02/03/2007, Portsmouth, Dominica
Friday night was music non-stop in the bay. This is preparation for the carnival (around Feb. 19). Though this music was nice for a while, it kept us up longer than we would have hoped it would. This morning, after the daily rain showers subsided, we went to the weekly local market to buy local vegetables. Those showers create incredible rainbows and make for the lush vegetation all over. At some point we will put all our pictures in the photo gallery once we find a cheap wifi place. So far, it's $5 US an hour.
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02/03/2007, Portsmouth, Dominica
Thursday, we went back to Norska for lunch to get ready for our Indian River scheduled trip. Spencer, graciously offered Cath a free tour of Portmouth. The trick was to hook yourself (the base of his thumb) with a rusty fish hook. Bill, having visions of the long line hook scene in The Perfect Storm, immediatly called the closest Seabird boat boy (Jeffrey) for a quick trip to urgent care where the smarter-than-Spencer hook got extracted making his palm grow three sizes too big. After trips to 3 pharmacies, we got the antibiotics perscription filled for a meager Eastern Caribbean $15 (aprx. $6 US). This makes you wonder what's going on with the pharma industry in the US. The urgent care was a way from the water front, so the whole event gave Cath a wonderful (and free!) sight-seeing trip with a local guide. Thanks Spencer, but next time, I'd rather pay! This incident gave us a full appreciation for the services rendered by boat boys. They have arranged our Indian River trip ($15 US per person), showed us the customs location, took us to the emergency room, proposed to pick up trash and do our laundry. Christian comes on his surf board everyday to sell fresh local fruit - grapefruit, bananas, passion fruit, and papaya. Dominica is fascinating! Very poor, yet smartly organized for tourism. Locals are very respectful and helpful to visitors. The Indian River trip, rescheduled Friday morning, was as magical as we read. Dede (our guide) claimed to have taken Johnny Depp on his boat during the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean 2. The treehouse that was built for the movie (where the 'witch' lives) has since been removed. Friday afternoon we went by dinghy to the cruise ship dock to visit Ft. Shirley in the Cabrits National Park. This is so worth the entry fee ($5 EC)! And we got the park, museum, and trails all to ourselves!! The area is being restored, and looks like a cruise ship day stop with informative signs everywhere. It gives you a glimpse of what Dominica is likely to become if tourism takes over. Spencer pretended to be an 18 century soldier defending his bay by climbing every cannon he could find. Shelby was counting crab claws left on the trail (don't know how they got there).
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02/01/2007, Portsmouth, Dominica
A quick post to let everyone know we survived our first passage :) Quite an adventure. We started at 6am from St Pierre with hardly any wind until we arrived by the tip of the island where we got slammed with a squall and higher than expected waves. Dinghy tried to leave us but we caught it red handed and tied it back up. Shelby was singing pretty much the whole time but Spencer got queasy (very rare for him). I cheated by taking motion sickness meds (stugeron - which unlike dramamine - keeps you awake). After those intense moments where we thought about turning back, we enjoyed a 7 knot sail across to Dominica for about 3 hours, then 4 more hours on the lee of the island with shifting winds. We arrived in North Dominica around 3pm and got greeted by the boat boys. We made arrangements to go see the Indian River this afternoon (the one filmed in Pirates of the Caribbean II) and some hiking tomorrow. Looks like we will be staying here until early next week unless the weather forecast changes.
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01/29/2007, St Anne, Martinique
After checking out of the residence (and hearing horror stories from the owners who lived 20 yrs on a boat with their children), we had a very nice lunch at Ti Toques and watched the yole race finish. We left Le Marin and motored off to St Anne for a quiet and breezy night. Shelby dove the anchor (holding was great and water at a perfect temperature). Simple dinner (avocado, bloody steak and local very sweet pineapple) Spencer scared the pee out of Bill last night when he went to the bathroom outside (a big no-no), and we thought we were boarded by strangers (after all the warnings from the residence owners). I am typing this post from the St Anne internet cafe, having a harder time than Shelby adapting to the French AZERTY keyboard. After lunch we will have a long sail to Grande Anse d'Arlet, see how my mom does under sail. She leaves tomorrow for Paris. One funny thing about Martinique is the Xmas signs and Santa Claus stay on until now.
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01/27/2007, Fort-de-France
Sorry no picture today.... We were all ready to set off for our last exploration day (before we return the car) except we could not find the camera...we looked and looked until we realized that the way we found our backpacks in the car the day before after a short hike was more than the result of poor organization of our part. Our car had been searched by others and the camera was a casualty of the event. The silver lining was that Fort-de-France was today's destination, one of the most provisioned cities in the Caribbean (called "the Paris of the cara�bes"). After coughing up the cost of a decent digital camera (mucho ouch here), we went ahead with our plans and enjoyed the market with its wonderful spices. We learned the hard way that Fort-de-France pretty much shuts down after 2pm on Saturday and given our late departure after the camera search, all stores were closed when we were done with lunch. Nevertheless we did see the Napol�on's empress statue with her head cut off (by vandalism from those who despite the fact that her husband re-instituted slavery), as well as some amazing architecture. We took my mom to the Jardins de Balata, a botanical garden where cr�ole wedding pictures were being taken - Shelby decided on the spot that's where she will get married and Spencer left with a hummingbird skillfully made out of bamboo by local kids. Tomorrow we are returning the car and departing from the much enjoyed r�sidence to move in Norska. End of vacation-style....on to adventure-style.
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01/26/2007
On this day of heat and sun we went to the beach to have some fun. Actually, we split up in the morning. Papa went to the boat, Shelby stayed at the residence and boldly faced the laundry monsters with her bare hands, like Theseus and the Minotaur without the string, while I went with mom and mamy to the market. Mamy got some fruit, while mom and I went provisioning at "Leader Price" to get stuff that didn't need refrigeration. We all met back at the residence for lunch, and then went to the beach to windsurf, except there wasn't enough wind to do so. A really nice person showed me how to find lambi, or conch. I valiantly went gallivanting into the water in search of lambi. I luckily found one, and I made a little sand fort with a pool of water so it would not run away, while I went after some more. But, in my absence, the evil tribal natives of the Garolagita tribe kidnapped it and roasted it alive! Well, not exactly. But someone did steal it from its little fort. But I got some icecream and I felt better. We then proceeded to hike up a little trail to the giant asparagus plant thing, and then we hiked down it (a lot of people forget to say that part). After a little watch-Shelby-drive-the-car humor we went back to the residence and mom and papa went to get dinner while we ate ours, so they got home and got to eat dinner after. Ooooooohh, and also, papa got these really cool high power binoculars, and you watch people like a mile away. In addition to that, he made us drink rum. No, wait. Actually, he made us drink the rum after he showed us the binoculars, which he did before the rum part. This rum is giving me a headache.......
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01/26/2007, North of Martinique
The car did make it to the longest exploration day on Martinique, but I have never driven on roads as winding as those north of Fort-de-France. Good thing I was driving as the back passengers did not look too good - they could have played jello like they never had, but somehow did not feel like it. The traffic jams South of Fort-de-France are just like they say in the guides - bumper to bumper from Rivi�re Sal�e to Fort-de-France. The North part of the island is lush with humongous bamboos. The climb to Montagne Pel�e is very steep which makes for a great view, especially when it is not caught in the clouds as it most often is. We got lucky, thanks to the R�sidence des Iles's owners who alerted us of the incredible weather day. The road back from St Pierre to Fort-de-France pleasantly goes by several seaside village right by the beach. Finally Mango Bay in Le Marin is a must stop with great food, great service. We asked for mojito with little sugar and those babies knocked our socks off, rare to have such strong drinks in France. It was packed but we got served in record speed, another thing rare in France :) Today if we can get the kiddos to wake up, we'll see the East side of Martinique and maybe do some windsurfing.
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01/25/2007, Mount Pel�e, Martinique
Another lovely day in Martinique. Our very first "early" departure (around 7:50....hey, it's early for island time) to the still active volcano Mount Pel�e, the same one that killed 32,000 people in St. Pierre on May 8, 1902. On the way there we were fortunate enough to meet Mr. Incredible! (no, he wasn't in his super suit......but he was a big man wedged in a very small car!) Halfway to the volcano, we stopped at a replica of Le Sacr� C?"ur. There we lighted candles for baby Zach and for Ms. Vlachos' family. After many hairpin turns through the mountains (with some queasy passengers) we finally made it to the summit. Within 5 minutes, we began the climb.....and I'm not kidding when I say climbing, it was all uphill with some steps that were at just the right level to sit at. Thank goodness we had water bottles, because man was it hot.......at the bottom. When we finally hit our turning around spot we had our heads in the clouds.....literally. Since there was no spot to stop and have lunch, we turned our tails around and raced down to the sandwiches that anxiously awaited our arrival. After the hike, we took our tiny car and drove to St. Pierre and took a pit stop at a Earth Science Museum (which consisted of education films and science projects-not a bad break from being scrunched in the car). Finally, we headed back to Le Marin and stopped at Mango Bay for some well-deserved dinner. The adults kicked back with a mohito, while the kids dug into some lovely pasta....mmmmm. After a good night's rest, we're thinking about just taking it easy tomorrow...
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