A Day at St. Maarten

Moises and me

When Moises and I decided to go on a Caribbean cruise on the Norwegian Getaway, we didn't choose it for the itinerary. After three or four Caribbean cruises and living in the Caribbean as well, it just isn't about the destinations. It is more about sea days and relaxing and spending some time together away from the office.

our guide Francia

So at our stop in St. Maarten, we decided to just get off the ship and wing it, see what was out there to do. Moises is not fond of ship tours. There was a boat off the ship that took us in to the town and from there we navigated to an internet cafe with wifi. Beware that in the Caribbean Islands, there are some of the most expensive roaming charges out there. My phone tried to connect via roaming for both the day in St. Maarten and St. Thomas and left me with a horrendous bill. Turn off roaming! Worst part was I never even had service, just my phone attempting to connect over and over again.

We approaced a few taxi drivers until we came upon a really nice young woman named Francia. She hails from Haiti and spoke many languages. She was a bit new to the taxi game and one of the older gentlmen encouraged her to take our fare even though we only had a $100 US bill and wanted just a taxi ride to the French side. She honestly told us she didn't have change, but the older guy said we could get in on the French side, which is totally incorrect as the French side is in Euros. Long story short, when we got over to the French side, I wasn't thriled to get out, so we opted instead for a full island tour for the $100 dollars we had with Francia. She was a lot of fun and we had a great time!

my husband Moises

We did see some minimal hurricane damage, mostly downed trees and debris. The island is a lot bigger than I realized, and there was a lot of traffic. But we had a great day and learned some interesting things that I don't think we would have found out about on a group tour.