Martinique

We left St. Lucia May 19th for Martinique and John left for home on the 20th. Martinique is a department of France and is very much what you would expect a French island to be like, but friendlier. As civilized and developed as it was, internet was sparse and not entirely reliable. Steve's already mentioned the keyboard issue. He actually asked the girl at the bar counter if they had a regular keyboard and she replied, "No, this is France." Fair enough.

Most of our 13 days here were spent walking around the various coastal towns and floating around on our inflatable loungers. We became quite enamored with that latter activity actually. So much so that we lamented each day that we did not get to do so. And miss it terribly now.

One of the towns we visited was Sainte Pierre the original settlement and capital of the island until Mt Pelee exploded in 1902 decimating the town and killing all 30,000 inhabitants, the largest number of casualties by a volcano in that century and since. Well, all except for the guy in the drunk tank who was protected by the thick stone walls of his prison. Apparently he wasn’t necessarily the only survivor, but Barnum circus touted him as such. Makes for a better story without the correction. Sainte Pierre was partially rebuilt and is now a picturesque coastal town with its palm lined beach, brightly colored buildings, and Mt Pelee hovering overhead in the near distance. It was a quiet town with most of the bustling done by the tourists shuttling in their air-conditioned buses from one ruin to the next. We did our own shuffle in the blazing heat and made our away around to the see the remains of the theatre, church, and prison. They appeared to just have left the rubble where they fell and one of the pieces of the church’s arches made a nice recliner.