But first a little catching up and how we even got to Martinique…
After our Barbados trip, we returned to Grenada and quickly set out for St Vincent and the Grenadines, the large group of islands to the north. Having been there several times now, we sought out some new spots such as Saline Beach on the island of Mayreau. Just around the corner from Salt Whistle Bay, this is a large bay with a beautiful beach and it offered much better protection from the northerly swells hitting the island. John was able to limp to Lolo’s Bar for a night out and after a couple days we moved on to Port Elizabeth, Bequia. We took the ferry to St Vincent and explored Fort Charlotte. This fort is unique in the islands in that it was not built to protect against threats from the sea. It was built in 1763 to protect against attacks by the Carib natives, slave revolts and a possible land attack from the French. It was later used as a leper colony and finally a women’s prison that closed in 2015. It now houses a marine signal station that is manned 24/7 to respond to ship emergencies. We had a great chat with the guy on duty and then taxied over to the other side of Kingstown, checking out a couple of big churches along the way, and caught a water taxi to Young Island. This island is next to Fort Duvernette (Click here to read from previous post) and has a single, sprawling resort that we explored. Our local taxi van (collectivo?) for the return trip was quite interesting. Tess had to sit on my lap, half the passengers were drinking beer – including the driver, the music was deafening and he had a lead foot on both pedals (and wet roads too!) It was about 1/20th of the taxi price. We then picked up our friend Patti and returned to Bequia for a few days.
Back in Bequia, the Treehouse restaurant proved to be a serious hike uphill but was well worth it. Completely off grid and run by the couple who live on site, it is a gourmet place with a view. We did some snorkeling as well and finally got up close to the Moonhole community, a group of hippies with money who built very natural homes off-grid in the 1960s. The first home was built under a massive natural arch, thus the name. Very interesting to see up close.
Our next destination was the Tobago Cays, with its wonderful turtles (same prior blog) and truly excellent beach BBQ.
The next country up was Saint Lucia where we spent a few days each in the Pitons/Soufriere, Marigot Bay, Castries and Rodney Bay.
Before long, we found ourselves in Europe, specifically the French island of Martinique. All three of us managed to get a bit under the weather so we recovered in Saint Anne before moving to Fort de France for the Carnival celebrations, which we covered in the last blog.
After carnival, we rented a car and explored the rest of the island, with a particularly great tour of the Distillerie Depaz. It was the first time we’ve ever been up close and personal with a fully operational rhum distillery. It was self guided and we could literally go everywhere. Man eating machinery and blazing hot liquids and pipes were quite literally “right there”!
Patti returned home and we sailed up to the little town of St Pierre, just below the Depaz plantation. In the 1800’s, St Pierre was the third largest city in the Caribbean behind only Havana and Kingston. Its bay was home to the richest trading port in the Lesser Antilles and the town was known as the Paris of the Caribbean. On March 8, 1902, nearby Mount Pelée erupted sending a pyroclastic cloud of extremely hot gases and ash that engulfed and incinerated the entire town. An estimated 29,000 people were killed with only one survivor, a man in a jail cell. All but one of the nearly 400 ships/work boats in the harbor were sunk due to the fire and tsunami. The one surviving ship was steel but most of its crew and passengers died. Today, virtually every building is built upon the foundations of those ruins and there are still some fascinating areas to explore, above and below the water. We did a bunch of dives on the 1902 wrecks right in the bay. All are absolutely covered with life.
We have been so fortunate to find a fun buddy boat. Their boat is also a Leopard 45, SV eKhaya. Bruce and Brenda, originally from South Africa, moved to the states about 30 years ago. They suggested we climb Mt. Pelée. Sure!! Sounds like fun, we’ve been staring at it for days. Nothing could have prepared us for what was easily the most strenuous “hike” we’ve ever done. Bruce and Brenda have a home in Colorado, do a lot of hiking and even they said it was extreme! Took us almost 9 hours to cover 6.5 miles with an elevation gain of over 3,000′. The summit is at 4,600′. Very glad we did it, loads of fun and an amazing experience, but we will never do it again. Ever! It was a true rain forest climb with 45 degree slopes for looong stretches. Many sections of bouldering which is very difficult as John has no depth perception. Incredible views when the clouds parted and a serious sense of accomplishment when we were done. Of course, what goes up must come down – on jelly legs, nonetheless! A large section in the middle is a loop around the caldera so it seemed like a different trail for much of the return. John’s broken foot was only 6 weeks old so that didn’t help him either. (We think Bruce and Brenda might be trying to kill us!) Either that or South Africans are just tougher. No, wait, I’m five years older than he is – THAT’S it!
