One Island, Two Nations

On Tuesday we docked at our first port, St. Martin/St. Maarten.

I had seen this island named both ways and was wondering what’s up with that. I learned the answer on our excursion.

Our excursion took us to a beach located on the other side of the island from where the ship docked. Our shuttle driver was Pedro and along the way, he gave us a little history of St. Martin.

Pedro

This island is owned by two nations and a common expression here is “one island, two nations”. The St. Maarten side is Dutch, while the St. Martin side is French. The French side is larger (approximately 60/40 French to Dutch), while the Dutch side is more populated. Also, most of the employment is on the Dutch side as there are lots of companies, hotels, and the main airport located here. Some of the people from the French side of the island work on the Dutch side, but there are no Dutch that work on the French side. The Dutch currency is the guilder, and the French currency is the euro. They accept euros on the Dutch side, but the French do not accept the guilder. Also, US dollars are accepted on both sides.

The island was originally settled by Indians from South America. They named the island Soualiga (pronounced Swaliga), which means “land of salt”. The salt industry is very big here as Pedro called it a cash cow and said that they refer to it as white gold. They ship their salt to Europe and the Americas. When Columbus landed here, he re-named the island St. Martin after St. Martin of Tours, whose feast day it was when he landed here.

English is widely spoken, and on the French side they also speak French Creole. Pedro said that Papiamento is also spoken here. To explain what Papiamento is, he said that if you took these four languages - Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Dutch - and put them all in a pot and stirred them together, you get Papiamento.

Each side of the island has its own governor. The French governor is also the governor of four other Caribbean islands that are French. There is a prison on the Dutch side, but not on the French side. If a Dutch person commits a crime on the French side, he is sent to the Dutch side, to the prison. But if a French person commits a crime, either on the French or the Dutch side, he is not sent to the Dutch prison, but is sent to a prison on another one of the French islands. Pedro said that both sides get along well and they fly the Unity flag here.

The brown pelican is the national bird, and there are lots of egrets, iguanas, and monkeys here. Pedro assured us that there were no dangerous animals on the island.

Pedro was quite the character and kept us entertained with his narration. He alerted us when we were about to the cross the border from the Dutch to the French side. He showed us that the border crossing consisted of basically nothing, and we crossed onto the French side where no formal border exists and without any fanfare. As soon as we crossed on to the French side, Pedro shouted “Bonjour!” The French side of St. Martin is actually part of the country of France. The people who live here vote in the French presidential election. So I guess we can actually now say that we have been to France (although somehow I feel like that would be cheating.)

On our drive to the beach, we passed the French Quarter section, where there was a French Quarter Clinic and a Pharmacie D’Orleans.

French Quarter clinic

Pharmacie  D'Orleans

Pedro told us that there are lots of casinos on the island. He said there are 50 casinos on an island that is about 60 square miles.

We eventually arrived at Orient Beach where Pedro dropped us off to enjoy a few hours of beach time. 

Entrance to Orient Beach

I wish I could say we did enjoy a few hours of beach time, but it rained most of the time. There were umbrellas and chairs that were reserved for our group, and we sat under the umbrellas, but we still got wet. I suppose it’s silly to complain that we got wet at the beach. We did, however, enjoy the peaceful scene of waves breaking over the sand at our feet.

Orient Beach

Orient Beach

Orient Beach

Orient Beach

After a while, we took a walk through the nearby town. We wandered around some areas where there were restaurants and shops; however, everything was closed – not sure why. All these cruise ships, tourists, and potential customers, and yet the places of business were closed.

Town near Orient Beach

Beautiful palms

We sat down in an outdoor covered seating area of a restaurant that was closed, and soon a couple from another cruise joined us and we had a nice chat with them. It turns out they were also from Pennsylvania – Hershey area.

Soon Pedro showed up and took us back to our ship. 

St. Maarten main drag

As we approached our ship, we got a view of all the cruise ships that were docked at the port. 

The one right next to our ship was the Icon of the Seas, said to be the largest cruise ship in the world.

Icon of the Seas

Despite the rain, we enjoyed our venture onto the other side of the island of St. Maarten/St. Martin and enjoyed learning about the unique history and culture of this nation with the split personality.