We arrived in Sint Maarten and cleared customs in maybe 20 minutes. Our car rental,  we arranged beforehand via What’s App. We used AAA rental, a very small outfit near the airport, and Maho Beach. They picked us up outside and drove us to their office, and we did the paperwork.  Now, before you get bored, I’m not going to continue with the blow by blow. I want instead to remember the people, the attitudes, and perceptions we had during our stay.

Foreign countries intrigue me. Why are they like they are? What makes the people tick? How is the culture different? And what things do they do better or worse than we do in the states?

At first glance, I thought Sint Maarten to be a third-world country.  As we drove around on day one, I noticed how many buildings were unkept, and many still stand ravaged by the last hurricane. One above ground grave yard in Marigot was completely washed out. I could imagine all the corpses floating by as the graves were emptied and scattered about in the storm. It was quite creepy.  And I could see no effort to fix it. I’m told Marigot,  on the french side, was once a very beautiful town.  Today, I’d call it interesting and worth a visit,  but it is very run down.  Still, there are local markets, and many options for food, both french and creole.

I found it interesting that all across the island were small groceries or markets. Booze and drink were the main items inside, but locals can get essentials there, too. We bought some hot dogs, eggs, chips, and water there. These markets are mostly run my Asians trying to make a buck and survive. One cheated me out of money when she charged me based on Dutch guilders as if the exchange was one for one. It’s not! She did it intentionally, and I paid 80% more. I knew what she did, but I was in a hurry and didn’t want to confront her. I just let her steal from me, lol. It was only $7 too much. Still, it put me on guard. Despite this experience, I love local markets; I wish we had them like this in the states. Instead,  we have Costco. I’ll bet there are a thousand small markets on the island. How they get their goods to sell is still a mystery to me. The markup is not that bad. Just beware of them taking advantage of old fat white tourists. I think they see us coming. But we do this in Polebridge, too. Tourists always get smacked.

Here is a controversial observation for you. I’ll qualify it as likely the norn, but not necessarily true always. Note that I was only there for three weeks. Black people are different! Yep, there I said it. But what do I really mean? I mean people are different culturally. Island locals seem to be a mix of Dutch, French, and Creole. I don’t know the official mix,  I’m just going by what I saw. And I’d say the majority are black.

Black is not really what I mean. Because what Americans think of Black people is completely different from what I perceived these islanders to be. When talking about skin color, both are black. But when talking about attitudes and personality, the differences are stark.  I did not detect an “us” vs “them” attitude. The creole have their own music and ethics vastly different from our black folks. I think they related their identity more to the island and their homelands, not to their skin color. I saw them as people, hard working, laid back, educated, friendly, and much less clanish than one would expect.  They wanted to know us, and we them. And there did not appear to be much segregation or white owners and black worker dynamics. Like I said, the majority of locals appeared to be black or their ethnicity not white.

But then there are the French! Generally,  the French were rude or at least less friendly than others.. of course, there were exceptions. The creole have better communication skills and seemed much happier people. I think it’s the difference between deply ingrained socialism and capitalism. And most island creole spoke English and Dutch, much better than the French. I’ll admit, I didn’t have any warm and fuzzy feelings for the French, though we did have one nice young man for a waiter at Oceans 82.

As for the third world thing. The island has very poor roads, infrastructure, and electrical power. They have frequent rolling blackouts lasting 90 min to three hours. There will be few electric vehicles here soon.  Because the roads are so steep, narrow,  and bad, garbage is not collected. People haul their own garbage to container size dumpsters that are then taken away by government workers.

The good and the bad is that the island seems to be under major construction. Almost everywhere, new and old places are being built or fixed up. It’s good to see things progress, but it’s sad to see things progress. Ace hardware, Ashley Furniture, McDonald’s, and KFC are corporate brands significantly changing things here. The ace hardware has a whole floor designated for home goods; it’s pretty much crushing the small guys.

Housing is weird, too.  Most locals live inland and stay out of the sun when possible. Others, of what nationality I dont know, live high up along the coast with great views.

Investors and the wealthy have real advantages here. There are no real estate taxes. A three to five percent fee is paid up front, and that’s it. And there are no capital gains taxes. I personally did not visit any extravagant homes, but listed are homes from $250k to $5-6 million. Donald Trump has a very nice place here, but most upity billionaire types hang out at St Barts.

One of the strangest things here is that kids learn to pop wheelies on bicycles at a young age. And later, when they get motorcycles, they ride wheelies down the centerline on narrow roads through traffic at high speeds, scaring the poop out of tourists. There are hardly any police either. And there is not one stop sign on the island (Jackie said she might have seen one, but was not sure.) The roads are free for all, but surprisingly orderly. Beep to ask to be let in, beep to say thank-you. There are roundabouts.

If you want to know about tourist food, look it up. But there are maybe a hundred small places that cook food for locals. One place has a sign for Angies Pizza. Literally,  there is an upstairs apartment with a do not enter sign. It’s Angie’s. You yell up to her, tell her you want a pizza and 20 minutes later, she brings down a pizza for you.

Of course everyone comes for the beaches and the food. But the most fun exercise is people watching. Yes, these are objective judgments by me! Guys in bikini banana pocket swimsuits are objectively gross. And why women go topless on the beach is beyond explanation. I can’t decide if yelling, “Your butt is too large for your breasts, or you need to work on the rest of you before you do that,” are the most appropriate words. In all cases, there is no good reason to be naked on a public beach, just saying.

As for three weeks of eating, tanning, and sleeping in Sint Maarten,  it was an overall good experience. The weather is beautiful,  a bit toasty at times, but lovely all the rest. Will I be going back? YES!