Dec 16: St. Maarten
Today is my last day on the island, before I head off to St. Lucia and the Grenadines. I had breakfast at Vesna’s again; I’m getting to like this place, good food, reasonable prices and wifi. I went for the homemade yogurt with fruit and some fresh juice. They squeeze it to order from the large variety of fruit and veggies on hand. I checked out and left my bags in storage before grabbing the buses to Marigot. I had always thought it would be nice to pickup a fresh baguette, some French wine and cheese and some cured sausages, then have a picnic on top of Fort Louis. That seemed like a lot of work for just myself, so I picked up a ham and cheese sandwich with a couple single serving Zinfandels and hiked up to the top of the fort. The views from up there are worth the effort, and I got some great pics for my facebook friends. I had the place to myself for a while and enjoyed a cigar I had picked up yesterday in Philipsburg. Back down along the waterfront it was quite, being Sunday many of the shops and restaurants were closed.
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A happy man

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Beautiful view from Fort Louis

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Boats at Marina Royale
I headed back to Simpson Bay and gave into the craving I’ve had for smelts since seeing them on the menu at Lee’s. The order included eight of the nicely fried little fish. Wandered down to Kim Sha beach and the Buccaneer, then up to Pineapple Petes for beer and wifi. It was still early in the afternoon, and my flight wasn’t scheduled ( if that word can be used in conjunction with Liat) until 8:30, so I went to Maho to watch the planes and pick up some sandwich fixings for traveling. Around 5:00 I took a bus to the Harbor queen and had some ribs, then went to the hotel to pickup my bags. I took a cab to the airport and prepared myself for whatever disaster awaited. The plane left about an hour and a half late, but as we were boarding I saw my bag on the baggage trolley and was lured into a false sense of security. Reality would soon set in when we landed in Antigua, and my bag, along with quite a few others never made it. Apparently with the flights all being full, they run out of room in the hold and place the leftover bags on the next plane, those from the prior flight taking up the room for mine. My connecting flight wasn’t scheduled to leave until 5:30 am, and I had planned to sleep in the terminal. Well, they close the terminal up at night, the security guard said I could spend the night on one of the outside benches, but that didn’t suit me. He suggested that I ask the taxi dispatcher if he knew of a cheap hotel. I enquired and the dispatcher said he had a friend who rents an apartment at his house and he would call him. Now, Kim always says I am going to end up with my throat slit in the bush someday, and this did seem like the story you here when a tourist vanishes never to be seen again. I went back over to the security guard to get his take on it, and he said not to worry, it would be OK. I figured that if I did turn up missing, at least this guard would recognize me and could steer the police in the right direction. Soon an older gentleman in another taxi pulled up and in I went. We drove about 15 minutes on dark roads, finally ending up at the drivers house. He led me around back, to another building and unlocked the door to the small studio apartment. I still wasn’t feeling totally comfortable, so to hedge my bet, I set my spot locator off before laying down, I figured at least my friends would know where the last place I was alive. It all turned out good, I got up when my alarm went off, and Danielle, the driver, soon met me at his taxi to bring me back to the airport. The whole thing cost $60 US, including the round trip taxi; I probably could have negotiated a better price, but well rested I was satisfied.

Drink all day at home, your friends worry about you; do it on vacation and they say "what a good time you're having". Save your friends needless worry, travel more!