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Sonesta history - learn what once happend
The history of the Caribbean is filled with stories of colonial imperialism where islands changed hands from country to country. St. Maarten was no ace in the imperial holdings, but had its share of skirmishes and smoky gun battles which caused the island to change hands many times between the Spanish, Dutch and French powers. The old stone forts which guard many to the islands inlets are proof of the island's turbulent past. St. Maarten/St. Martin's true history started peacefully - traces of Stone Age people have been found on the island, dating back to 4,000 BC. By approximately 800 AD the island, as many of its neighbors, was settled by Arawak Indians who arrived from South America to settle down to a life of fishing, hunting and farming. The Arawaks were not alone, however. They were followed in the 14th century by a much more warlike tribe - the cannibalistic Carib Indians. These new arrivals were the ones who gave the region its name, and knew St. Maarten as Soualiga, or "Salt Island" after its main mineral deposit. The remains of the Great Salt Pond can still be seen in Philipsburg today. According to legend, Christopher Columbus sighted Soualiga on the 11th of November in the year 1493, the holy day of St. Martin of Tours, and he named the island after him - hence the name St. Maarten. The 11th of November is celebrated to this day as St. Martin/St. Maarten's Day.
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Sonesta Vacations site
Our company is running one of the largest pc and mobile travel website networks, covering top hotel, vacation package, airline ticket, beach, cruise, all inclusive and honeymoon destinations worldwide.
We will also run a travel blog portal which centralises the blogs posted by our visitors on all of our websites and which represents one of the world's best travel information resources, totally build by people such as yourself.
In the link section, you can check more links to our travel website network as well as to other third party specialized websites as lastminute.com or orbitz.com which we suggest you to visit if are you planning a trip to Sonesta Bermuda.
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