The Inmates in the Zoo

Fantasy from the hill behind the dock

The first time when Bob and I arrived in Sint Maarten/Ste. Martin on a Sunday, we had a horrible morning tour which was mostly unlovely shopping opportunities (particularly since the Ste. Martin French side was closed on Sunday) but in the afternoon we had a very nice tour of the natural features of the island which included the zoo. So for my granddaughter, I wanted to include the best parts of our previous visits.
18 June 2013
The Facebook groups for this cruise had arranged for private tours from Bernards (they were mostly interested in the beach), and following their lead, I got a car and driver from Bernards for the two of us for today.

Bernard's tours

The ship information on the weather for today said showers, but it looked sunny. We needed to be out to meet our driver from Bernard's by 9 so I thought we should get off the boat at 8:30. My granddaughter set the wake-up call for 6:45 and we pried ourselves out of bed. I ate the banana and two rolls (which were now as my granddaughter said 'crackers') that I had brought back to the room, and she went up to breakfast in Cabana.

We got off the boat at 8:30 as planned and made contact with our driver whose name was David Taylor. He was born on St. Kitts and his mother left to work at a better job in Sint Maarten so the family followed her. He married a girl from the French side of Ste. Martin so technically he can have 5 passports (St. Kitts, Dutch Sint Maarten, French (through his wife), French Ste. Martin and Dutch.

He was very informative, and he put the scooter in the back of the van without our taking it apart. We set off to tour the island

Going up the hill

Philipsburg from the surrounding hills

For some reason, I did not check on lighthouses that I could see in the various ports we visited, or I would have known that Sint Maarten had a lighthouse. The light station was established 1876. It is not active now, but it consisted of a post light mounted on a short square tower atop the ruins of Fort Amsterdam. Findlay's 1879 light list describes a "small light on old Fort Amsterdam."

Map which only has Fort William on it

Fort Amsterdam?

Fort Amsterdam was the site of the first Dutch fort in the Caribbean. It was built in 1631 on the peninsula between Great Bay and Little Bay. My photo from the ship shows the fort located atop a narrow promontory on the west side of the entrance to Philipsburg harbor.

By the 1950's, it was no longer used as anything except a signaling and communications station and it isn't even used for that now. All that remains are a few walls of the original bastion and some cannon. I didn't get to visit it on this visit, but I understand that there are a few informational signs at the fort. So David drove us up on a hill looking for the fort, but while we had a good view of the harbor, I don't think we were on the right hill.

Disney Fantasy in 2013

Road down

David showed us many of the aspects of the island such as the Little League Stadium, and the dump

Trash dump

Many of the round-abouts have statues in them representing the history of the island. I haven't seen them all.

One that I haven't seen is a woman and child which the Peridot Foundation erected in 2003 in response to the public outcry against domestic violence. And I don't think I have seen One T'ete' Lohkey,considered an anti slavery heroine,who was recaptured after an escape attempt. Her breast was cut off as punishment. Eventually she escaped again,successfully.

There is one with three statues. One was Jean Frederique Brooks “Tata the Bus driver,” who was best remembered for transporting students to from school. The second was Alexander Lionald Richardson “Alec the Butcher” , father of 42 who was best known for farming and selling fresh meat. According to his daughter her father introduced the Dr. Claude Wathey to politics as he was a member of the National Party. The third is Florian Eulalie Duzanson “Lalie.” She was known for providing fresh bread, tarts and shelter to those in need. While baking was her source of income Lalie also cared for students and people who came from Aruba to St. Maarten, she also provided shelter to many during disastrous moments such as hurricanes. I have a blurred photo of Lalie.

Lalie du Zanson

I have seen the Freedom fighter, because he is near to the cruise ship terminal.

Emancipation

Standing with his head high, fists folded and unshackled hands raised to the sky, the bronze Freedom Fighter statue standing in the centre of the roundabout at the junction of Walter Nisbeth, Sucker Garden and W.G. Buncamper Roads. The Emancipation Declaration was signed in Curaçao on July 1, 1863.

I have also seen the Salt Pickers located at the roundabout on Walter Nisbeth Road (Ponfill Road) and D.A. Peterson Street-Soualiga Blvd. at the Great Salt Pond.

Salt Pickers

Salt pickers

The Dutch settled the southern half of the island in order to exploit the salt deposits found in three large salt pans that provided as much as 400 boat loads of salt per year. The salt industry was a very hard life for those involved. The Dutch side stopped production of salt in 1949 and, thus, the salt industry came to an end.. The group of sculptures called the Salt Pickers, shows workers engaged in the various aspects of salt harvesting. Five figures are depicted. The central figure is a man using a shovel to mine the salt. A man and a woman are transporting a large tray of salt while two women are shown gathering salt.

Salt

I have seen the Roundabout Statue of - Osborne Kruythoff's supposedly real job was to clean up seaweed on Great Bay Beach. But St. Maarten had gone from 83 motor vehicles to some 200 or more in the early nineteen sixties. Osborne,on his own, decided that traffic on the square in front of the Court House needed someone to properly direct it. How he acquired a traffic whistle no one knows. However, Osborne's whistle became as familiar as a train whistle must have been in former times to those living along the train tracks. Osborne's outfit consisted of a brown khaki uniform, a white tropical helmet and a machete used as a baton to direct traffic with. If the car did not obey he would give it a good planass, which is the art of hitting someone with the flat part of the machete. He started putting flowers in the helmet and in his shirt buttons, so much so that he looked like a walking flower pot and had to push aside the flowers covering his face, in order to get his traffic whistle in his mouth. This is a very interesting statue and you ought to look at it.

Osborne Kruythoff - The Traffic Man

The first place that we got out was the zoo. David had never had clients that wanted to go to the zoo before. There was a group of school kids there while we were there. The St. Maarten Park (the zoo) has a focus on the Caribbean and American Tropics. It is the largest zoo in the Caribbean They have over 80 species including the largest display of exotic parrots in the Caribbean.

My granddaughter at the zoo

Please Be Safe

Scarlet Macaws

African Grey

Love birds

Scarlet ibis and Scarlet Macaw

Peacock

Cockatoo and Toucan

Vervet monkey

monkeys

Play area - watch for flying objects

In addition to the birds and various kinds of monkeys there are also Ocelots, Bush Dogs, Golden Lion Tamarins and Capybarras. And it doesn't stop there.

Ocelot

Bush dog

Raccoon at the zoo

There are also lizards, snakes, turtles, tortoises, and also guinea pigs, goats, and rabbits.

Lizard and Iguanas

Python

Tortoise and Red footed turtle

Goat and White rabbit

They also have tropical plants such as Bougainvillea, Allamanda, Oleander, Ixoria, the Flamboyant, Sea Grape, Cordia and Yellow Poui.

Iguana "chasing" me

Then we went to the French side

Fort louis

Gendarme (French side)

David explained to us that the French cops were only sent to the Ste. Martin for a short time because after awhile they were subverted by the local people and were too comfortable and friendly with them. We got off and went shopping at the open air market.

French side open air market

She bought a dress for herself, and I bought a t-shirt for her sister. I found that while they did not have cut-outs in the curbs for the scooter, I could accomplish the same thing by using the speed bumps which were as tall as the curbs.

Then we had lunch. David recommended Enoch's Place for lunch. (They are only open for breakfast and lunch) There was a small problem explaining my granddaughter's gluten allergy, but she was able to get something to each which was gluten free, and I just had something off the regular menu.

French and English side of the menu

It was all cooked fresh for us. My granddaughter got a grilled chicken, beans and rice and a little salad. I had oxtail stew and the beans and rice and salad plus they gave me some plantains that I was afraid for her to have because they were fried in the same oil as breaded things.

Looking out from inside

Cooks at Enochs

My lunch - Oxtail stew $11.00

granddaughter's photo of me eating

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Granddaughter's lunch

Adjoining restaurants

Enoch's from across the street

Statue inside the mall

We went into a little mall which was A/C, but stuff there was too expensive. So we went back to David's van, and he put the scooter back in, and we continued. He drove us through part of the Marigot Cemetery.

Marigot Cemetery

Iguana in the cemetery

And past the nude beach (I didn't take any photos there)

Feu de Marigot

And I saw the lighthouse again for the third time.

This is an active lighthouse of an unknown date - focal plane 20 m (66 ft); flash every 4 s, white, green or red depending on direction. It is a 33 ft round conical tower painted white. Located across the road from the base of the breakwater mole of the harbor of Marigot, the principal town of the French portion of the island of Saint-Martin, on the northwestern coast of the island. Site open, tower closed.

We went back to the Dutch side. There we went to the beach in front of where the planes took off,

Market by the beach

List of the times of plane landings

and he took my camera, but he didn't get a really good photo of the plane and the beach.

Beach the plane lands over

Nose of the plane coming in for a landing

Plane over the beach and the fence by the road

airport

Then he took my granddaughter down to another beach

Old boat wreck

and showed her various kinds of sea urchins and sand dollars.

Sea urchin in the water

sea urchin

Reef urchin

Coming back from looking at sand dollars

Sea urchin shell that they brought back

Last we went to Philipsburg and he drove through Front street and we saw places we wanted to shop, so he parked at the end and took the scooter out, and we went back and shopped. There is a museum upstairs on Front Street which has exhibits of work of the artist who did Yoda for the Star Wars movies.

Nick and Yoda

That Yoda Guy Movie Exhibit

Local artist - signed work

Granddaughter with light sword

I didn't go upstairs because I didn't want to leave my scooter but my granddaughter wanted to do some shopping and buy something for her dad who is a Star Wars fan, so she went up and looked around and did some shopping.

Museum

Manikin in the museum

Yoda Strikes Back

Star Wars museum

I just stayed at the bottom of the stairs and took photos of what was there.

At the bottom of the stairs where I was waiting for my granddaughter

We came back to the ship about 3:30

Marinated beef short ribs

dessert I liked the first time which was good this time too

We went to dinner. It was pirate night, but I was really tired and came back to the room, and we basically went to bed early and did not stay up for fireworks

Towel animal with 3 mints

Tomorrow is St. Thomas