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<\/a><\/p>\nSince it was early February, it was getting close to Carnival, and the various fabric shops in Fort de France were busy selling bright, shiny fabrics and lots of feathers and glittery trims to customers.\u00a0 I was lucky to wade through the crowds to find a beautiful linen\/cotton blend fabric with a subdued floral print in muted greens and creams on a pale periwinkle ground. So French…\u00a0 Meanwhile, you can see what types of fabrics attract the locals!<\/p>\n
There is a beautiful public library in Fort de France designed by Gustav Eiffel and named for the man who abolished slavery on Martinique–Schoelscher.\u00a0 We passed this library on every walk through the city we took, and I spent a productive afternoon inside the library doing work on the Archie Brennan Project.\u00a0 It was the fastest internet I’ve had all winter!\u00a0 It’s a bit shocking that the interior of this building is completely different from the exterior.\u00a0 Inside the rooms are institutional and drab!<\/p>\n We also walked up to the bus station to catch a bus to the well known Ballata Gardens.\u00a0 This botanical garden was the private home of the grandparents to the designer.\u00a0 He spent his childhood in the simple, traditional syle house, and when he chose gardening for his vocation, he spent a great deal of time and resources turning the surrounding area into a remarkable place.<\/p>\n Just outside the back porch of the house,\u00a0that has a deep overhang on the roof shading the verandas on each side of the house, there were nectar feeders\u00a0that attracted quantities of hummingbirds. Bob got this shot with our digital SLR–it would have been nearly impossible for either of us to catch this moment with our iphones, but plenty of others were trying!\u00a0 When the sun catches them, they are so iridescent!<\/p>\n Later in St. Anne, Carnival arrived and Bob got this shot of a very pretty little devil!<\/p>\n While we were in St. Anne, there was a barbecue for cruisers every Friday at noon.\u00a0 We met in the shade of trees along a beach, and the couple on Out of Africa<\/em> brought a grill and charcoal ashore, in their dinghy (!), to share with anyone who wanted to cook a hot meal.\u00a0 The rest of us brought something to grill and another dish to share.\u00a0 Some of the cruisers brought their musical instruments to play, which made the event quite festive!\u00a0 As you can see, these were quite the gatherings each Friday.<\/p>\n I doubt there was ever a more entertaining musical duo than these two with their\u00a0accordion and little horn.\u00a0 Is that a cornet? I love accordion music! So French, so Italian, so Polish…..so many\u00a0cultures have terrific accordion music!<\/p>\n Here’s a view of the anchorage at St. Anne from the beach where the cookouts took place.<\/p>\n A couple of times we enjoyed a sundowner from this perch overlooking the harbor in St. Anne.\u00a0 Pandora is one of the dark hulled boats near the center of the photo.<\/p>\n This is the sight that greeted us each time we came ashore in St. Anne.\u00a0 It is literally right at the end of the dock.\u00a0 There was a service everyday at 6pm–Catholic, since this is a French island– and the service always drew a large crowd.\u00a0 During the service you could hear the music from anywhere along the main street. (Sorry the photo is crooked!–it’s the photographer, not the church!)<\/p>\n A few weeks later, we drove further up the road in a rental car, past Ballata Gardens to a nature preserve that has well paved paths through the rainforest.\u00a0 That day was the highlight of our stay on Martinique.\u00a0 It was a long day, walking on trails in the rainforest, visiting the highest road on the island, partway up the volcano Mt. Pelee that erupted in 1902, and destroyed the town of St. Pierre right below. I wrote about this day a few weeks back,\u00a0 but to recap I’m including a few more photos.<\/p>\n Here is the beautiful trail into the rainforest.\u00a0 The entire walk was paved, and all the cement was brought in by men only–no pack animals, and no modern equipment.<\/p>\n In the rainforest.<\/p>\n Tiny pink bananas.<\/p>\n After our morning walk, we decided to drive up Mt. Pelee as far as the road would take us.\u00a0 You can hike up the rest of the way, but I bet it would be challenging!\u00a0 And on the day we visited the top of the mountain was well shrouded in cloud.\u00a0 While just a bit lower, in the rainforest, we had glorious sunshine, this is what we found as we drove to higher elevations.<\/p>\n After a short stop here, we drove back into the sunlight and stopped at the Depaz rum distillery, which is one of several historic sites on Martinique.\u00a0 I’ve already mentioned how memorable a visit that<\/em> was!<\/p>\n It began to feel like we might never leave Martinique, and there were still plenty of things do there.\u00a0 But, after a month, we pulled anchor and sailed to St. Lucia.\u00a0 I was openly nervous about this since we hear of dinghy thefts there almost weekly, and also some occasional crime\u00a0 involving bodily harm.\u00a0 Hmmm… We had been assured that we’d be safe enough in Rodney Bay, but it is a crowded harbor with dirty water.\u00a0 We often like to swim in the late afternoon and we usually make water every couple of days. This would not be possible in Rodney Bay, so we chose to take our chances anchoring just outside the harbor.\u00a0 I never felt threatened there, so it was a good experience.\u00a0 We pulled our dinghy up into the davits every night, and when we went ashore, Bob always locked the dinghy to the dock with a heavy cable.<\/p>\n Outside Rodney Bay, we were anchored just off a couple of popular resorts.\u00a0 One of them was Sandals, where my sister stayed with her husband back before she had her first daughter who is now almost 13.\u00a0 It was fun to reminisce with her about her vacation there. I sent her photos.<\/p>\n For Bob and me, the highlight of St. Lucia was Marigot Bay.\u00a0 It is a tiny teacup of a harbor, with a wonderful resort on one side of the harbor.\u00a0 By taking a mooring in this little pond, we had access to all the resort facilities.\u00a0 Boy, did we have fun with that!\u00a0 We spent several relaxing, lazy days under an awning at the pool, writing blogs posts and reading books, and spent evenings in the beautiful open air restaurants.\u00a0 One night we had a compressed melon salad topped with feta cheese and mint and a lemony vinaigrette, followed by tuna tartare which has been my favorite dish to order throughout these islands.<\/p>\n Here is Pandora, framed in the entrance to the resort. She’s the dark hulled boat to the right.<\/p>\n Each morning ‘boat boys’ row or paddle out in the skiffs or on paddle boards, laden with fruits and vegetables.\u00a0 We can buy fresh fruit every morning, along with tomatoes, cucumbers, onions….\u00a0 Today we were visited by a basket man, who weaves baskets from coconut palm fronds.\u00a0 His baskets are beautiful, and while I was looking at a couple of them, he made me a little ‘fish on a stick’ as a present.\u00a0 While I realize this is a great ploy to get me to buy a basket, I still think it is a generous thing to do.\u00a0 It only took him a minute, but it just reinforces my belief that weavers are often such generous people.\u00a0 I still have the little snake and bird that the Cuban basket weaver made for me a couple of years ago. It was so nice to start the day talking to a weaver! His name is Tom.<\/p>\n This was our most colorful visitor!<\/p>\n And look what we got!\u00a0 I’ve never seen a lemon that big– and it was full of juice!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n