SXM - First Impressions
21 December 2024
Hello dear friends,
We’ve had sad news - our dear friend Michelle passed away, at the turn of the summer solstice.. And another friend, Leon passed away a few days ago. It’s strange to be so far away.. and away from our film family who are all mourning together.
We’ll drink a toast to them this evening and say goodbye.
And now the update written just before we moved onto our training boat:
I’ve just woken up after my third night in Sint Maarten - the first really good sleep score since I’ve had since my clever Garmin watch keeping check. It seems we have managed to dodge any serious jet lag - perhaps well prepared by crazy hours of sleep and no sleep in our preparation to leave.
So after about 60 hours on this island, there is lots to say in the way of a first impression.
On arrival at the airport we found all the officials generally happy and kind - quite different from their counterparts in Newark. Our taxi driver gave us a quick rundown about how the island has two parts: the Dutch side (where we landed and where we’ll be staying) and the French side. The border is permanently open and neither side can close it without the other agreeing and doing the same. She said “that’s the French side over there - where the flags are - you’ll know when you’re there”. She was right of course, the general atmosphere is the same, but all the shops have French names, restaurants and cafes have a French theme, and people speak French. On the Dutch side there is a definite Oranje theme, shop signage is Dutch and the locals speak Dutch. All over the island people speak with the beautifully rounded and warm accent you expect from the Caribbean, and true to the adverts and license plates - it is a friendly island!
There is an overall feeling of calm and friendliness - in the traffic (which is at least as bad as rush hour in Cape Town) drivers toot to say thank you for being let in to the queue. If you approach an intersection or stick your nose out of the driveway, be ready to go - the first driver to see you will let you in. They toot to say “watch out I’m behind you”, and they toot just to say hi.
Chris has been at the wheel of our rental car, and he’s up to speed with the tooting. It’s my turn to drive today and I’ll see if I can manage to remember to toot while driving on the wrong (right) side of the road, dodging potholes and crazy scooter riders.
The scooter riders are another kind of crazy. A serious breed of two-wheelers who race between the two narrow lanes of traffic, without helmets, often on the back wheel. The most serious members of this gang have installed flashing coloured lights for extra bad-ass effect. I didn’t know a scooter could wheelie like that!
On arrival, we were welcomed to Crew House #2 by Phil and Tamara - TradeWinds Bahamas base managers who are down here to haul their three boats out for maintenance during their seasonal shut down. They briefed us about the house, the neighbourhood and the bugs.. So far we’ve had the ground floor pretty much to ourselves, sharing only with the mosquitos.
After a quick unpack, we ventured out to find dinner and scope out the local night life. We followed the music to find a Christmas market - a fundraiser for the Children’s Physical Development Centre. The lady on the stage encouraged us to buy raffle tickets at just $5 - the first prize being an air conditioning unit! The best fare for us was a small bucket of passion fruit lemonade with loads of ice, mint and fresh lemons - which lasted all the way to the little restaurant near our house. We found the local Chinese dive - Magic Island Happy Chef. Sat at a bigger table in the back, opposite a pile of unpacked sodas and dry goods, and entertained by a Chinese woman managing her three waitress daughters, we filled up on two delicious meals and had plenty to take home for breakfast.
Exhausted from packing and travel, with bellies full and hearts warmed we walked back to our bed for our first night in Sint Maarten.
In the morning we walked up to the main road road and found a car rental place - it looked tiny, but seemed legit. Turns out they deal with TradeWinds often (liked so many places on this island) and were happy to help us. The assistant in the back slinked in and showed her phone to the attendant: she thought I might be a celebrity, an actress from the Netflix show she’s watching. How about that for a turn around!?
With our new wheels, a little green Kia, we set off to make a circumnavigation of the beautiful island. Thank goodness Captain Chris was at the helm - driving here is an extreme sport: crazy traffic, wild scooters and roads in various stages of disrepair.
The buildings are often run down - we expected this is a legacy of past hurricanes, some places have been repaired, some not. There seems to be fair amount of construction and repairs taking place so I suppose it’s a matter of keeping up with regular storm damage.
Despite a level of disrepair, many homes and stores are decorated with serious Christmas lights. Often a “shop” or upstairs balcony caught my eye, and it would take me a while to realise it was a private home with an owner passionate about Christmas. I guess there is not an electricity shortage here! Actually, I’m still not sure what electricity costs, though I expect it must be reasonable for a generally poor community to afford this luxury.
The weather is hot and humid, though not debilitating. Like Gert promised, there is always a breeze, and if one can stay out of the direct sun (sometimes even a hat will do for shade) and in a little wind, the temperature is easy manage. There are often little spits of rain, and yesterday we had had our first downpour - we saw the squall coming, it rained heavily on us for about 15 minutes, and it never seemed to affect the temperature.
The sea water is warm enough to be a delight to swim in, and cool enough to be refreshing. On our first swim - in Simpson Bay at sunset, I was brushed by some kind of stinger on my arm. I got a fright and after a few minutes decided to end the swim, tho the little welts never became serious.
On the French side we found some more remote and rugged beaches - there was a tour bus at one spot letting people out for a view at a headland. We saw some horse riders in the water - horses with their backs under the water and walking through the bay.
The beach sand is different on the two sides of the island - fairly course on the north(French side) and super fine on the south side. Amazing to feel such a difference on a land mass so small.
The land is hilly and overgrown - jungles and rainforest. We found a good viewing spot that has some sort of informal animal shelter or hutch just off the main road. In the day, there are pigs and chickens running around, in the night the cats come out. Definitely feels like the animals are the custodians of that corner!
We stood on Maho beach - as one must do here - and watched as planes took off and landed. We enjoyed the variety of aircraft flying and chuckled as the tourists were all blasted by the jet engines of the airlines departing (we weren’t enticed to stand in the direct line of fire ;)
We ate the softest, fall off the bone ribs at The Palm restaurant - we sat down and realised we weren’t hungry enough for all they were offering, so a shared meal worked well. Super friendly staff introduced us to a South African ex-pat at the next table: Chris just about sold them a TradeWinds package!
We visited Phillipsburg, and wandered through tiny roads closed off to traffic to allow the pedestrian traffic free rein - three cruise ships at dock filled the streets and the beach front. The courthouse is the most charming I’ve ever seen, with a pineapple decoration on the roof. After seeing a picture, Sara promptly sent a note about how pineapples on buildings symbolise hospitality and welcome - a sign of luxury and the ability to host guests generously.
Our last tourist venture was a trip out to Divi resort in Great Bay where we went for a snorkel - the conditions were not great, though we expected that. It was still lovely to be in the water, and we saw pretty big parrot fish, various smaller tropical guys and schools of needle fish at the surface near us multiple times. We took a walk up to the old fort - this bay was the first place the Dutch landed on the island, and the top of the hill was a good place to protect it from. The French took control of the area for some time before the Dutch regained it - there is a lot of history we still want to learn about here.
Before we get to that though, we need to learn about our new jobs!
Sending much love to you all, we miss you and think of you often.
Cheers for now,
Charis
