January 10th St. Maarten French West Indies

We don't get into port today until 11am so we got a good nights sleep
in. This place is beautiful like the rest. This time we aren't
bombarded by islanders yelling, "want a taxi?" or, "want to go to da
beach?" Actually, we aren't asked once. They have all the prices
posted up so there's no ripping people off, and a great bus system
that takes people to the place they ALL want to go. It seems like they
have banned that kind of hustling for taxis. This place also has a
steel drum band welcoming you. I like this place the best already! I
know I keep saying that but every island seems to get better. We
decide to head to Orient Beach. We have only heard great things about
this place. The drive there is much more pleasant than other rides we
have taken. The driver was friendly, and he was playing Caribbean
music. So, St. Marten is a divided island, as a result of the colonial
tug of war between European powers in the Caribbean. Columbus actually
discovered the island first in 1493 but the Spanish never developed
the island after claiming it. Dutch settlers arrived in the early
1600's. Legend has it that a Frenchman and a Dutchman finally settled
an argument over territorial rights by pacing off their shares. The
French got the bigger slice but the Dutch got the most valuable real
estate. The island even has a marked border. Driving into the French
side there was a sign that read, "Bienvenue en Partie Francaise," the
other one reads, "Welcome to the dutch Sint Marten. All the signs
turned into French rather than English and there are way more white
people on the French side. It was amazing how the entire culture
changed so radically within a 15 minute cab ride. Orient Beach is a
very long beach with restaurants and stores all alone it. The
restaurants rent out beach chairs and umbrellas in front of their
spot. We walked the whole beach. Orient is a clothing optional beach,
the drive there we saw a nudist resort which I thought was hilarious.
Actually half of the beach is a completely nude part. Our side was
just mostly topless women. During our walk we saw a lot of boobies!
We even saw some men in banana hammocks with nothing but a pouch and
strings. We settled down at Kontiki. Today we decided was going to be
devoted to getting our tan on. Yesterday we looked around and realized
we were still pale compared to our other cruisers. We slathered on the
tanning oil, ordered some drinks/snacks and kicked back. It was a
beautiful day today, about 85 degrees with a wonderful cool breeze and
barely any clouds in the sky. Our chairs were in the front row, right
on the water. I decided to take advantage of the clothing optional
policy. I had done some topless tanning on our private balcony the
last couple days but here there were people... Normally I would be too
shy to just let the girls hang out but after some convincing from Matt
I took off my top! We were in a pretty scarce area so not too many
people were around, mostly older couples. So I thought what the heck,
I had some drinks in me and I'm never going to see any of these people
again. After 5 minutes, I actually felt very liberated and even forgot
I had taken my swimsuit top off! No tan lines for this girl! I bought
a super cute anklet with pink sea glass and white beads from one of
the women selling items on the beach, Matt got the price from $10 to
$6, such a bargainer. Note, I was shopping for jewelry whilst topless
which I have been giggling about. We would go for a dip every now and
then when we got too hot and needed a cool down or had to pee. Natures
sewer, right. It was the perfect day today. Nothing went wrong, no
rude people, a beautiful laid back island. It was definitely our kind
of place. We decided we are coming back here for sure! We spent all
day here and had to be back at the boat by 5. We got a good full day
of tanning in. Now I look like I could be a native. I tan like a
Mexican, pretty lucky for a white girl. Matt got some great color too.
We head back to the port and have about 45 mins to shop. There is
nothing in the port area except for jewelry stores and crappy souvenir
stores. I did get another shot glass, it says, "Buried my treasure in
St. Maarteen, and it has a little pirate skeleton hanging off the
outside of the glass. I thought it was adorable. I'm really excited
about this new hobby. I'm going to have the most bad ass shot glass
collection ever. I haven't done much shopping since we left New York.
Little things here and there. We do have one more day in NY when we
get back so I'll save it all for there. Best shopping in the USA! We
have dinner with Krystal and Jim the Canadian couple at the tappenyaki
restaurant. The kind where the stove is right in front of you and they
chop and cook all your food very crazy like. I'm excited! Side note,
when I write these logs I am sitting on the balcony, with the sounds
of the ocean in my ears and the sun on my face. This is why I love
vacations, and I never want to forget this moment.