good talk

Flew to Saint Martin, a tiny airport, the northern and French side of this divided island.  All of my flights in the Caribbean were short, this was one hour, some were 30 mins. Saint M is 20 sq. mi. and 37 thou pop.  I asked a couple in their car how to get to the capitol, Marigot, and they said hop in and they dropped me off at my hotel.  The Caribbean Blacks are pretty nice people, generally, when I was at the St. Kitt's Airport, Leroy Jones, a retired policeman who now drives a taxi, gave me a free ride into Basseterre, that was quite nice.  While I was at my hotel there, the Desk called me and said that a taxi-driver (not Leroy) had given them a Visa Card that had been left in his taxi saying that it was mine.  I'm half-English and am usually taken for this, we all look alike to them.  So anyway, they handed me this Visa Card and I said, no, that's not mine.  I'm sure they were able to track the owner down and reunite.  This guy had a great name---Edward Knightsley.  I stayed at the Golfe Hotel on Saint M, real nice people, stay there yourselves, if it's good enough for me it's good enough for you.  Fort Louis is nice to walk around in as is Marigot.  I swam at beautiful Friar's Bay, that warm saltwater felt so good.  The island was discovered by Columbus on his 2nd Voyage in 1493, ferocious Caribs so the Spanish didn't settle.  The French came in 1624, the Dutch came in 1631.  By the mid-1600's the 2 had wiped out most of the Caribs, the Island went back and forth between the Dutch, French and English, in 1816 it was divided between the French and Dutch for good.  I traveled seamlessly from Saint M to Sint Maarten, the southern and Dutch side, just 13 sq. mi. with 41 thou packed-in, the capitol is Philipsburg.  Both sides will take whatever money you've got, Euros, Dollars.  I went through their nice Museum and swam right there in front of their Boardwalk full of Cruise Folk, that's a real nice, clean, beach.  The Dutch Airport is big and good and is a hub for this part of the Caribbean, I flew back to PR and then onto Bogata.  I had had a little over 3 weeks of wonderful and relaxing swimming and had thoroughly enjoyed taking in the local cultures.