DRIVING AROUND THE ISLAND POST HURRICANE: DEVASTATION!

So, a little history...

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We were cruising with our cruise friend, Kia, who actually lived in St Maarten for about 7 years but had moved back to the US. She had told me if I was ever to cruise to St Maarten again and she was there on land vacation, she would show us the sites.

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So...guess what?

I am taking her up on this offer! Kia had originally said since she goes to St Maarten every year for a land vacation she wasn't getting off the ship at all, but ask me what my plans were. I had originally planned to just to to Simpson Bay to hang out on the beach around the Karakter Beach Bar, but then I remembered her "offer"...go me!

We decided to rent a car and she would drive us around to see all over St Maarten. It sounded like a plan and I started researching the various places in the area to rent a car.

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So off we went to explore the island. If you remember correctly, Kia had just informed me that her dad does all the driving in St Maarten and she was going to "attempt" to remember how to get us places. LOL

So after that wonderful reassurance that we knew where we were going and what we were doing...off we went.

On Septmeber 6, 2017, Hurricane Irma struck the island of St Maarten. It was reported that it was a Category 5 hurricane. A Cateogry 5 hurricane is classified as such when the winds consists of at least 156 mph. It was reported the winds reached 185 mph. It was one of the strongest reported Atlantic hurricanes to ever hit (with first place being in 1980 from hurricane Allen with winds of 190 mph). Everyone remembers the devastation that hurricane Katrina caused when it hit NOLA...well Katrina was 175 mph winds. Maybe that puts it into perspective.

So we are now talking 7 months later. Although I watched and looked at a lot of pictures of the aftermath and the rebuilding and clean up had started, there is still so much damage to the island it's unbelievable.

I am going to "attempt" to show you the path we took during our day. I may be wrong on a few things (since I really don't know my way around), but I'm going off the pictures that I have and guessing where we were at any given point. (I'm pulling up Google Earth now for a little consulting with where we are)

We headed toward Philipsburg to start our day, continuing around the Great Salt Pond area on the main road (Walter Nisbeth Rd). You could immediately see damage.

We came across the Air Lekkerbek Bar & Restaurant, which was an airplane that was converted into a restaurant.

History:

It started as a Japanese-made, 45-seat puddlejumper of an airliner for WinAir. But the NAMC YS-11-111 was stripped down at the nearby airport and toted across the bay to its present resting place. Now it’s Air Lekkerbek, a bar and restaurant on the Dutch side of the island of St. Maarten (Saint-Martin on the French side), with additional flag-festooned seating on the outside, because 45 seats just aren’t enough. The jet might be missing part of its tail, but guess what? That’s just a good space to fit another Heineken sign.

Outside the entrance steps, you’re greeted by a very Dutch-looking wooden sign of a bartender serving Heineken. It’s surprisingly airy inside the jet, with white paint, stained wood chairs, and a colorful pattern across the overhead baggage area keeping things light. Thinking about food to accompany your glass of Heineken? Air Lekkerbek offers grilled meat of all kinds, seafood, poultry and lunch platters and sandwiches.

 Lekkerbek was closed back in 2014. The owners wrote a letter describing how the government forced them to close. You can find their letter online if interested. Sad story.

The plane as it sits today:

 They later decided to remove the plane due to the condition and squatters staying inside of it. See article:

stmaartennews.com

PHILIPSBURG – The owner of the former restaurant known as Air Lekkerbek, located at Walter J.A. Nisbet Road (Certificate of Admeasurement # 186/2014) is informed that the condition of the building structures and the interior and exterior debris/waste has become fire prone for quite some time now, and in the meantime, clearly squatters are living […]

Continuing on... We stopped for drinks and then kept going. We were enjoying the view.

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We also came across the Limited yacht.

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The Simpson Bay bridge was up and we decided to turn back and head down to the place that Kia likes to stay at when she's here on vacation.

We were going down Billy Folly Rd and came across, what I believe is, The Pelican Resort Club. Only part of the resort was missing. Kia informed me that there is supposed to be an entire building that was 3 stories tall here, only now it's just the foundation and rubble. (Take a good look at the yellow wall).

This is the back side of it from the road above, So sad. Kia, got out to look at the resort that she stays at and it looked like it was in better shape than this place...it was still standing but problems with the roof and windows was apparent. However, the building to the left the roof was off and I believe she said it was one of the places they would always to go eat at and loved it there.

We headed back and this time the bridge was open.

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Tricia's Perfumes seems to have made it out fine, but the Mega Gym next door...no roof and not many windows.

I believe Kia said she worked at one of these places in this building when she first moved to St Maarten

More buildings in the Simpson Bay area with no walls or roof and there was plenty of rebuilding going on while other places just sit from the devastation. Then there were other places that were entirely gone!

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​Car's along the airport road that have been abandoned and flipped over. Here's a car that is flipped on its side and leaning against the fence.

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We decided to stop at Simpson Bay for a few minutes and check it out. We weren't sure if we wanted to stay for a while or continue on.

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You can find that review located here:

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We didn't stay very long here, even though Sakari was trying her best to "let's just swim!" It really didn't look like an appealing place to be at the moment and it was very deserted. So, we decided to move on as much as Sakari pouted.

So out we went....

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We would head out and around the airport. There were boats and yachts everywhere still flipped over.

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Something as simple as seeing these leafless palm trees was so sad to me. 

There were boats that had run aground. We also seen something that looked like a Pirate ship.

There are 3 pelican sculptures at the roundabout near the Princess Juliana International Airport.

The pelican is the "national" bird and has traits that are inherent in the St Maarten personality: grace, resourcefulness, courage and sacrifice (at least that's what an online article says).

Michael Maghiro was the sculptor of the three bronze pelicans.

Here is a picture that I managed to take of a boat that I had actually seen pictures of, that someone else had taken online, after the hurricane. I remember wondering what it was originally because it looked like it had a fish on the top of the smoke stack and I wondered if this a restaurant on the water at one time.

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​I did a little research and found that this was called Pink Iguana. It was a tugboat (someone said over a 100 years old) that was converted into a bar with 2 stories of seating. It was located right across from the airport.

Then past Maho Beach (I didn't even notice we were near Maho until it was too late to take a picture). But, I did figure out in time to know where we were at and that we were getting ready to go down the street that we had taken before when walking from Mullet to Maho on a previous trip.

We are headed down Rhine Rd.

We seen the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort all torn up.

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To see the other side of this resort (you can google pictures online) is just devastating!

And then there's the Casino Royale....um....Did they tear it completely down and start over?

Continuing on down the road to a very familiar place to me because we stopped in this area and ate Subway at the end there and then went into several shops along the way back.

It didn't look like any of those stores were open at the moment. Maybe roof damage or damage to the other side of the building?

We were driving for awhile and I was really wrapped up in my thoughts of everything I was witnessing. Kia tells me that we are driving down the middle of the golf course on the road. I hadn't even noticed this was the place where we walked from Mullet until getting onto the main road. We were busy talking that I didn't even take any pictures. I couldn't even believe it was the same golf course. The grass was very tall and sorta dead looking.

Here we have Ocean Club of St Maarten. According to their page, they are "under construction".

I want to say at some point we swung a right and ended up on Rue Des Terres Basses Rd and headed toward the other side of the island. For some reason I had absolutely no photo's from the last picture at Ocean Club in the CupeCoy area all the way across to the other side where we would end up at Chez Raymond at Baie Rouge.

Getting in here was a little tricky. We almost missed our turn and Kia pulled a fast and furious whip around and past something that looked like security guards and through these gates.

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My review for Chez Raymond at Baie Rouge is located here:  

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We pulled out of Chez Raymond and headed down the street for a look at more devastation.

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Going down Rue de Sandy Ground to the Sandy Ground area at Nettle Bay.

And then we went by Le Flamboyant Hotel and Resort condos.

Coming across the Lady Liberty statue in the Agreement roundabout in Marigot. This statue represents emancipation and created by Theodore Bonev and was placed in 2007. It marked the 159th anniversary of the 1848 Emancipation from slavery.

We were headed to a place that Kia had talked about years ago and it was a very unknown area were the water was very shallow and you would find tons of starfish. We knew it was quite a drive from the area we were coming from, but I started to see water ahead.

Here is Ta Ta the Bus Driver at the Beledere roundabout and located on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten. He was known for transporting students to and from school while keeping discipline on the bus. Another statue there is Alec the Butcher, who had 42 children and was known for farming and selling fresh meat. The third person is Lalie and known for providing fresh breads and pastries to those in need. She also provided shelter during disasters, such as, hurricanes.

We came across a place called Rotary Lookout Point. This is a place that Kia said they seen hundreds of starfish before. We wanted to check it out.

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You can find that review located here:  

We headed down the street and on our way again. We seen some horses up on the hill and then we seen something in the middle of the street. As we got closer, we seen it was a herd of goats.

It was about noon (11:51am) and it felt like we had been all over the place and was a full day already. But, we still had plenty of time left.

There's one place I have always wanted to see, and is suggested to people by people on here when someone has a young child, and that's Le Galion. However, I have never went because...well...Sakari is not your "normal" "child" that requires a lake like shallow setting to swim.

Le Galion is a very large, very protected cove area with fairly shallow water that is like a lake. It's a good place to go if you have young children. It is a place that many locals go to.

Now after the hurricane, I remember watching a video online from someone that was doing a tour of the area in their car. They were recording as they went down the street and there was debris every place you looked in every direction. Trees were down, houses were all over the place, trash, you name it. At some places in was impassable. They were trying to head to Le Galion, but in the video, they never made it because of the destruction. It was heartbreaking.

I had not heard much more about the condition of the roads to get there since then, but know from people on the boards that there wasn't much left at Le Galion. So, I wasn't even sure if we were going to be able to make it all the way .

But, the roads were clear the entire way. They really have done a lot of clean up, but the houses along the road...completely destroyed! COMPLETELY!

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Along the way to Le Galion and along the main road.

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I believe Kia said there was a farm here. I seen something in the distance that looked like a silo or something, but that was about all that was still there.

A jet ski buried in the rubble.

We then made it to Le Galion and you can find my review here:

We decided we were all a little hungry at this point. Kia and Michaela were throwing out ideas about places to eat. I was game for just about anything.

Then all of a sudden....Mr Iggy decided we needed to wait for him to cross the road...why? To get to the other side of course.

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We were getting hungry and decided to head back to Simpson Bay and have a bite to eat at a place that Kia said her family loves to eat at: Buccaneer Beach Bar. Michaela had said they had the best hamburgers there and that sounded great about now. What's better than enjoying a hamburger while sitting on a beach right?

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You can find this review located here: 

We headed back toward Philipsburg at 3:27pm. It was time to get our rental car back and head back to the ship.