Pictures above: 1. The St. Pierre Cathedral Bell after the 1902 volcano eruption. 2. Looking down from the Balata Garden Entrance. 3. Water Lilly (Nymphaea Caerulea). 4. So called Banana Breasted Carib. Any of your ornithologists have the true name? 5. Balata Church. 6. Dining Room leprechauns
March 17 – Fort de France, Martinique. Happy Saint Patrick's Day!! Another in the string of French Departments so more Euros and more speaking French. I actually understand quite a bit of French but I'm hopeless with the grammar so I can't form sentences. I can usually understand what they are saying and I'm mostly successful in getting my point across with a French word here and there plus hand gestures and pointing.
I guess I should finally mention the weather. The first two ports we had an early rain shower followed by a beautiful, if somewhat hot and humid day. Today there's no rain so it did not start off as humid but was warmer than predicted.
We're taking a circle drive to the northern end of the island where the highest mountain are and the rain forest. On these volcanic islands the mountains are steep and the updrafts produce clouds and rain producing lush green forests on the wet side slopes. The first part of our drive is on an ocean front highway with very pretty views. We passed through the small village of Schoelcher (Shoal-shay) the name of the man who brought abolition to the island in the mid-late 1800s. We are heading to the town of Saint Pierre.
The harbor entrance is guarded by Fort St. Louis, a colonial structure. The distinctive red and ocher spire of the St. Louis Cathedral rises above downtown Fort de France. It has some impressive stained glass windows depicting events in local history.
Saint Pierre is the oldest town on the island and was the original capital of the island. It was known as the 'Paris of the West Indies' and was famous for its free attitudes and nightlife. All that ended in 1902 with the eruption of Mt. Pele. The entire town of 30,000 people was wiped out. Only two things survived intact: the 1766 stone bridge and Cyparis, a villager who had been thrown in jail for drunkenness the night before. His cell protected him from the pyroclastic mix of superheated gasses and ash that swept down on the village killing everyone else and knocking down at least part of every building. He was severely burned on his left shoulder and back but lived to tour the world recounting his experiences. He died in Panama years later. Some of the buildings were not rebuilt and stand as stark testament to the appalling destruction.
There's a volcanic museum in the city that has before and after pictures and some relics recovered from the rubble. The most interesting one to me was the cathedral's bell. It was squashed almost flat and completely torn apart down one of the narrow sides.
From St. Pierre we turned inland towards the aforementioned Mt. Pele. It's the tallest mountain on Martinique at about 4,590 feet. The road is steep, up and down and twisting. Then we turned south to go to the Balata Botanical Garden. It's on an old estate so there are some very well established plantings but it has just been opened after being designed and planted over a 20-year period. It's a very good collection and extremely well tended. The paths are all up and down as it's on a hillside but then most everything on the island is on a hillside here in the north. After going through the old house that serves as the entrance there's a large porch at the highest point in the garden. There were hummingbird feeders on the porch that were attracting two species of birds; a curved beak hummingbird with a red chest that I'm told is called a Ruby Breasted Carib and a little yellow-breasted wren or finch like bird that I don't know at all. Someone told me it's a Banana Breasted Carib, but I am not confident that is true. (One thing I've learned from travel is that many guides will make something up if they don't know the answer.)
The plant species are from all over the world, Polynesia, South and Mezzo America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Many of the plants are in bloom so it's very pretty. Hibiscus, ginger, heliconia, bromeliads, water lilies, croton and anthurium of various varieties plus many plants I couldn't identify were on display. They also have mahogany, palm and all sorts of flowering trees. A very nice walk in beautiful surroundings.
Our last stop of the day was at the Balata Church. It's a mini replica of the Church of the Sacred Heart on Montmartre in Paris. It's fairly plain in side but attractive nevertheless. It has some colorful but small stained glass windows that depict various plants and flowers in a stylized fashion.
Being St. Patrick's Day the ship is decorated in green and white in most public rooms but especially the bars and dining room. It will be quite a party tonight.
The dining room was decorated in green and white and the staff were all in Irish garb. The waiters and assistant waiters were Irish gentlemen, the table captains and bar staff as well as the doorman were leprechauns.
Our entertainers were the Motown group Horizon with an entirely new show. They still sang Motown but they added Doo Wop and a little bit of Spinners disco at the end. Much of the older audience did not come to this show, if it's not big band or show tunes they are not interested. Must be comforting to have such narrow horizons. I like big band and show tunes too but when that's all they had (and by the way that's mostly what they have had for since we started cruising in 1981 until just the last few years) it was very boring.
On the up side, the people who did show up were into it. They had another great show but this time they did the really big hits like Heard it on the Grapevine and What's Goin' On.
They had a St. Patty's day party in the Crow's Nest (That's the bar at the top of the ship forward. It's right above the bridge and has a great 270-degree view from the bow.) The staff was dressed in green with Irish hats and shamrocks. They had Irish trivia games and sang corny Irish songs. It was fun.
Another early morning so I'd better get this sent and get some sleep.
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