Today we swapped one paradise for another and found ourselves in Martinique. An island nation once owed by France, French is the national language and although it's located close to the US and a frequent destination for US travelers surprisingly English is a rarity. We arrived at the airport, met our transfer and drove about 50km around the island to our resort. Located on a private beach with lush gardens and pathways for days we were pretty happy with our home for the next 3 nights. We spent our time swimming, relaxing and soaking up more of the Caribbean sun. It was actually nice to just stop for a few more days and not have to worry about tours or schedules.
Not before long we were packing our bags and headed towards the cruise terminal ready to board our ship for our week long Caribbean island hopping cruise. We arrived and were first to embark thanks to our priority boarding. After some lunch we spent the afternoon looking around the ship and getting our bearings. This ship was much larger than the one we crossed the Atlantic on so there were a lot more things to find. In addition to the extra bars and themed cafes we found an America style sports bar complete with 2 lanes of mini 10 pin bowling. But the most fun find was tucked away on deck 16. This ship had a 4D cinema and a F1 simulator. Needless to say my hubby was a happy man. We got the gaming package which gave us unlimited access to all the entertainment. Caleb definitely got his moneys worth as he managed to achieve a time on the Barcelona track that would have qualified him on 18th last year. And I was pretty happy bowling while enjoying a cocktail or two.
That night we set sail and woke up in Guadalupe. Another island once owned by the French, this country is known as the 'butterfly' island for it's unique outline. Comprising of 2 islands, one of which is coral and the other volcanic, it's not hard to see why it's a draw card for many Europeans. We spent the day at Ilet Du Gosier, a lighthouse island just off the main coast. We took a catamaran from the harbor which sailed us around the coast for approx 45 mins until we reached the island. With blue skies and crystal clear water, it was a stunning location to spend the day. When it was time to leave the crew opened up the sails and took us to slightly open water for the wind to do her job. As we sailed back to the mouth of the harbor we sailed past a smaller boat and a support boat who had a couple of men onboard playing the bagpipes. Intrigued, our crew let us know the sail boat was participating in a yacht race from France to Guadalupe and they had just arrived and that the bagpipes were their welcome party.
The next day we awoke to the views of St Lucia. Unsurprisingly another beautiful Caribbean gem seemingly untouched except for a scattering of homes seen along the coast. We booked an off-road segway tour around Rodney Bay and lucky for us it ended up as a private tour. Our guide, a true Rastafarian, took us to some superb lookouts and gave us an insight to life on the island. The mountain path we took was littered with US history as we were shown ammunition bunkers used by the US in WWII as they prepared to defend any threats wanting access to the Panama Canal. We finished our tour at one of the main local beaches before heading back to town and making our way back to the ship.
Barbados was our next stop and we opted to do our own thing instead of a tour. We wondered into town and visited the Cricket Legends of Barbados museum. This museum celebrates the local players who played for the West Indies in the 60s, 70s & 80s. Caleb was in heaven. It was very well set up with old team uniforms, dress jackets, equipment, game clips and newspaper articles for all to see. Up the road was the Mount Gay rum distillery. This distillery is the oldest in the world dating back 315 years and the rum is still made with the same hand cut sugar cane as it was back in the 1700s. We joined a tasting tour and spent a couple of hours out of the sun at this iconic place before heading back to the ship.
On day 5 of our cruise we found ourselves in Trinidad & Tobago. As the islands tourism is heavily based around plant life and botanical gardens we opted to spend the day at the famed Maracas Beach. The journey to get there was about an hour from port and on the way we passed cricket legend Brian Lara's mansion and had a photo opportunity at a lookout overlooking Maracas Beach. Today was the only average weather so far on this cruise so the waves were a little rougher than usual and the water colder than what we've been used to so we spent the day lounging on the beach and just soaking up the views.
It was time for more adventure on day 6 of our cruise and today we were in Grenada. Pronounced like the word Grenade, the country gained independence from Britain in 1974 and then underwent a Cuban-backed revolution in 1979. When the Prime Minister was executed in 1983 the USA invaded and any lingering communism was abolished. Today it is a settled place and the locals are as friendly as we have come to experience in this part of the world. We booked a private ATV tour that took us about 40km all throughout the southern tip of the island. We traveled along back roads through farms and abandoned pieces of land as well as the main roads. We stopped off at a number of view points and rested at a popular beach location before making the offroad trek back to the main office. Lucky for us we were given bandannas to limit the dust to our faces but like it or not we still returned to the ship 5 shades darker before we enjoyed a well needed shower. Again this island offered some very beautiful scenery and lovely people. Definitely one for the return list.
Last but not least our final day was spent in St Vincent & and Grenadines. Made famous by the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, we decided to do the Pirate Tour to check it out. We traveled to the remote bay known as Port Royal in the movie. Parts of the set still remain although show a lot of wear & tear from storms over the last 15 years. The locals keep the gimmicks coming with life sized gallows and a noose you can get photos in which seemed to be a huge hit with the group. We then stopped at Fort Charlotte which has magnificent views over the coastline and was once used to patrol the seas. We made our way to the other side of the island and spent the rest of the day and our last day in the Caribbean on a pristine beach with water as blue as the sky. The best way to wrap up our time in these islands.
All too soon we were disembarking the ship. We spent an extra night in Martinique as our flight wasn't until the next morning heading up to New York. As we got a taxi in the early hours of the morning our time in Martinique came to an abrupt end when the taxi driver assaulted Caleb by throwing a full water bottle at his head as we entered the airport terminal. It came about as he charged each party in the van the price of the full fare essentially charging a ridiculous amount for the ride and when we said we'd share the fare like normal he threatened us with the police which we were happy for him to go and get. After waiting over 30 mins for the police we decided to just pay the individual fare pricing as we didn't want to miss our flight. As I received the receipt I slammed the door, as this guy had ripped us off and treated us like idiots, he then proceeded to run after us into the terminal and throw the bottle at Caleb's head. We went to the Police station upstairs and they didn't give a crap as we were English speaking tourists. We were fobbed off and told to only speak French to the officers. After eventually getting a police report we made our way to the gate.
Now as a travel agent we have to remain neutral on people's opinions on destinations as what happens to one doesn't happen to all. But on this occasion I'm happy to share in this blog that we will not consider travel to Martinique again in the future and for any French speaking nations we will take time to reconsider travel in the future. It's sad it came to this but any country who treats it's visitors with absolutely no respect because of the native language spoken doesn't deserve our money in my opinion. We've never had this before in our 52 country experience which unfortunately bought this happy cruise to a not so not happy ending.
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