St. Maarten – St. Martin

Well in a couple days we are off to the Caribbean Island of St. Maarten (Dutch Side) or St. Martin(French Side). It is an area of the Caribbean commonly referred to as the French West Indies and it is the smallest island in the world that is governed by two Countries – Netherlands and France. We have a Condo Rented for one month that is just a few steps from Orient Beach. It is part of the former Mt. Vernon Hotel complex. The units have been sold off to private owners and have been renovated for rental or they are being lived in by local residents. The unit we have rented is called SXM Studios and is owned by two brothers Amaury and Thibault. They also own a restaurant in Grand Case that is called Bistrot Cariabes. Hopefully our plane connections will work out as we fly out of Kamloops overnight in Toronto, we are then up real early and fly Toronto to Charlotte N.C. and then from Charlotte direct to St. Martin SXM. We have neighbours and good friends looking after our house and of course we have our tenant downstairs who lives here so that combined with our Chubb Security monitoring system all should be okay on the home front.  We hope to provide weekly updates on our Web Blog however that all depends on us being able to access an Internet Cafe. This trip has been in the planning stages since early last year and so we are both really excited to get going. We can’t wait to experience the beaches, the french pastries/food and of course the warm sunny climate. We both have 5 to 6 books to read and lots of sun tan lotion. If all travel plans work out as expected the morning after we arrive we are hopping on a short commuter flight to the Island of St. Barth’s. Brenda’s brother and his wife have a Villa rented and have been there for almost 2 weeks, so may be able to catch them on their last night in St. Barth’s. They have been to St. Martin a number of times and have been great resources in helping us plan our month long stay. Most of their planning tips involve beaches, french food and vanilla rum……. sounds tough doesn’t it? St. Barth’s is the vacationing hot spot for movies stars, royalty and those rich enough to own a mega yacht, so it should be interesting and eye opening to say the least. Also, during the last week of our stay in St. Martin my sister Donna (Gilligan) and husband Bob (Captain Bob) are arriving for their annual vacation aboard their sail boat SV Bergybit. It will be good to meet up with them and learn from their St. Martin experiences. Check out the link to their Web Blog in the right hand column