Island Hopping

We went beach-bagging (instead of back-packing) through the Euro-Caribbean this weekend.

Saba (Netherlands) —> St Maarten (Netherlands) —> St Martin (France) —> Anguilla (UK)

We flew into St Maarten on Friday morning and headed into Phillipsburg for the day. 

It is a charming little town with shops that line the narrow streets and restaurants/bars that are a few steps from the beach.

We went to Hard Rock Cafe to grab a burger and drink. I got a hurricane (with the Jimmy Buffet song in mind) and I picked up a pair of sunglasses.

We couldn't get away from Saba (see background)...

The beach in Phillipburg is busy and bustling this time of year from the cruise ships that come in. Every time you turn your head there is someone asking if you want to rent beach chairs or segways or jet skis. There were ladies trying to sell dresses and jewellery and massages. We tried to convince Sara to get her hair braided but she wasn't going for it. I don’t know how many times we were told we were “so beautiful” and we should buy this or that. Kind of convenient when you are actually looking to get something like beach chairs or buckets of beer though. We had our main man Bernard who took care of us there.

After an afternoon of lazy tanning, swimming, and drinking, we picked up some wine and MacDonald’s (it’s been a while since we ate fast food), and headed into Marigot to our hotel for the night. 

We stayed at Le Flamboyant on the French side which was on the water in a beautiful location. Staying on the French side is such a different feel because it is quieter and definitely suited what we wanted out of our time there - just to relax. Good thing we had our bilingual representative Chelsea who communicated with the franchophone locals. 

We did a walk along the beach which basically turned into a photo shoot...

This was so cool!

We popped champagne (literally… that cork went flying) and chatted on our balcony...

And we had an outdoor supper which included dessert. I got the fettuccine carbonara (what better time to carb overload than vacay, right?) and the profiteroles which must be a french thing because I had them in St. Barth’s as well. There was some caribbean touches to our meal too - including the cats that hung around our table. You can’t get away from the stray animals here. Better than roosters I suppose. 

Our next adventure was opening the pull out couch… how many med students do you think that takes? We had 2 jumping on it and 2 holding the sides and everyone laughing before we realized we were pulling from the wrong place. To add to the awkwardness, we found a bag of sex toys behind there. Assuming it was owned by a previous guest...

We also forgot european outlet converters which made bringing straighteners/curling irons/electronic chargers useless. Although we agreed to staying "off the grid" as far as phones/internet went so it didn't make a huge difference. We are such wild girls that we ended up cuddling on the bed together and watching Step Up in french. Chelsea and I were the only 2 who could follow the movie and we were the first 2 to fall asleep. Before midnight at that.

Saturday morning we woke up early to explore Marigot a bit before catching the ferry to Anguilla.

We had the best taxi driver... 

We went to an amazing bakery and walked through the markets.

On the ferry, we actually saw whales which was exciting!

We decided to make the trip to Shoal Bay East on Anguilla because it has been ranked one of the best beaches in the world and we had to check it out. I've found that talking to taxi drivers is often one of the things I really enjoy with traveling - you can get such a feel for the area through them that you can't get from a book.

Since Anguilla is owned by the UK, they drive on the “wrong” side of the road… 

When we got to Shoal Bay, we were greeted by 2 straight miles of perfect white sand and turquoise water. And no resorts. Absolute natural beauty. It was such a relaxing day - we rented some beach chairs, walked along the beach, drank some rum punch, and ate some good food (like “ernie’s pockets”). 

We were treated good by the locals - from the beach dudes to the guys who made change for Natasha - but at times it was a bit too much. One guy kept calling after me to tell me I was beautiful and Natasha got asked to get in a picture with some guys (who we are pretty sure were actually vacationers). This is in addition to Chelsea getting her head rubbed by a total stranger and Sara being told she was so “holy” for having a virgin drink. One guy even tried to serve as our personal body guard. Made for some pretty funny moments. 

This picture is a product of that as some beach dude wanted us to do some advertising for him...

Anguilla is a more laid back island than St Maarten, but there were enough little shops and restaurants/bars to keep us entertained. Natasha got a beach wrap and I picked up some postcards (of course). 

Macaroon!

I got a coconut which was my hydration for the day. It was so hot (despite being climatized) that it was a constant back and forth between our chairs and the water.

Our amazing BBC's - like dessert but better. Put us right to sleep after a full day in the sun. Natasha napped on the beach and I napped on the ferry back...

We were passing through Marigot after getting back to St Martin when this waiter stops us and convinces us to eat at his restaurant. We were so entertained by the characters we met along the way - especially this guy. He even threw in a free drink. Thinnest pizza I've ever had but so much flavour. And stuffed crab.

Harbour at night...

We played “the question game” all weekend which made for some very funny and some very personal conversations. We also ended up with some interesting tan/burn lines. Sara had half her neck red, Chelsea had tank top lines she couldn’t get rid of, and I have a serious side bum burn. I am so glad to have shared this weekend with three amazing girls who are up for anything. It was a very laid back trip grabbing a bite to eat here and a drink there. These ladies are such a positive influence in my life on Saba (and elsewhere!) and I couldn’t be happier about how our mini vacation experience went. It was great to refresh before getting back into the grind on Monday. 

“No worries,”

-Kimberly