divided into french and dutch zones: sint maarten is the dutch side of the island... saint martin the french the past few years, the waterfront of philipsburg, sint maarten has undergone dramatic changes, and it has affected the island in a multiple of ways. the picture to the left is sint maarten in december 2003, the picture to the right is the same beach in march of 2008. the water is cloudier today, because the port is being expanded to boardwalk, with restaurants, bars, and all that... the high winds and heavy seas canceled every water related excursion from our cruise ship... in sint maarten it seemed justified, but it later got to the point, house more cruise ships. its hard to tell in these two pictures, but, what once was just a beach with a shack for a restaurant under some palms, is now, a drove the where it seemed the 'tallys would cancel excursions if there was any sort of wind... so i rented a car to see the island, i coast road all the way around... the seas were exceedingly rough.. they made this tranquil caribbean island look like a place full of awesome surf... much like the north shore of puerto rico looked that way the day before...
the first place i stopped after renting the car was a
nature park somewhere on the northeast side of the island... there was a rooster and a hen hanging out in the parking lot, so i took
the big difference between philippsburg and marigot is that while they both cater to tourists... philippsburg has expanded drastically in the past five years. marigot seems to have retained alot of its provincial charms, once you get behind front street, or rue du frontage , if you parle vous frances...
high above the town of marigot sits fort louis... according to the sign next to the old broken down gate, the fort's most notable engagement was in 1808, when the fort beat back an assault by several royal navy ships that were short of coffee. they attacked the fort, and several of the officers and men were captured, and
the ships, a frigate , a sloop , and a brig were beaten off... they neglected to mention that in 1808, the british had controlled the seas for 3 years and siezed every island worth anything already... marigot and phillipsburg are not terribly far from each other, and when i got back to phillipsburg, i had a bit of an embarrassing fiasco. i had used the last bits of cash i had to tip a dude in marigot for helping me find a parking spot... which, was actually really hard, everything was full, but i found a spot next to the police station... only in a french colony would the police station be closed on a tuesday... i used the last bits of cash i had, for that, and then to buy a post card and to mail it... something like 3 dollars to send a postcard from marigot to america! because of the euro... so i had to fill up the rental car with gas... but, i didnt have cash, i figured a shell station would take my credit or shell card... WRONG. nope, so i had to go borrow five dollars more from the dude at the rental car place... so i could pay the gas station dude... so yeah, that was frustrating... after that, i walked around phillipsburg. a major change is that the water taxis that were free in
2003 now cost like 5 bucks each way... so, i had to walk from the dock to the town... which was a decent little hike. but, i was rewarded with a pretty nice view of some fishing boats overturned next to some palm trees... i'm skeptical as to whether the boat is actually used or if its just a display from the tourist association... the pretty old building landmark in phillipsburg is the old dutch courthouse... as the sun set, i sat on my deck aboard the
fortuna and watched two old america's cup boats, one of whom was stars and stripes race in
the distance... which was a nice way to end the day...
divided into french and dutch zones: sint maarten is the dutch side of the island... saint martin the french the past few years, the waterfront of philipsburg, sint maarten has undergone dramatic changes, and it has affected the island in a multiple of ways. the picture to the left is sint maarten in december 2003, the picture to the right is the same beach in march of 2008. the water is cloudier today, because the port is being expanded to boardwalk, with restaurants, bars, and all that... the high winds and heavy seas canceled every water related excursion from our cruise ship... in sint maarten it seemed justified, but it later got to the point, house more cruise ships. its hard to tell in these two pictures, but, what once was just a beach with a shack for a restaurant under some palms, is now, a drove the where it seemed the 'tallys would cancel excursions if there was any sort of wind... so i rented a car to see the island, i coast road all the way around... the seas were exceedingly rough.. they made this tranquil caribbean island look like a place full of awesome surf... much like the north shore of puerto rico looked that way the day before...
the first place i stopped after renting the car was a
nature park somewhere on the northeast side of the island... there was a rooster and a hen hanging out in the parking lot, so i took
the big difference between philippsburg and marigot is that while they both cater to tourists... philippsburg has expanded drastically in the past five years. marigot seems to have retained alot of its provincial charms, once you get behind front street, or rue du frontage , if you parle vous frances...
high above the town of marigot sits fort louis... according to the sign next to the old broken down gate, the fort's most notable engagement was in 1808, when the fort beat back an assault by several royal navy ships that were short of coffee. they attacked the fort, and several of the officers and men were captured, and 
the ships, a frigate , a sloop , and a brig were beaten off... they neglected to mention that in 1808, the british had controlled the seas for 3 years and siezed every island worth anything already... marigot and phillipsburg are not terribly far from each other, and when i got back to phillipsburg, i had a bit of an embarrassing fiasco. i had used the last bits of cash i had to tip a dude in marigot for helping me find a parking spot... which, was actually really hard, everything was full, but i found a spot next to the police station... only in a french colony would the police station be closed on a tuesday... i used the last bits of cash i had, for that, and then to buy a post card and to mail it... something like 3 dollars to send a postcard from marigot to america! because of the euro... so i had to fill up the rental car with gas... but, i didnt have cash, i figured a shell station would take my credit or shell card... WRONG. nope, so i had to go borrow five dollars more from the dude at the rental car place... so i could pay the gas station dude... so yeah, that was frustrating... after that, i walked around phillipsburg. a major change is that the water taxis that were free in 
2003 now cost like 5 bucks each way... so, i had to walk from the dock to the town... which was a decent little hike. but, i was rewarded with a pretty nice view of some fishing boats overturned next to some palm trees... i'm skeptical as to whether the boat is actually used or if its just a display from the tourist association... the pretty old building landmark in phillipsburg is the old dutch courthouse... as the sun set, i sat on my deck aboard the fortuna and watched two old america's cup boats, one of whom was stars and stripes race in
the distance... which was a nice way to end the day...
