Martinique

Tuesday, November 15th
Amazing Amazon
Day 22
M/S Regatta
Fort de France, Martinique
French West Indies
Windward Islands
Lesser Antilles
Arriving: 8:00 AM
Departing: 3:00 PM
Partly Cloudy - 88 Degrees

The Greater Antilles and the Lesser Antilles taken together are the West Indies, an arc of islands that forms the NorthEastern rim of the Caribbean Sea.

The Greater Antilles are the Northern reach of the arc and are the largest islands of the chain. They include:

• Cuba
• Jamaica
• Hispaniola
• Puerto Rico

The Lesser Antilles are the smaller islands to the South, and are further divided into the Windward and Leeward islands. Sailing ships from Europe following the currents and trade winds across the Atlantic come to the Windward Islands first. The Lesser Antilles are:

Windward Islands

• Dominica
• Martinique
• Saint Lucia
• Saint Vincent
• Grenadines
• Grenada

Leeward Islands

• Puerto Rican Virgin Islands: Vieques, Culebra
• U.S. Virgin Islands: St. Thomas, St. John, St. Croix, Water Island
• British Virgin Islands: Jost Van Dyke, Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada
• Anguilla
• Saint Martin/Sint Maarten
• Saint Barthélemy
• Saba
• Sint Eustatius
• Saint Kitts
• Nevis
• Barbuda
• Antigua
• Redonda
• Montserrat
• Guadeloupe
• Dominica

Fact and fiction have come together in our reading on this leg of the journey. "Caribbean" is an epic historical novel by James A. Michener that traces Caribbean history from the year 1310 to the present in 16 chapters, truth embellished, each a different story set on a different island and told from a different perspective, but all woven together to form a comprehensive narrative of the region.



Martinique is the largest of the Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.

Martinique is an island of lush landscapes, tropical flowers, verdant rain forests, and towering mountains. It is, "The Island of Flowers." Fort de France looked lovely as we sailed into the harbor this morning, but, as one guidebook noted, Fort de France "should be a grand place. It isn't, and hasn't been for decades." We crossed FdF off our list and took a tour out of the city.

Just outside of Fort de France, in the tropical jungle hills overlooking the city, is a monument to the Catholic Church, Mother France, and the colonial glory of the island. The Church of Balata was built in 1925, a one-fifth scale model of the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur at Montmartre in Paris. A bit of the grandeur has been lost in translation, the paint is peeling, and the setting doesn't set the right tone, but the architecture is inspiring and the views are incredible.

Saint Pierre is the heart of this island, broken and battered, singed and still smouldering. It was once "The Paris of the West Indies," the most modern town in the Caribbean, a picturesque seaside village on the NorthWestern coast of Martinique, in a stunning location at the foot of...Mount Pelee.

On May 8th, 1902, two thunderous explosions rocked the island, and Mount Pelee unleashed its fury. A cloud of burning ash and poisonous gas spewed into the air raining down over Saint Pierre and a flood of molten lava raced down the side of the mountain at 250 miles per hour. This torrent of death, reaching 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit, instantly vaporized everything in its path. 30,000 people, virtually the entire population of Saint Pierre, were killed in two minutes. Two minutes, flat.

We toured the village, but there is precious little to see. The remains of the old have become the foundation for the new. Le Musee de Saint Pierre tells the story of the tragedy. Pictures document the aftermath. The major artifact of the collection is the church bell, cracked like the Liberty Bell, melted by the heat, and crushed flat by the weight of the mountain on top of it.

Mount Pelee, the volcano long since dormant, is at peace, its shattered cone shrouded in mist.