MARTINIQUE

We spent the holidays in Martinique.  We arrived in St-Anne a few days before Christmas to meet up with our friends Gigi and Bob on s/v Pinnacle and Vince and Ralph on s/v Flight Plan.  They are great friends of ours and we did everything we could to get to Martinique to be with them for the holidays.  It wasn’t easy as the Christmas winds were strong and we had just a very short window to get to Martinique, but we made it !

 

Reunited after several months:  Bob, Gigi, Tim, Susan, Vince

BOB & TIM ENJOYING LORRAINE BEER

SUSAN & GIGI CELEBRATING OUR REUNION

We visited the Belfort Banana plantation.  We toured on a small open train as they educated us on bananas and had live demonstrations.  Once the bananas produce fruit, they die.  Each plant has a shoot so the main plant is cut down to allow the shoots to grow.  The main pod is the male flower and each banana has a female flower on the end which is removed before shipping. The banana trees, once dead are cut at about 5 feet because there is still sap in the trunks which help with the shoots that are growing.  It takes 6-9 months for the fruit to mature.  Blue or green bags are put over the fruit to fend off birds nesting, bugs and sun burn.  Their enemies are weevils.  Plastic bins are put every so many acres with a special pill to attract the weevils that eventually kills them.  This particular plantation exports to France only.  It takes 12 days by boat to reach France and then they gas the bananas so that they ripen all at the same time.  I can’t remember the type of gas.  After they cut the banana stocks they clean them in chlorinated water.  After the tour, we tasted fresh bananas, banana chips and banana wine which surprisingly, it was very good.  

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GIGI MADE ME A GIFT

THE BUS WAS A TAD SMALL

BUTTERFLY ON A MANDARIN TREE

CUTTING BANANAS OFF THE STALK

PROTECTS THE BANANAS

WASHING THE BANANAS

BANANA WINE TASTING

 We hiked about 10 miles from St-Anne to Point Saline and took the road back to St-Anne.  This hike is mostly next to the seashore and pretty well marked.  The town painted red marks on Manchineel trees since they are poisonous.  It’s particularly a bad idea to sit under a Manchineel tree while it’s raining.  There are several pretty deserted beaches, some nude beaches then a large local beach with eateries along the way. 

Right after the large beach is an observatory deck.  Locals were fishing crab to make crab soup and stuffed crab when they found larger ones.

We kept hiking to an area called the petrified forest.  We’re not sure why they call it a petrified forest because it’s quite barren with cactus and no sight of petrified trees. This is a very beautiful with crashing waves on the steep cliffs. 

CRAB HOLDING A LEAF

POINTE SALINE BEACH

AT THE PETRIFIED FOREST

WINDWARD

CAVE AT WINDWARD SIDE

I DIDN'T KNOW THAT HERMIT CRABS CAN CLIMB TREES

HAVING LUNCH ON THE WINDWARD SIDE

A FARM THAT COVERED THE SOIL WITH WHITE AND BLACK PLASTIC SHEETS

LOCALS CAUGHT CRAB FOR MAKING SOUP

We also hiked Creve Coeur from St-Anne.  It has beautiful views of Le Marin, St-Anne and the Windward coast.  

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Tim, Gigi, Bob, Therese, Susan, Vince, Denis (s/v Dames Des Mers)

A BEAUTIFUL CRAB WE SAW WHILE SNORKELING

Only in Martinique and Guadeloupe do they produce Rum Agricole which is made from cane sugar, not molasses.  There are several rum distilleries so we chose to visit La Mauny.   The popular drink in Martinique made only of Rum Agricole is called Ti-Punch (small punch).  The recipe is:  1 oz of Rum Agricole, 3 ice cubes, juice of ¼  lime and a bit of sugar cane juice.  

On Christmas Eve we celebrated on s/v Flight Plan and ohhhhh, did we have fun until 2:30 am.  We all brought lots of good food and French champagne along with kazoos and the few decorations we had.   

On Christmas day,  Lise of s/v Vomo organized a beach party and pot luck for 70 Quebecers…and Tim.   There were several people who spoke English and they chatted Tim up.  The best part were the games we all participated in; throwing water balloons, picking up peas with straws, 3 legged race, tug of war and more.  This was an all day affair and by the time we got back to our boat, we had eaten so well that we just crashed for the night

  

Grand Anse D’arlet was our next stop for New Year’s.  It’s a beautiful anchorage with clear water and a nice beach.  There are several huge turtles that swim the waters around your boat.  We took the dinghy to Anse D’arlet to snorkel and it was great !  I saw a huge crab and collected some nice shells. What was interesting was that I found a large conch shell with an octopus in it.  I wonder if she chased the conch out of its shell ?

  

BEACH AT ANSE D'ARLET

FISHERMAN ADDING BAIT TO HIS LINE.  LOOK HOW MANY HOOKS HE HAS !

New Year’s Eve was spent on Alpenglow with friends Bob, Gigi, Veronique & Philipe, Theresa & Denis, Vince & Ralph.  Yup, we had 10 people on board for a pot luck and lots of laughs.  Around 11pm we went to shore to dance until 2:30am.  Happy New Year !!!!

NEW YEAR'S EVE ON ALPENGLOW

We visited the Shell museum at Le Diamant.  It boasts 4,000 exhibits.

BERNARD THE HUGE HERMIT

We walked thru the town of Le Diamant and also stopped to visit the Caffard memorial.  Le Diamant is a rock in the ocean seen from the south shores of Martinique.  Years ago, the British army installed canons on the top to stop the French from going to Fort De France.  

LE DIAMANT

CAFFARD MEMORIAL

St-Pierre lies at the foot of the Mt.Pelee volcano.  On May 8^th, 1902, the volcano erupted, killing all the estimated 29,933 residents except for two.  Leon Leandre, a cobbler and the famous Cyparis, imprisoned for murder was in a stone cell.   The volcano released  superheated gas releasing more energy than an atomic bomb.  Twelve ships in the bay were destroyed at anchor.  One managed to escape with a few survivors. Many ruins still remain and many post disaster buildings have been built onto old structures.  Many new buildings share at least one wall with the past.  

WE HIKED MT.PELEE 

RUIN IN ST-PIERRE

PRISON CELL OF THE ONLY SURVIVOR

Things to know:

-  People say bonsoir (not bonne après midi) either after 12:00 noon.
-  They don't say right or left, instead they move their arm towards the left of right.

- You must learn to speak some Creole.  Ma doudou means My dear.

- Poulet Boucaner:  smoked chicken or fish but smoked with sugar cane stocks.

HINTS FOR CRUISERS:

- Belfort Banana plantation (tel: 0696 24 25 89).  Tour is in French and English.

- Point Saline Hike:  Hike from St-Anne hugging the shore.  It’s a very well marked trail.  You will eventually get to a busy beach with eateries.  This is your only opportunity to get food and water, however at 11am, they were not open yet.  You will see the observatory on your left right after the beach.  Continue on to the petrified forest.  After the forest, you'll get to a parking lot at Baie Des Anglais.  You may be able to take the road here to get back to St-Anne.  Or, continue thru the parking lot and the trail continues onto Anse Trabaud.  You'll eventually come to a huge agriculture farm that you'll hike right next to.  The trail comes to a road.  To take the road back to St-Anne:  At the road, turn Left.  at the T, turn left again.  At the next T, turn right.  When you get to the highway, turn left.  This hike took us 7 hours but we did stop often.  Bring lots of water. 
- Muse du Coquillage (Shell Museum),  Hotel Lecrin Bleu Le Diamant 0596 76 41 92 daily 9-18h, 5 Euros. 
- Botanical Garden Balata.  www.jardeinbalata.fr  0596 64 48 73 (we did not go)
- Farm Business / Exploitation agricole 0696 26 64 54 (we did not go)

- St-Pierre, men’s haircut:  Alex Martine Coiffure, Rue Bouille 06 96 31 46 00

- Gorge du Falaisse, St-Pierre (near Morne Rouge).  Only open if it doesn’t rain too much.  7 Euros to go in.  Guided.  To find out if it’s open, you can call the restaurant owner next to the Gorge at 0596 53 3561.

- Cypress Train tour in St-Pierre is only in French.  It looks a little touristy but I heard that the guide is extremely informative.