A Trip to Parrottville

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…
\

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="" />

Thanks so much for this report and the gorgeous photos! I love birds, so this is on my list for next trip. I'm not sure I'd want one on my head though!!

Thanks for the report and photos-- I really need to figure out how to do that! We have added a visit to the park on the short list of things to do next visit!

Nice.

We were inside the enclosure for probably close to an hour and that was the only time they sat on my head. In general, they are interested only in the food in the cup. If you hold the cup out and up, they go straight for the cup, not for you.

Beautiful pictures but I'm thinking I'll pass on the part about landing on my head, thank you very much!! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Love the photos. I can't wait to visit next trip and feed the parrots. Great photos. Look like you had a great time.

I'm wondering if these are rescue birds? Hopefully not captured from the wild!

Beautiful!
<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

What a lovely photo story! Thanks

Bernd <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/dine.gif" alt="" />

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. Another stop for the list (Depending on sand gravity) to check out the end of July.

Regards,
Dave

That I don't know. Most of them are not indigeneous to SXM, so they couldn't have been captured on SXM. A few of them are banded as being from Curacao, from what I remember from what they said. According to the information cards regarding the conures, it said that they are very easy to breed.

It really only takes a bit over an hour to do. We were there probably close to an hour and a half, but we sat with Valentine for probably close to a half hour after and just chatted.

The photos are gorgeous, and this is at the top of my list for November. Thanks for the great report!

Carol--can you re-explain the directions coming from the airport, heading towards the new causeway bridge? We are not familiar with some of your reference points. If it is too detailed to go into that is ok, but it looks like such a great place to go and we would really like to find it.

I wouldn't go that way to get to Parrotville.. Do you know how to get to Mark's and Grand Marche? From there, if you take the road that is to the left of the GM, go down a couple of blocks and make a left, you take that road that takes you toward the cruise terminals?? You go through a roundabout and keep going, essentially straight, you pass the Fresh Market on your right (NOT Market Garden--that's on the corner of Billy Folly Road). After you pass the Fresh Market, you go up a hill and off to your left, you can look out over the cruise ships. Keep going maybe a couple of miles and you get to Belvedere, where there is a new rotary and where the McDonalds is. This is just before the little craft shops on the right hand side, which have been abandoned for a while. If you get to the sign that says "Welcome to the French side", you missed it! At the rotary, if you're coming from the Dutch side, make a right.

Don and Linda did a trip report which has a map of the area, with it marked on it.. Here is the link http://donlinda.net/SXM2016/index.htm Scroll down toward the bottom of the report and they will talk about the facility and there is a map.

Quite awhile ago someone had a load of parrot type birds across the street and up the block from the Sapphire. For some reason the man that owned them and kept a caged area could no longer do so, so he donated them to the St. Maarten Zoo which had just opened a new facility. Perhaps the owner of the new place got them from the zoo. The parrot squawks at the zoo use to drive me crazy.

Carol--Thank You so much. These directions clarified it for us. We do know that area as we have to go that way to pay our SXM Cable bill. We have been to the Dutch Bakery kind of around there--not sure if still there. We usually circumnavigate the island not going so much thru the middle.
Can't wait to see all those beautiful birds!!!

Thanks Carol, looks like they're well cared for! It's on the list for next year even if I get dropped off by myself for a while! (I miss my parrots!) <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

I've never had birds, but I'm sure anyone that has, would be even more interested..

OK, glad that helped.

Lovely photos. This is definitely on the "To Do" list for our next trip.

Great pictures Carol and Eric. Thanks for everyone clearing up my misperceptions on the name of the place, but the beauty of the birds is without exception.

Here are a couple of images of a route to Belvedere.

Thanks for the map. Great job, as always! No problem on the name.

We went to Parrotville last week based on Carol's review and photos. It was everything she said it was and more! The birds and the owner are delightful. It is open daily, 9:00 to 4:00. We will def make a repeat visit next trip.

Glad you enjoyed it. I think it is definitely a nice addition to the SXM scene.

We arrived at Parrotville on Mon Dec 12, 2016 at 9:15 am thinking that it was open from 9:00 to 4:00. Sadly, it was closed and there was no sign to let us know the hours or the days that it was open. We felt that we couldn't sit there waiting not knowing what time it would open or if it was even open on Mondays. So we left and found out later that it opens at 9:30. We'll have to try again next year. Lol.

We went too based on everyone's comments and it was great fun. The birds are so beautiful and the host is so gracious. One piece of advice - wear an old shirt!

And mosquito repellant! We had just come from DK Gems, and I was wearing my new diamond earrings. The birds loved those!