Martinique

Sunday January 28           

I set up a private tour with Taxi Norden Vincent. We have been here once before, but it has been quite a few years ago. We opted for a North Island tour with Botanical Gardens & lunch stop at a Creole Restaurant. Taxi Norden Vincent http://taxinordenvincent.wixsite.com/discover-martinique

We were joined today by Trish & Gary and Hope & Jimmy, very nice tour mates to share the day with. We got a later start due to high winds and the Captain had trouble getting docked.

It was extremely windy as we made our way out of the port to find our guide. Despite being an hour late Tomas was waiting for us. He led us to the van and then had a large map of the island to show us an overview of our plan for the day. There was another lady (not part of our group) that came and stood right in front of the map and then tried to join the tour. She didn’t want to take no for an answer, despite the guide saying it was a 6 person private tour. We only had one empty seat so she and her husband wouldn’t have fit anyway.

We drove though town past pastel colored homes in the hills and made several stops to take in the scenery before arriving at our first stop of Sacre Coeur of Balata church (a small replica of Montmartre "Sacre Coeur" church from Paris). Since it was Sunday morning there was a service going on in the simple but beautiful church.

 

 

  

We proceeded to higher and higher elevation as we drove through the rainforest and stopped at the Alma River for some photo ops.

Our next stop was at a waterfall called "saut du gendarme". Since we had to cross a little river, we changed into water shoes. The water was cold on our feet. Yikes! There were people there rappelling down from the top of it. Tomas passed out some wonderful pastries that his wife made. (like empanadas filled with pineapple or guava. Both were very yummy. Unfortunately, it started to rain so we headed back to the van.

The rain stopped before we went to our next stop which was to visit a botanical garden "Domaine d'Emeraude". We did a short 20 min trail within the tropical forest and saw a couple of new birds. Greg got great shots of a couple of them. It was a small Botanical Garden and I think there was a nicer one on another part of the island that didn’t fit into our schedule that would have been the better choice of Botanical Gardens - probably would have been Balata.

 Bananaquit

 Antilllean Crested Hummingbird

Our next stop was to visit the Depaz rum distillery located at the feet of the sleepy volcano "Mont Pelee".  We visited the site to see how rum was made and then we got to taste the delicious rum and liquors. DEPAZ rum factory was created in 1651. There was one flavored with peanut that was very interesting. (the only one I finished)

 our guide Tomas

 Greg & Hope

 Trish & Gary

 Tomas & Jimmy

We drove through St Pierre - the formal capital of Martinique called Little Paris before the volcanic eruption in 1902 which killed 28 000 people in less than 2 minutes (except 1 lucky guy) and a quiet walk within the ruins of the town.

It was then lunch time and we had a great meal at Le Petibonum where just about only French was spoken and we had to navigate the menu in French with the assistance of one of the servers who spoke a tiny bit of English. Her explaining the Kangaroo meat was so cute as she put her hands together like a kangaroo and bounced up and down. 

Greg ordered the Fried Flying Fish and I had the Kangaroo steak. We both enjoyed ours very much and the side dishes were exceptionally tasty. Breadfruit, sweet and regular plantains and some sweet potato things all were very good. I have had Kangaroo before in Australia and it is a very tasty meat as good as or better than a good steak made of beef. Everyone at the table wanted to try it. I think most people preferred that over what they ordered. It was time to finish the drive around the island and make our way back to the ship. Despite the rain, it was a great day out in the lush countryside with our small group. We were to stop at a black sand beach, but the weather was terible and the surf was high and rough.

 Hope & Trish

 now that's a beer!

 flying fish plate

 Kangaroo Steak plate

 this little guy was outside of the bathroom

The drive back to the port.

As we walked through the port a local culture group was parading in playing instruments and singing. We got swept up in them as we made our way through security. After they got cleared to come into the port they put on a very fun performance for the people out on deck on the ship. Nice ending to our tour day.

 sail away

The entertainment tonight was David Meyer who plays a xylosynth and is a very high energy entertainer that plays a unique instrument. We have seen him before, but it was fun to watch his show again.

Martinique https://photos.app.goo.gl/Kj4bfLYhBGIUgoVL2

Early to bed for our next port of St. Vincent’s & the Grenadines.