A bottle of French wine is on the counter of my room when I check into Grand Case Beach Club. It’s a lovely touch, and a first reminder that here on the tiny divided island of St. Martin, the “French side,” as Saint-Martin is affectionately called, is fully a part of France. Yes, this -…
Do you all remember last year, when I was invited by Visit St. Maarten to come to their amazing island? I spent a week exploring the history of both the Dutch and French sides, and experiencing some of the culture of the world’s smallest divided landmass. It was amazing, and you can check out my…
I like most places I’ve been. I have positive experiences most everywhere, and try to find reasons to enjoy myself. But it is not hyperbole to state that this island, shared by Sint Maarten and Saint-Martin, exceeded any expectations I may have had coming in, and after merely a week, it can be counted on…
Today I was supposed to take a ferry from here to the nearby island of Anguilla. Anguilla, a British overseas territory about 20 minutes by boat from Marigot on the French side of Saint-Martin, is known for having some of the best, most pristine beaches in the Caribbean. But with the forecast calling for on…
The rain is just starting to fall as Clara Reyes and I begin meeting, so we duck into a covered cabana at Seaview Beach Hotel in Philipsburg, the capital of the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. Sitting on white couches, we smile at each other, two strangers sizing each other up. Clara is the Director…
In his 1954 novel Lord of the Flies, William Golding describes what happens when the worst of human nature comes to a tiny island paradise. Rather than work together, a group of people devolves into little better than animals, descending into a savagery that undoes any attempts at civility. And so it could have been…
Blue skies, although in true tropical fashion they do give way to a brief rainstorm before returning immediately following. Azure waters. Green iguanas and brown pelicans. A ruined colonial fort, and one of the region’s leading historians and archaeologists to explain the intricacies of it to me. Yeah, in my world, this qualifies as a…
When Christopher Columbus sailed past the island we now know as St. Martin in 1493, the native Arawak and Caribe peoples had already left it. But the Arawak had a name for this island: Soualiga, the Land of Salt. While Columbus claimed the island for Spain despite not setting foot onto it, it was the…
After the 2024 election, I left Twitter. Elon Musk’s acquiring of the platform and subsequent turning it into a right-wing disinformation center was too much for me, and I just couldn’t continue. I joined Bluesky. (By the way, if you are on that platform, please find me here. And if you aren’t on it, please…