Dec 5th, 2007
Arrival in Saint Martin
We arrived at Juliana Airport in Saint Martin at about 3PM on Friday afternoon. The moment we stepped off the plane and I could feel my stress dissolve into the warm Caribbean air. After grabbing our suitcases we headed to the car rental place to pick up the “convertible” I had reserved the previous night. I was a bit surprised but undaunted when the car rental manager pulled up in an old white jeep wrangler.
“This is our convertible?” I asked.
“Yes, these are what people drive on the island,” he responded.
I turned and could see my companion skeptically eyeing up the car.
“Err…is this okay with you?” I asked, to which she responded in the affirmative. I turned back to the rental manager and asked, “Can you help me take the top off?”
After a few minutes of struggling with a mess of latches and zippers, a struggle I realized I would never be able to duplicate, we had the top off and the suitcases in the backseat. As we were gearing up to head off, a middle-aged woman from Boston who we had met on the shuttle from the airport to the rental car place leaned over and warned us not to leave anything in the jeep. With that, we set off for our hotel in Grand Case.
Getting ready to drive off in the “convertible”
The area directly surrounding the airport was actually quite a congested mix of cars, scooters, and locals shouting out unintelligibly. After a few miles, we turned onto Union Road, headed to the Dutch/French border, and the natural beauty of the island asserted itself.
Saint Martin is an incredibly lush, hilly island that is replete with a diversity of beautiful sceneries. Driving north along the western coast through Marigot up to Grand Case provided a great overview of what we could expect over the next few days.
