Category Archives: St. Maarten

Visits to the Caribbean island of St. Martin

Salt Lake City

Well Mike and I are on the road again. We flew out of Vancouver on Skywest Airlines in a cool plane from Bombardier called the CRJ700 or maybe the 900. There were only two seats on each side of the plane. Nice and roomy, good legroom, and comfy enough seats. We left a little late, but seemed to arrive here in Salt Lake City on time.

Flying in, it sort of reminded me of Las Vegas. Lots of mountains surrounding the city, with not a lot of greenery anywhere. It was sunny and warm when we arrived.

We leave here at 1 am to fly to Atlanta, then on to St. Maarten a couple hours later. There is free wifi here in Salt Lake City, so I’m putting a brief post up from here. Atlanta does NOT have free wifi, so I won’t be posting an update until late tomorrow (Friday) at the earliest, although I am not promising one.

So, first of three flights was nice. A good start. We’re looking forward to jumping in the ocean as soon as we can tomorrow! Mike commented that he thought this was the first flight we’d taken together where no kids were screaming!

—–

ADDED ON FRIDAY:

We’re in Atlanta and I’m getting some free internet from a restaurant where we had breakfast. It was not a great breakfast, but the coffee was ok. Atlanta airport is a Boingo hotspot, and that’s 8 bucks, so I won’t pay that. Will make this short and not so sweet. The flight from Salt Lake city was so packed they asked people to take another flight – I think they needed six people to accept another flight. It was an ok flight, no screaming kids. But it was crowded an my seat mate kept falling asleep and taking half my seat haha.

And I discovered I forgot my charger for my Nook e-reader at home! Sigh – how dumb am I?? What a drag. Anyway – we leave here at 10, boarding at 9:20… then into St Maarten for 2:15. It’s a great day here in Atlanta. Talk soon!

Octopus spotting

Octopus I went to St. Martin hoping to swim with turtles, so mission accomplished, thanks to Aure, Sally and Octopus Diving. But the real highlight for me became the octopus sightings. Tim was especially adept at picking them up… I usually only found them by accident, diving to take a picture of another fish and seeing the octopus change color.

Octopus The first day at Mullet everywhere we went up and down the left side, there were octopus. Under rocks, clinging to the side of rocks, others “out in the open” moving along, altering his appearance as he goes. It was wild. I’d still be trying to take pictures of the first one, and Tim is calling us to the new one!

OctopusI think they are the coolest thing in the ocean to see move…Over white sand, he goes all pale, over the rocks, he takes on the coloration of the rock he his over.

The last day at Mullet, as we were leaving the water,  we saw one in such shallow water, it was worth the trip just for that 20 minutes. He was so close you could reach down and touch him with your hand, without even diving. Maggie and I jumped back in to spend a few more minutes with him, it was such a unique thing.

Never knew that swimming with lots of octopus was on my bucket list, but I’m glad I got to move it to the accomplished side of the ledger!

Octopus spotting

Octopus    I went to St. Martin hoping to swim with turtles, so mission accomplished, thanks to Aure, Sally and Octopus Diving. But the real highlight for me became the octopus sightings. Tim was especially adept at picking them up… I usually only found them by accident, diving to take a picture of another fish and seeing the octopus change color.

Octopus   The first day at Mullet everywhere we went up and down the left side, there were octopus. Under rocks, clinging to the side of rocks, others “out in the open” moving along, altering his appearance as he goes. It was wild. I’d still be trying to take pictures of the first one, and Tim is calling us to the new one!

Octopus I think they are the coolest thing in the ocean to see move…Over white sand, he goes all pale, over the rocks, he takes on the coloration of the rock he his over.

The last day at Mullet, as we were leaving the water,  we saw one in such shallow water, it was worth the trip just for that 20 minutes. He was so close you could reach down and touch him with your hand, without even diving. Maggie and I jumped back in to spend a few more minutes with him, it was such a unique thing.

Never knew that swimming with lots of octopus was on my bucket list, but I’m glad I got to move it to the accomplished side of the ledger!

Octopus spotting

Octopus I went to St. Martin hoping to swim with turtles, so mission accomplished, thanks to Aure, Sally and Octopus Diving. But the real highlight for me became the octopus sightings. Tim was especially adept at picking them up… I usually only found them by accident, diving to take a picture of another fish and seeing the octopus change color.

Octopus The first day at Mullet everywhere we went up and down the left side, there were octopus. Under rocks, clinging to the side of rocks, others “out in the open” moving along, altering his appearance as he goes. It was wild. I’d still be trying to take pictures of the first one, and Tim is calling us to the new one!

OctopusI think they are the coolest thing in the ocean to see move…Over white sand, he goes all pale, over the rocks, he takes on the coloration of the rock he his over.

The last day at Mullet, as we were leaving the water,  we saw one in such shallow water, it was worth the trip just for that 20 minutes. He was so close you could reach down and touch him with your hand, without even diving. Maggie and I jumped back in to spend a few more minutes with him, it was such a unique thing.

Never knew that swimming with lots of octopus was on my bucket list, but I’m glad I got to move it to the accomplished side of the ledger!

Octopus spotting

Octopus I went to St. Martin hoping to swim with turtles, so mission accomplished, thanks to Aure, Sally and Octopus Diving. But the real highlight for me became the octopus sightings. Tim was especially adept at picking them up… I usually only found them by accident, diving to take a picture of another fish and seeing the octopus change color.

Octopus The first day at Mullet everywhere we went up and down the left side, there were octopus. Under rocks, clinging to the side of rocks, others “out in the open” moving along, altering his appearance as he goes. It was wild. I’d still be trying to take pictures of the first one, and Tim is calling us to the new one!

OctopusI think they are the coolest thing in the ocean to see move…Over white sand, he goes all pale, over the rocks, he takes on the coloration of the rock he his over.

The last day at Mullet, as we were leaving the water,  we saw one in such shallow water, it was worth the trip just for that 20 minutes. He was so close you could reach down and touch him with your hand, without even diving. Maggie and I jumped back in to spend a few more minutes with him, it was such a unique thing.

Never knew that swimming with lots of octopus was on my bucket list, but I’m glad I got to move it to the accomplished side of the ledger!

Octopus spotting

Octopus I went to St. Martin hoping to swim with turtles, so mission accomplished, thanks to Aure, Sally and Octopus Diving. But the real highlight for me became the octopus sightings. Tim was especially adept at picking them up… I usually only found them by accident, diving to take a picture of another fish and seeing the octopus change color.

Octopus The first day at Mullet everywhere we went up and down the left side, there were octopus. Under rocks, clinging to the side of rocks, others “out in the open” moving along, altering his appearance as he goes. It was wild. I’d still be trying to take pictures of the first one, and Tim is calling us to the new one!

OctopusI think they are the coolest thing in the ocean to see move…Over white sand, he goes all pale, over the rocks, he takes on the coloration of the rock he his over.

The last day at Mullet, as we were leaving the water,  we saw one in such shallow water, it was worth the trip just for that 20 minutes. He was so close you could reach down and touch him with your hand, without even diving. Maggie and I jumped back in to spend a few more minutes with him, it was such a unique thing.

Never knew that swimming with lots of octopus was on my bucket list, but I’m glad I got to move it to the accomplished side of the ledger!

More final thoughts

Maho Beach landing You know what else was cool about Sint Maarten? Maho Beach – the beach nearest the airport. We never snorkeled there, but it had a really cool vibe. Everyone secretly wants to get blasted by the jet plane exhausts, and everyone took pictures of all the fools doing it!

But you take the picture of the plane coming in, and realize just how close you are to disaster! That guy flying the plane might have had a few Heineken’s too many! Sometimes it seems that they are barely 5 feet above the people on the beach.

Plane Incoming over Maho BeachYou could see the planes out over the ocean, coming around in a loop, as they prepare to land. The restaurant erupts with, “Here he comes, Here he comes – It’s a big one! Must be American Airlines!”

Sunset in St. Maarten There is a surfboard with expected arrival times written on it, so you can see who it should be. The waiters and waitresses are fun and funny. The food was limited, mostly burgers and fries, but the vibe was totally cool.

They had funny t-shirts there too – Hold on to your beer!

And the sunsets are pretty nice there too.