Mardi Gras in Matinique
Starcharger
Thu 13 Mar 2014 15:34
We have done a Rum Tour and visited the ruins of the church. The town was destroyed by a volcano in 1902, of the 30000 inhabitants only three survived! The attached photo shows the volcano above the town...
Yesterday we got a bus into the Rain Forest and walked across a range of hills through the forest it was awesome. We followed a canal out, not quite what we were expecting it was only a metre wide! But an easy walk after the morning's effort and incredible engineering.
We arrived in Martinique a week ago just in time for the last day of Mardi Gras. What a spectacle! The noise was unbelievable row upon row of drums in the marching bands and each band has a "following" of enthusiastic dancing supporters. I will try and find other carnivals as we go up and down the islands to compare as we arrived here only in time to catch the very end.
The reason for our delayed departure was two fold....first we bought another dinghy, second hand and that took longer than expected! It is excellent, one of our mistakes was not to buy a good enough dinghy in the first place. This one has a solid hull and a larger engine. We can get ashore in most places without getting soaked by the spray!
Second we took Marilyn, one of the waitresses from Jambe de Bois sailing. Her husband and kids came two. We anchored off Windjammer for lunch and went ashore for a ice cream. Gill then built sand castles and swam with the four year old daughter and I gave the 16 year old son a hard time for not working hard enough at school. But I did let Tristan steer all the way so I think he forgave me!
Today we intend to go to the museum and see the prison cell that saved one of the three survivors. We also need to go to the launderette and find where to check out. If we manage all that we will leave tomorrow.
More soon
Love
Alasdair, Gill, Habitat, Pickles and Star Charger
While sat eating breakfast, we saw a turtle!
Sent from Alasdair's iPad
Sent from Alasdair's iPad