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Published: March 18th 2014
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Today we took a local bus into the island capital Philipsburg. This is the main area for commerce, ship terminal, most officialdom and shops on the island. The bus fare was just $2 each single.
We had a good wander around the shops and picked up a few things that we had planned on buying in Miami. The bonus was, they were even cheaper here.
Whilst in one of the Duty Free shops, they had on sale on 2 standard one litre bottles of Mount Gay rum and one white bottle of Mount Gay all for $25 (about £15). There is no mistake in the prices given. This is what Theresa´s step father drinks as his special tipple. We decided that the logistics of trying to get this home was just too much, as we would have liked to. This would have also put us over the 2 litre customs limit, which we would never break. You can see rum is a lot cheaper in the Caribbean, its native land.
There were only two cruise ships in the harbour today, and it looked like that was all that it was able to take, but we heard that just
a couple of days ago, there were 7 ships in on one day. The shops and surrounding areas must have been packed with people. We know that Maho beach by the airport was packed that day. Maho beach area is very close by to our favourite airport area where we like to stay.
Whilst wondering around the port, we got talking to a couple from the north of USA. They had renovated a sailing boat and were part way through sailing around the world. They had left home about 18 months ago, but had not got too far as they were finding so many nice things to see. They sounded like they were having a tremendous time and really enjoying their travels. They now think it will take them between 7 – 10 years to complete this momentous voyage. Made us a trifle envious as this was originally similar to what we were going to do, although the mode of transport would have been different. We gave them our details and said if they make to Tenerife to look us up. Their blog looks very interesting.
With the shopping complete, we went in search of the local Police
Station. When George had spoken to the Policeman from Michigan on the boat, it hit a cord for getting some small memorabilia from some of the countries that we visit. We searched out a Policeman within the station that worked in forensics. He was more than happy to talk to George about the sort of crime they get and they discussed some of the obvious differences in his job to how George´s was working in London. At the end, George asked if there was any small item of memorabilia that the St Maarten Policeman was able to pass to him. We were only expecting a mouse mat or a biro. In London, you would have simply / sadly received one ‘I have Met - The Met sticker’ He was presented with what they call ´An Agenda´. It is a bit like a Filofax or a note book. This is an expensive quality leather publication and is obviously extremely precious and special. This was far more than we had expected. Decision now is, should George keep it, or should he send it to the serving Police officer from Michigan. George has thought long and hard on this. When we arrive back
in Miami for a few days later this month, we are going to wrap it up and send it to Michigan or ask our friends from Texas, with whom we are meeting in Florida, to post it on for us.
We ate again in the local French restaurant tonight. We had more great quality food with a table overlooking the sea. This was also an opportunity to use some of the few French words we remember from school days.
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