxiety the week before. 

The best part of the day was when some of the passengers decided to jump off the front of the boat for a nice swim before it was time to head home. Definitely a YOLO moment! It was such a nice ride back. The wind was picking up, so we finally got to use the sail and not rely on the motor!  We sadly disembarked the boat and headed our separate ways.

For us, it meant going home for hot tub time. Third time’s a charm as the temperature was finally perfect at 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Yay! Then it was time to pretty up for a nice dinner in Grand Case - THE food place in St. Martin. Aaron meticulously picked out “Bistro Caraibes” from the many great choices available. It was fine dining at its best with lobster thermidor and sea scallops accompanied by some complimenting Chablis. We ended with a hot chocolate cake and a very strong ginger-rum aperitif.

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Salmon lasagna

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View on our way to Orient Bay

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Maho Bay in the morning

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Day 4 - Orient Bay

Another day = another chance to eat some good food! Rise and shine as we head off to "Sunset Bar” once again to grab some breakfast. Aaron slowly eased into food again and he seemed to be doing ok after some Tums and Pepto Bismol. 

After a quick stroll to the airport, we rented a car and got ourselves a full sized vehicle since they didn’t have any compact cars left! It was a cute “Terios”, which even the Car-Snob has not heard of. Uncertain whether renting was a good idea or not, we quickly discover that it was very worth the investment as the freedom to roam the island was well worth it. 

First stop - Orient Bay! After some crazy island traffic, we make it to the other side of the island at the beach of all beaches. The long stretch of beach was subdivided into small sub-beaches with a restaurant/bar in front of each part. We lounged for a bit at Bikini Beach, then decided to listen to our tums and grab some sushi. We matched the picture in our guidebook to the sea of red umbrellas on the beach and found “Kontiki”. It was an interesting sushi meal where it started with some bread and was accompanied with some rum punch or “Planteur” as they call it here. After some food, it’s back to lounging on some beach chairs once again. We decided to get up and walk along the entire length of the beach for a bit before heading back. 

With Aaron’s health improving, so are the facilities. The hot tub is hot!! But maybe a little too hot. The scalding temperature can only be endured for so long. So we decided to clean up and get ready for some dinner! We head to Simpson Bay where restaurants are abundant. After some Foursquare-ing, we decided on "Pineapple Petes" or “Caribbean Peté” as Aaron randomly calls it. Aaron’s appetite is back at full force as he orders three delicious appetizers: conch fritters, coconut shrimp and crab-stuffed shrimp. I just kept it simple and had some salmon lasagne as recommended by Foursquare users - equally delicious! At the same time, we enjoyed some nice covers of songs originally by artists such as Jason Mraz - our favourite :) What a nice way to end the night!

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Must do in St. Maarten! We went back a few more times after that day...

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Our amazing home for the next 4 days!

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Chilling in a hammock while Aaron got some rest.

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Day 3 -  Maho Bay

Poor Aaron got violently sick last night. It would have been not that bad but the vomiting definitely aggravated his query fractured ribs (from being tossed in the air by during our photoshoot). A vacation is not the same when we are not able to eat to our hearts content. Today’s menu (for Aaron at least): Breakfast - toast with watermelon. Lunch - ice cream, coke and water. Dinner - plantain chips. Let’s all take a minute to say our goodbyes to a day of lost food opportunities.

We managed to make our way to our second accommodation, this time on the dutch side, St. Marteen, which was an amazing condo located right in front of the airport with 3 beds, 3 baths and an outdoor hot tub. We briefly made our way to infamous Maho Bay where we saw youtube videos of planes taking off and landing right beside the beach. After joining in for some plane-watching, we took a lunch break at the “Sunset Bar” where the atmosphere was definitely more lively than when we were at Nettle Bay.

We head back home, where Aaron got some rest and I soaked in the cold hot tub and super slow filling jet bath, which I could not get to work. Our night ended with a non-existent dinner consisting of plantain chips, while passing out in front of the TV watching “50 first dates”.