Allure Day 5 - St. Martin - Sexy and Iguanas (and Chickens)

Thursday morning, we woke up to St. Martin.  Actually, we were seeing Sint Maarten, the Dutch side.  I'm a little geeky, but I was excited to be here under Sint Maarten's new status as a "constituent country" of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. When we were here in 2010, it was still part of the Netherlands Antilles, which were dissolved in October of 2010.

From our balcony, a beautiful rainbow welcomed us.  You're gonna have to trust me on this one.  I didn't realize my camera lens fogged when going from the A/C to the humid heat.

 Can you see it?  Is this one a little better?

We stopped by Park Cafe to grab some breakfast. (This is another example of when being on Deck 8 is SO convenient.)  I grabbed a banana and a fruit and yogurt parfait.  I can't remember what Chris got, but it was something quick.  Now, here's a TIP.  There are no plastic spoons at Park Cafe.  I asked about it, and I was told there are no plastic spoons and you aren't allowed to take food off the ship.  I knew you couldn't bring it on, but I had no idea you couldn't take it off.  So we ate as quickly as possible and headed out.

We had a date.

He was Sexy.

No, really.

He was Sexy.

But we didn't know it yet.

We exited the ship and had our photo made by the ship's photographer with the stern of the ship behind us and a captain's wheel in front of us.  But I checked Focus several times and never could find that picture.  Who knows?

Then we went to the "yellow information center" to meet our guide for our tour.  I had booked Bernard's Tours, which gets great reviews.  When we checked in, I noticed that it was actually Bernard dong the checking-in.  I introduced myself and said we'd heard good things.  He was super nice.  But he wasn't our tour guide.  (He wasn't Sexy enough.)

We had paid $5 each deposit ahead of time and paid the additional $35 each that morning.  While we waited for our guide, we met several people from our roll call group.  It was a pleasure to meet everyone.  They were all so friendly.  And it turned out that about half of our bus was from our roll call, which made for a fun tour!

Shortly, we were escorted to our bus.  I was pleasantly surprised that this was a new, fully-enclosed, air-conditioned bus.  When we got to the bus, our tour guide and driver, Sexy (yes, that's his name) introduced himself.  I had read a review of this tour where they also had Sexy.  So I decided Bernard's must be kinda like Hooters.  They have a bowl of name tags, and you just take one when you start your shift each day.  And there was always a Sexy every day.  Or maybe ALL the nametags said "Sexy".  Either way, Sexy was great.  He was a great tour guide, always explained where we were and where we were going, and always on time.

Our first stop was an iguana farm (?).  Yeah, I know.  All the way to St. Martin, with its mountains and beautiful rainbows and beaches (you'll see), to see iguanas.  But that's ok.  I'm not really sure what the iguana stop was about, other than to extend the tour so we felt like it was worth our money.  I don't love iguanas.

Here's a picture of the iguana hole farm.

Lots of iguanas.  Or iguana.  What's the plural?

Did I mention chickens?  I think they should change the name to the Iguana and Chicken Farm.

I got to touch this iguana as Sexy held it.  I felt very safe as long as Sexy held the iguana.  It felt line a fine designer handbag.  Or a pair of cowboy boots.  (Sorry, Mr. Iguana)

What's that you say?  You want a close-up of Mr. Iguana?

Chris stole the camera from me. He was fascinated by these Iguanas "hugging".

When we were finished playing with the iguana and chickens, we continued on our tour.  We would have a couple of scenic stops, and touch a few more indigenous creatures, before getting to one of my new favorite places on the planet.