Residence Anse des Sables

under construction

by grandmaR

I had one goal today and that was to get back to the lighthouse that I saw on the first visit.

When I got to the end of the pier I went to look at taxi tour rates as Bob was absolutely against renting a car. Had I done a rental on the internet it would have been at least $45 for the day. It looked like a tour out to Marigot would be $18 each if there were two people and quite a bit less if there were three or four. I asked the man who was selling the tours about seeing the lighthouse, and he denied that there was any such thing. He said there were no lighthouses on the island.

If I had looked on the Lighthouse Directory page, I would have seen that there were two lighthouses - one on a fort on the Dutch side and the one I had seen on the French side. But I hadn't done that. So we went out to the taxi rank and I asked about going to Marigot and Grand
Case because the lighthouse I had seen was between them. They put us in a cab with two other people who were going to Marigot. As before the traffic in Phillipsburg was terrible. The cab driver had the sniffles which made me want to tell him to blow his nose, but I
didn't.

Eventually we got to Marigot on the French side, and the other couple got out, as soon as we rounded the corner on the way to Grand Case, there was the lighthouse, which the cab driver confirmed was indeed a lighthouse. Triumphantly, I got out and took a few pictures and then we drove back to the ship. He charged us $50.00. I figured that was $18 each for the drive back to the ship and about $6 each for the ride out.

Date unknown. Active; focal plane 20 m (66 ft); flash every 4 s, white, green or red depending on direction. 10 m (33 ft) round conical tower painted white. No lantern. Roger Theriault has a photo, another closeup photo is available, and Google has a satellite view. 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. ARLHS STM-001; Admiralty J5658; NGA 14732.

Sunday In Marigot

by grandmaR

We got to Marigot (the French capitol) about 10:15, and they told us we had a 45 minute stop here. The shops were not open because it was Sunday, but there was a craft market.

I was beginning to get a bit anxious, because we were due to start on the second tour at 12:05. I had counted on a 2.5 hour tour that started at 8:35 to be finished by 11:05 giving us just about enough time for lunch and to freshen up (and incidentally get the other camera battery which I had forgotten to put into my fanny pack) and get some more water as I had drunk most of what I had.

But if we didn't leave here until 11 (assuming that people would get back to the bus on time which was not likely going on previous performance), we certainly wouldn't make it back by 11:05.

I walked into the Gare Maritime where you could get a boat to the other nearby islands, and then walked around the market a bit and so did Bob. The man behind us on the bus thought Marigot was a dump, and I wasn't very impressed either.

I asked about the time we would get back to the ship, and they lied and said that we'd be back by 11:15. It was a small island, they said. Completely ignoring the fact that they KNEW they were going to make another stop because the shops in Marigot were closed.

We finally got underway - the buses backed out of the parking lot - and got to the French/Dutch border crossing point at 11:15. BUT, they had another shopping stop of 10 minutes (I didn't get out).

And then they stopped in Philipsburg to let people off before they went back to the docks. We didn't get back until 12:05. I was QUITE annoyed that this 2.5 hour tour actually took 3.5 hours. Of course half an hour was waiting for people to get off the boat.

Next - Natural Wonders Tour