Imported luxury good of all types are a bargain in St Maarten, cheaper than St Thomas. If you like silver jewelry, look for Larimar (pronounced lar-e-mar, long e). It is a lovely stone found in these islands, very like a pale blue turquoise, much less costly than all the semi-precious stones set in gold. Captain's Corner at Havensite in St T has some, but the other little shops had better deals. Booze, especially that made with a rum base from the islands is cheap and good, again cheaper in St M, but K-Mart on St T is supposed to be cheap, too. You can get nice color-changing t-shirts, my kids favorite. St Maarten has a wonderful Belgian chocolate shop, chocolates to die for, move over Russell Stover and See's. (Needless to say, buy these at the very last, they used to deliver to the Magic, but I don't think security allows that now, they are legal to take off the ship.) St Maarten is also a great place to buy pareos. The ship itself had the nicest selection of unset stones. I bought some of these for my kid's keepsake boxes. They can get them set for their sweethearts in the distant future. These stones are a bargain and there are companies on the net which sell the findings for rings and earrings, or get them set at home. I also got a great set of earrings on the ship, fish carved of tumbled beach glass. And don't forget a Captain signed Christmas ornament of the ship. And each port has nice ornaments made of local shells with the island name on them, we collect an ornament from every vacation and mark the date on the back, that is, if you celebrate Christmas!
Carla
