A Tale of Two Countries: St. Martin / Sint Maarten Traditional Geocache
A Tale of Two Countries: St. Martin / Sint Maarten
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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You are looking for a Lock & Lock container in both St. Martin AND Sint Maarten.
Tricentennial Celebration - 1948
Saint Martin is a Caribbean island. Sint Maarten occupies the southern portion of Saint Martin island and is one of four countries that make up the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Saint-Martin, St. Martin, or Saint Martin (different spellings) occupies the northern portion of Saint Martin island and is part of the French Collectivité de Saint-Martin (together with Île Tintamarre and two others). To further confuse things, for geocachers Sint Maarten has been treated as part of the defunct Netherland Antilles.
All of this confusion started back in 1648. Ask around and you will here different versions of what happened that year. One version recorded in the New York Times on April 24, 2012, reads as follows:
France and the Netherlands sliced the island up at the Treaty of Concordia of 1648. But you can hardly call what happened “going Dutch”: the French ended up with a much larger part of the island. Local legend has it that this resulted from the novel way of deciding upon the border: each side sent out a sailor on a march around the island; the border would then be drawn between their starting point and the place on the other side of the island where they met up again.
One version blames the raw deal for the Dutch on French perfidy: their sailor cheated, literally cutting corners. Another hints that the Dutch themselves are to blame: the Dutchman was more interested in the contents of the bottle of rum he had brought along — or maybe he was distracted by the kind attention of a woman, or both. No points for guessing which side favors which version.
Tricentennial Celebration - 1948
The cache will bring you to the border monument and the plaque commemorating the Treaty of Concordia of 1648. To reach the cache, plant one foot in Sint Maarten and the other in St. Martin and lean over the wall. Be careful of the barbwire. Please replace the cache with proper camouflage.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
V jnf ba gur srapr gelvat gb qrpvqr juvpu pbhagel gb chg guvf pnpur va.