Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Just docked in St. Martin

My phone keeps great time. Leap year too. Even switches itself as I travel thru different time zones. 👏🏻

Let’s see the kid with the hearing aid on Barney and Friends do that!

Just got back to the boat. We hired a local lady named Maria who took us all around the island. She was the sweetest lady and she was an encyclopedia of knowledge about everything from the local flora and fauna to geology to the island’s history. She’d drop us off at the places that we wanted to check out like Orient beach and Marigot and wait for us. We really enjoyed her and our day here. I don’t ever want to go to Mexico or Hawaii again after this trip. We were definitely aware that we aren’t in “Kansas” anymore but the locals were kind and polite and NONE of the high pressure sales BS like Mexico or the angry glares from locals in Hawaii. I know it’s a third world environment but they don’t act impoverished, they are just living their lives as best they can. I felt safe and didn’t have a care in the world.

Calvin….You should definitely check out the Caribbean and we’ll be coming back for a longer stay. The Keys were awesome and so far the islands have been incredible.

Unfortunately I won’t be doing any fishing this trip but I’ll be booking a lot for the next trip. I think we are planning on doing a 3 week cruise from Singapore to Vietnam and around Thailand in January and then the South Pacific next winter (2025) but after S.E Asia we are going to come spend time in the Caribbean and the Keys for a couple weeks of fishing.

Tomorrow is St. Thomas and St. John with most of our time spent snorkeling on St. John.

I can now understand why Jimmy Buffet and others were hooked on the Caribbean, it’s a different place altogether but in a good way.

I don’t wear a watch anymore. I did for years in the fire department and EMS but I have a phone if on that rare occasion I care about the time. I did “inherit” my father in law’s Rolex that he bought in Hong Kong when he was flying for Air America. He has the original paperwork and receipt from when he bought it ($179). If I ever find myself needing or wanting to wear a watch I’ll wear his Rolex. Unfortunately I’m just not into much “jewelry”.

Looking forward to St. John’s tomorrow.

If you are looking for a good guy to take you around and spend the day with you like Maria, Try Chico with Chico's taxi. 340-690-6507. Just tell him his friends from Louisiana gave you the number.

We've been to S.M. twice, and it's beautiful down there... Glad to hear you're having a very good time.. Now ya gotta book for next year..

Aces, Glad to hear you are getting out there. That's the way to do it. See the world and experience everything you can, while you can.

A little advice
I would not buy jewelry in St Thomas. First I have never seen any great deals and have some of my customers get totally screwed.
Two memorable instances were
One lady bought a gold rope chain, had us clean it. It was heavier when she brought it in than when she picked it up.
She said she knew it was hers because her grandbaby left teeth marks in it. It had been wax filled and the heat from our sonic cleaner melted the wax. A baby isn’t going to leave teeth marks in solid gold.
Another instance a lady bought a new wedding ring. One of the side diamonds came out. She asked me to replace it. I couldn’t there was no gold holding the diamonds. they were epoxied in place. I believe she was able to return it as it was a cruise recommend shop.
There has been a lot of under karat gold and sterling that wasn’t

It just occurred to me, it was St. Thomas where my uncle owned a beach front house, not St. Martin.

We aren’t into buying jewelry and my wife isn’t a shopper, she buys only what she needs or things for our family. None of us are extravagant in any way. Our son bought a shirt and our daughter bought a shot glass for her shot glass “collection”.

On our first Christmas married I bought my wife a Christmas ornament from our trip together that year and I told her that we will buy Christmas ornaments from everywhere we travel so that some day our children will inherit that collection of our memories together. We have traveled the world together and our Christmas ornament collection has become quite vast. I love hearing the excitement in their voices each and every Christmas when they decorate our tree with the wonderful memories of our time spent together as a family….we bought 2 ornaments today, one from the Dutch side and one from the French side.

Even as our children have blossomed into incredible adults we can’t imagine not traveling with them but eventually I’m sure that’ll change as they have their own families but for now they are wonderful to travel with. They’re so kind and polite to everyone, they’re always engaging and unafraid and they make mom and I incredibly proud of the adults they’ve grown into! We just finished a great dinner and the early planning stages of our S.E Asia cruise next year…I think January 2025. I want them to have the experiences that mom and I had and to instill the wanderlust and sense of adventure that has given us so much joy and anticipation of what’s around the next corner.

Local Dirt…I’m with you my friend! We’ve always enjoyed seeing the country and the world and we’ll continue to explore the beautiful corners for as long as the good Lord blesses us. After we’re called home we’ll have instilled not just our wanderlust and incredible memories but they’ll have the courage to find their own adventures being how well traveled they’ve become in their short lives.

TRH…Tomorrow is St. Thomas and St. John which I expect will be just as great as St. Martin was. Then on Saturday we’ll be in the Bahamas.

Thanks to everyone who has replied and offered their thoughts, experiences and suggestions!

338reddog….No gold for us or diamonds. My wife grew up overseas with her family traveling while her dad flew and taught the pilots of king’s and prince’s how to fly. They went to the finest gold souks and her mom amassed quite a collection of jewels and jewelry from Saudi Arabia to Hong Kong to….you name it. Those have been passed down and are now my wife’s but she only wears her gold wedding band since she isn’t into flashy jewelry. I lucked out in more ways than I deserve. 😉

St. John was a beautiful island. We spent the first half of the day swimming in Trunk Bay and a short driving tour of the island. It was like being on a Disney ride … part jungle cruise and part pirates of the Caribbean. At St. Thomas now which seems very nice from the little I’ve seen of it. I’m really falling in love with the islands in the Caribbean. Everywhere I’ve been so far I’ve encountered friendly outgoing locals who have shattered my preconceptions about them in all the best ways!….great people who are polite and happy.

Mexico and Hawaii have NOTHING on this place or these people!

Did you see the island cat? Little gray tabby at one of the Scooby Doo snack bars. I don’t recall which bay it was.

Back on the main island, I think on the St Maarten side, there was a flock of sheep about 30-40 that would walk down the sidewalk until they came to a crosswalk and then would all cross. Then go down the sidewalk some more on that side and would go up into an abandoned house for the night.

As if they were trained. Didn’t need no yappy black n white stripey faced dog to lead them either. 😃

please stop posting stuff like this! LOL. Before you know it, all those island will turn into Mexico and Hawaii

Aces,

thanks for sharing your vacation with us.

Last day or 2 on these tend to be Sea Days. Great chance.to find a quiet spot on the ship away from the crowds like the open deck under the lifeboats which tend to have more shade than your room balcony, and away from the crowds and noise of the pool decks.
A book, binoculars, and time to unwind after the hectic pace of port days.

Lolol…. I definitely don’t want that to happen! I’m pleasantly surprised by the lack of entitlement and actual work ethic I’ve witnessed here that I have not witnessed in either Mexico or Hawaii….there’s no hustling or high pressure time share salesman and everywhere we’ve gone we’ve been met with smiles and warm welcomes without expecting anything but a friendly hello in return. I’m rather ashamed of my preconceived notions that I had of the locals but I’m glad that it’s been shattered. Even our son said “these blacks are NOTHING like the ones back home, they’re really nice.” I couldn’t agree more.

Cv540….Tomorrow is a sea day and Saturday we’ll be in the Bahamas then back in Miami on Sunday and home Monday. I think we’ve done 5 or 6 different cruises and every one of them has been effortless and relaxing. About 12 years ago we took our children on a Disney cruise and had a great time. The last 2 or 3 have been Royal Caribbean and they too have been great. The crew are exceptional and the shows and entertainment have been fun. The food on this one was better (imo) than the last one and I’ve definitely eaten my fares worth alone. Tomorrow night is lobster…again. 😀.

I’m looking forward to going to Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam next. I’ll not have to worry about eating or drinking anything that’ll make me sick and I’ll be comfortable onboard just like every other time we’ve traveled this way. I should also mention that the other passengers have been very nice and civilized without any trouble or inconveniences. It seems like they are a “higher class” group.

When the wife and I were there, lots of jellyfish swimming about, but avoided a sting. It is a beautiful beach.

Love the Islands !!







Enjoy your trip, Aces !

One other thing that has paid off for us is searching
"secret places on" your ships name, and finding some of the obscure spots you may have missed. Lots of times there will decks or rooms that may only be open at certain times and are a bit off the beaten path. A website that is great for this is Cruise Critic.

We saw 1 cat and 2 mangey dogs. 1 of the little mutts looked exactly like the old dog on the cabin porch of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride…like exactly the dog they modeled the animatronic dog after. We heard about the sheep and the feral donkeys but never saw any. We saw a bunch of iguanas and turtles, our son saw a stingray at Trunk Bay today but that’s about it. We rode past Little St. James (Epstein island) and took some pictures of it. Apparently here in the Virgin Islands no beach is private and anyone can go to any beach at anytime including the beaches on Epstein Island but I wouldn’t set foot on that evil place for any reason….I want nothing to do with that place!

The wind and surf was really up today so snorkeling was not worth the trouble but we still had a lot of fun. We’ll definitely be back again and again since everything about the islands, the people and the Caribbean in general has been really fantastic….I’m glad to know that good people who don’t have a lot are still good people and for that reason alone I’ll never regret coming here, I only regret waiting so long before getting here.

The time we spent in the Keys was far too short but that’s another place I was pleasantly surprised by. I expected old homos in speedos prancing around but I didn’t see anything like that. The food was great, the people were great and the vibe was my kind of vibe. This entire trip has shattered my ignorant preconceived notions and I’m not ashamed to admit it….I really can’t say enough good things about the Keys and the Caribbean. Miami is a different story altogether. I thought I’ve seen traffic in Seattle or LA or Manhattan but Miami was insane and I could go the rest of my life without going back. We’re staying in Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday night and I don’t know what that’ll be like but I’m going into it with a partially open mind hoping it’s better than Miami. Our son loved the sports cars in Miami but that’s about the only redeeming quality of that place. I’m just not a city boy in the least and Miami is nothing but big city…loud and obnoxious!