We took the catamaran to Martinique which was late and it took nearly 3 hours to cross the ocean. It was a puke fest. I stayed in the air conditioned area below which had a socket for my laptop and I sat in front of a family of 4. This should have been a signal for me to move away as 5 minutes after we started sailing the little boy behind me puked his guts up. He puked all over himself and into the bag he was holding as well as all over the floor in front of him. I got some splash back on my rucksack which I quickly moved out of the way and I moved over to another seat. The smell of the puke and the sounds of the people retching were starting to get to me. Eventually I felt a little queasy so I took myself to the toilet. As I was peeing I could hear more retching, loud retching and sounds of puke hitting the floor. I really couldn’t take it and I turned my head to the bin to my right in the stalls and puked my guts out. Everything I ate at lunchtime and my snacks all came rushing out. The best part was I that felt much better afterwards. I watched my show on the laptop until we arrived in Martinique late at night.
Martinique is just like being in France except for all the palm trees. It is much more expensive but everything about it from shops, people, street signs and food is just like being in France. I didn’t really feel like I was in the Caribbean. The boat arrived at Fort du France and then we took a drive to Anse Miton which was my base for 3 nights. The place was like a Butlins holiday resort with a pool and its own beach albeit a very small one. The sea was very clam almost looking like an infinity pool going all the way out to the sea and reaching the horizon. The rooms were basic with no mosquito nets but at least it had air con. The mosquitoes were still as vicious.
I did a day trip to the town of St Pierre which is in the north of the island. This town has an active volcano, Mount Pelee. This town was known as the Paris of the Caribbean until 1902 when the volcano erupted killing everybody except for one prisoner who was in an underground cell. He was burnt as some ash and steam came through the small windows and he survived for another 4 days until looters found him. He was then sold to a circus and became one of the freaks on show. Not really the best life and not sure if he was lucky to have survived the eruption only to be a freak in a show because f his burns. Then we headed to St James and its distillery. You could taste all the rum you wanted before buying any or none at all. They were all too strong for me but I did enjoy the chilled coconut rum.
We had a walk to St Anne’s Beach. This walk was fun because we got to pass Willy Beach first. Willy beach is for guys who like to be naked. I saw many naked guys on this walk and even an old naked woman. One old naked guy had a cock ring as well. I only wished I had the courage to take photos. It did put a smile on my face. When we got to our beach we stayed for hours, swimming and sunbathing and drinking lots of the fresh fruit juices. The beach was busy and full of French people so obviously we had some topless ladies. The waves were strong but I still stayed in the sea for hours.
On our last day we had to get to Port du France to get our ferry to St Lucia, so from Anse Miton, we took a mini ferry over and as I stayed up top got wet in the rain. Luckily it was hot when we arrived so I was able to dry off while checking out the town. I had lunch near the famous bibliotheque and then tried to get into the fort only to realise it was an active naval base closed to tourists.
After another short stay on another expensive island which didn’t feel like an island to me at all but like being in the South of France, I was happy to get back to St Lucia on the very fun Wave Rider.
