DESTINATION - The Caribbean island of Saint Martin / Sint Maarten is the world's smallest island shared by two countries. This day of St. Martin is a quiet tropical island vacation paradise. During his last long and often violent, was not always so. The origins of its known history, the island was inhabited by the Arawak people around 800-900 AD. It breeds, pottery and lived a quiet life in general, on the island of Sualouiga (salt land) until the arrival in the Caribbean. Favorite Caribbean to fight for agriculture. Ate in men and women took to the wives. It is "difficult to imagine how terrible it must feel to be forced to marry someone who has eaten her ex-husband. The word cannibal comes from the way the Spanish word said Arawak of the Caribbean. The people conquered many islands Caribbean in this region, hence the name of the Caribbean.
Finally, the Spanish conquered the Caribbean, and forts built on many islands. Some still stand in places like Puerto Rico. Christopher Columbus discovered the island on November 11, 1493rd In his time, which was the holy day of St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of soldiers and horses. Columbus claimed the land for Spain, calling Isla San Martin. In 1620, Dutch merchants came to Sint Maarten to fetch salt natural salt from the island. Sailors from the time that the salt used to keep food in the longer races. Without access to modern methods, salt was a preservative common at the time. French tobacco companies soon came to St. Martin and began to cultivate plants.
In 1631 the Dutch built the first European settlement on the island, a small collection of salt-colonial Groot Baai (Great Bay). This eventually became the first Dutch military outpost in the Caribbean. In 1633 the Spanish attacked, forcing the Dutch off the island of time. The Spaniard took over the fort, made larger, and added a church. In 1648, the long war against Spain and the Netherlands over the Spaniards abandoned the island. The Dutchman was back then, and has signed an agreement with France on top of the mountain. Concordia, which divides the island between. Concordia Today's agreement is the oldest continuously operating agreement of the world, beyond all doubt. Each country had a man walking the perimeter of the island opposite directions from one place. Line of the place they started the place they met with the island shared by France and the Netherlands in the north-south. The French ended up about 2 / 3 of the island.
This agreement did not lead to a lasting peace in the island at that time. He has changed many times the power struggles between the French, Dutch and British, until 1816, when France and Holland that restores the old boundaries.
Pirates of the year 1600 and beyond refuge in Saint-Martin. European countries have spent their time and resources competing for the possession of the island. Have not established themselves enough time to protect it from pirates. The often conflicting nations praised the attacks of hackers on their enemies. Rumors of a treasure buried by pirates still exist in the island's folklore.
The day of Saint Martin / Sint Maarten people move freely from one side to another, only the marked boundary signs and monuments. The two parties using different currencies themselves. St. Martin uses the euro and Sint Maarten Netherlands Antilles guilder, but both sides accept U.S. dollars. The French side still has the most land, but the Dutch side has more people. Many people on both sides speak English. Islanders also speak French, Dutch, or one of the local dialects.
The average temperature is around 80-82 degrees all year. These high temperatures and lots of sunny days, because St. Martin has become a haven for holiday, at least most of the time. The island is not entirely escaped the violence, but in modern times becomes a hurricane random. It is about 45 inches of annual rainfall occurs mainly in late summer and early autumn. This, and the end of the main hurricane season, probably explains the holiday on a cruise in the Caribbean usually begins around November.
Hotels, apartments and timeshare in abundance, and rental cars are the main means of passenger transport. The Dutch team is a major airport, Princess Juliana International Airport. Tourists are flocking to nearby Maho Beach close-up photography and the lower part of the century-747. The signs warn them against straying too close to the fence, where the explosion of the aircraft departing em can bowl '. Phillipsburg, the main city of the Dutch side offers visitors numerous casinos and nightclubs and plenty of jewelry stores. In addition to sporting a busy port for cruise ships. many cruise ships stop here, Holland America also. Water taxis pick up passengers near the cruise ship a few steps across the bay beaches, casinos, shops and Phillipsburg. Marigot, the French part of the big city, tourists, restaurants rivaling anything in New York City. The French side also has a nudist beach and shops with designer clothes.
Cruise passengers want to see Marigot book tours that take them by bus. A short visit to a cruise ship may be just enough to glimpse the island to get a lot of people want to go even longer. Some like it so much that the holidays each year.
Both sides held friendly shopping areas for tourists, and free of all taxes shops. The French team has a local airport where planes younger visitors from island to island, in places where large aircraft can not land. The island also has much to offer: sailing and diving tours, zipline adventures, horseback riding and water sports of all kinds. Take a boat trip and the crew informed of all the holiday homes of the rich and famous that are happening.
St Maarten is the Caribbean's largest lagoon in Simpson Bay Lagoon. Two drawbridges narrow channels connecting the lagoon to the sea. Vela, a large fleet of boats and marine to call home from the lagoon. Hotels, apartments and time-sharing line its banks. Saint Martin / Sint Maarten is the perfect holiday paradise enough variety to suit all tastes. The jets are easily around the world. They are the white sandy beaches with warm blue water, exotic cocktails, shopping, relax or to find St Martin has it all. No wonder it is one of the most visited islands in the Caribbean Sea.
