After an abortive attempt earlier in the week, we visited Parrottville on June 1. As I understand it, the facility is basically pretty new, opening only toward the end of 2015. So far, it appears that cruise visitors have not really discovered it, so the crowds are not large. For the off season, they are not necessarily open every day, so if you travel in the next few months, you might want to check with them by phone before you travel a long distance to get there… If you are coming from the Dutch side, at Belvedere there is a relatively new roundabout, with a relatively new McDonalds. This is where there used to be that blind corner, with the mirror at the blind corner. At the roundabout, you make a right, like you are heading to Oyster Pond, after less than a quarter mile, you come upon Parrottville.





I really don’t know much about the story behind the place, but the owner is apparently a fellow named George Parrott, who apparently has an infinity for parrots.. Which is very cool to me, and a nice addition to the SXM excursion offerings. I remember YEARS ago, visiting Parrot Jungle in Miami. I guess it’s now called Jungle Island, or something like that. Parrottville, thankfully, is apparently nothing like current Jungle Island, but is a lovely place to spend maybe an hour or two, getting dive bombed by friendly birds who would love nothing more than to eat the seeds and other offerings in your cup.

Unlike what I remember from Parrot Jungle and other places, it doesn’t cost anything for the food to feed the birds. It’s included with the cost of your admission, a mere $10 per person.





The area is a pretty large area where the birds are enclosed within wire screening.



They have a double door system, to (hopefully) prevent any of the winged creatures from escaping. Right inside the gate, there are placards which describe some of the various birds that inhabit the facility. If you’re a big photo freak like me, you might want to take a picture of the various cards there so that you can possibly identify the birds in the pictures when you get home. …Which leads me to state that I have labeled several of the birds here in this report and I think and hope that my descriptions of them is correct, although I wouldn’t bet any money on it. If someone sees a picture of a bird here that is incorrectly labeled, I’d appreciate it if you let me know, so that I could fix it..

Your first experience, once you get inside and lift your feeding cup up in the air, is that you suddenly have LOTS of friends!!








Eric seemed much more at ease with it than I was, although truthfully I was kind of worried they would you-know-what on my head, but thankfully, no such disaster occurred..





Within the bird enclosure, there were several local plants which were labeled, and our guide described them to us.





They hope to make this experience self sustaining, and raise their own birds. While these eggs were of a kind of generic local pigeon, they do hope to be able to raise local parrots soon.




Many of the birds themselves, while not all necessarily indigenous to St. Martin, many of them are spectacular

There was a bonded pair of birds which they showed us. I THINK these were the ones. Even if not, they make a beautiful LOOKING pair anyway.






This one I think is a black headed caique




Many of them are different varieties of conures, which are really beautiful birds


[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/conure.jpg[/img]


One treat that they gave them was a variety of local pea, in the pod, that they adored..

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/eating peas.jpg[/img]


[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/eating peas 2.jpg[/img]


And if you think that you could possibly steal those peas away from them DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/if you think.jpg[/img]




While many of the birds had previously been somewhat wild, they are getting used to interaction with people and show really lovely personalities

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/hello.jpg[/img]


Regardless of personality, many of them are just absolutely stunningly beautiful



[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/just beautiful.jpg[/img]


Others are not quite as lovely, but unique in their own way

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/parrot.jpg[/img]

The ring necked parrot comes in several different colors, including blue and yellow.

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/ring necked parrot.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/yellow ring neck parrot.jpg[/img]



I think this one is the white eyed conure

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/white eyed conure.jpg[/img]


After your visit with the birds, you can check out the museum, which I think is kind of a work in progress, not nearly as exciting as visiting with the birds, but interesting.

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/museum.jpg[/img]


The grounds have some beautiful local flowers and enhance the experience.

[img]http://www.Info-res.com/ehill/ttol/parrots2016/grounds.jpg[/img]


After your visit with the birds and touring the ‘museum’, you can buy a soda or a beer or some water out front and “sit a spell’, as they used to say on what?? The Beverly Hillbillies?? No matter, you get my drift. While I didn’t think to get a decent picture of it, there are some chairs and tables under the shade out front for you to enjoy your liquid refreshment (as well as some toys for the little ones to play on).

And if you are lucky, as we were, Valentine will be there as your guide. He has a passion for the island, it’s history, it’s culture and heritage. After our tour, we sat with him for maybe a half hour or more and talked about the island, his personal history, our ties with the island, etc. Valentine used to work at Caravanseri in the old days. We talked about Hurricane Luis and President Bush and Mitterand meeting on the island and watching the Concorde land. It was a nice time…
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So, for $10 a person, plus a buck or two for a drink, and maybe a tip on top, this is really a lovely time, for maybe an hour and a half, to connect with some lovely birds, some old time SXM artifacts, and a simpler time.. Enjoy.. We certainly did.. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />