Not quite my Fatherland but lovely nonetheless.
I love to travel so when I was invited to go to St. Martin I couldn’t say no. I’ve always wondered what it was like. I remember watching travel shows and seeing planes fly in so close to the beach that it seemed like sunbathers could look the passengers in the eye. I was so excited to experience that for myself. Another point of intrigue for me is that St. Martin is part Dutch and part French so you can technically visit two nations on one trip. Moreover, I was looking forward to dusting off my French and I was desperately in need of putting my toes in some sand.
Well as you can see from the pictures, St. Martin is beautiful, fun and relaxing. But the highlight of my trip was that I actually got to see two neighboring islands as well–St. Barth which is also a French territory and Anguilla which is a British territory. So I saw three islands (St. Martin, St. Barth, and Anguilla) and three countries (France, The Netherlands, and Great Britain) and got more stamps in my passport. 😉 #winning Both islands were short ferry rides away. Island-hopping was a lot of fun because I love exploring new places and seeing more of the world. I visited some of the most beautiful beaches on my trip.
However, unfortunately I visited St. Martin after Hurricane Maria paid a visit in 2017. I could see that St. Martin was still recovering and rebuilding over a year later. I was told the island is a lot different than it was before Maria hit. There were still abandoned buildings, homes and hotels and there were capsized boats in the water and on the sides of roads. I have an affinity for anthropology. Therefore, I was very intrigued by the aftermath so I took pictures. The funny thing is while I was on my trip I only posted pics on social media of all the beauty I saw until the last day when I posted the devastation. Had I never shown the devastation no one would have ever seen the true picture of St. Martin. Kinda like how people portray themselves on social media if you think about it. LOL Give that some thought.
In spite of the mess, I had a fabulous time but I must say I felt like I was cheating on my fatherland the entire trip. LOL I compared everything to it and there was really no comparison. I was happy, however, to finally get to visit some of the places that I’ve heard so much about. Have passport, will travel!
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