The Grand Tour of Martinique for Beginners
So on Friday, Sarah Caitlin and I went to Sainte-Anne. It’s referred to as the most beautiful beach in Martinique. It’s on the very southern tip of the island and true to it’s description in the guide books, has soft, powdery white sand and turquoise waters with calm waves lapping at the shore. We left early in the morning and got there in about an hour. I hadn’t gone running that morning because I thought I might be able to go at the beach. Boy, was that a good decision.
Before we got to the beach I had seen that there was a good system of foot trails all around the southern tip connecting several beaches over about 20 miles. It wasn’t all continuous but the beach where we were going, there was a good 5k trail from our beach to the next one up that went across what is known in Martinique as “Les Sables de Petrification” or the petrified sand. It was described to me as a lunar landscape. I was kind of excited to see it and even if I couldn’t run it, I decided I would at least walk around it and have a look.
So we were dropped off at the beach and watched with sad eyes as the only reliable form of transportation on Martinique, personally owner and operated motor vehicle, drove away from us. But we didn’t let the thought of getting home get to us until later. I surveyed the situation, we found a spot and set up camp, then I took off running. I found a map of the trail I had looked up online posted by the road to the beach so I took a look at it to get my bearings and from then on it was almost total bliss aside from a blistering hot sun.
I ran down a paved road that lead to a couple of beaches and a campground, then after that it turned into a dirt road, then it turned into a gravel path that was restricted to pedestrians only. It was from this point that the run started to get really good. Aside from fun puddles to jump and a couple of beaches to run across, I got to the point where the landscape changed from sand and marsh to petrified sand. I crossed a footbridge, hopped some big stones and entered another world
. If it had been silent I would have believed I was on the moon. The ground was various colors of red, gray, beige and black. It was cracked and very dry and there was little to no vegetation at all. I could hear the ocean to my right but all I could see to my left was reddish craggy formations and strange hilly mounds with sparse green patches. I posted a picture from the website and it gives a good bird's eye view of what the landscape looks like. But it makes everything look very small since it was taken at a high altitude so the clifs that you see are about 30 feet out of the water at least. and the stretch of land is about 1.5 miles long, to give the viewer some perspective. The trail was marked by little yellow “=” on rocks. Sometimes they were hard to find and I strayed from the path a little but nothing too extreme. The run was hard because the terrain was very rocky and very hilly. I found myself struggling for footing in some places. But after a few miles of baking in the hot sun I made it to the next beach down “Anse de Trebaud”. I reached out, touched the sign, and then I took a deep sigh and took in my surroundings: turquoise ocean crashing on huge rocks to my left (now that I had turned around and was going back) and this crazy dry desert-like picture on my right. I love how creation can be so diverse and accommodate so many different kinds of life in just a short space. I’m finding out more about that as I explore Martinique. It’s so varied as far as terrain and layout and elevation.
I started back and was just happy to be alive and able to run through such an awesome trail in such a strange place. I wish I had brought my camera, but I plan to go back and hike it and take more time.
I got back to “Grande Anse des Salines” which is the main beach in Sainte Anne, and contemplating running straight into the water, shoes and all. I was so hot and just felt completely broiled from the sun. I managed to control myself until I had gotten into my swimsuit and then plunged into the very refreshing, beautifully clear water. I could have stayed in it forever if it wasn’t so salty. Caitlin had brought some snorkeling masks so we did that a little but mostly I just hung out in the water. It was something like 95 degrees and really humid so laying out on the beach for longer than 5 minute made you feel like you should be adding spices to yourself and turning slowly on a spit. I retired to the shade in-between splashes in the ocean and read a crappy novel that a former assistant had left behind. I didn’t stay too long because every time someone would drive by they would hiss. I hate it that the men here hiss. I hated it before in France and I hate it still. Why hiss? Why is that a good way to get a woman’s attention? Are you going to spit poisonous venom at me too? I suppose that could be true in a figurative way.
Anyway, aside from the hissing, a very pleasant beach spot because you have your choice of shady and quiet palm trees, soft white sand (caution: VERY HOT! Able to burn bottoms of feet, wear shoes always…) and beautiful water. Then, a short walk down from there, we discovered a fresh fruit juice stand. They have all these different kinds of local, fresh fruit laid out and they’ll make you a huge fruit salad or any kind of juice you want. You can mix and match and play around with different combinations. I just went with grapefruit juice because it was right in front of my
and looked delectable. Caitlin got Pineapple-coconut juice and Sarah got grapefruit also. They picked a fruit from their stand, cut it up, put it in a blender with some water and maybe a little cane sugar and presto! Instant deliciousness and refreshment! I hadn’t even gotten past my second sip and I was already thinking what kind of fun combinations I could make up on my next visit to the stand.
We ate lunch at a little truck that is parked along the beach road. A lady brings her grill, some ingredients, some drinks and some bread, puts up a menu and charges a hefty price for a delicious but somewhat meager lunch. I have become a big fan of the “assiette accras crudités”. Accras are these little fried balls of vegetables and shrimp or crab meat that are like beignets. They are very spicy and have a great texture to them. Crudites in Martinique consist of grated carrots, cucumber, avocado (which is sweeter here for some reason) tomatoes and maybe some green beans. I enjoyed my lunch very much, especially since we were literally RIGHT on the ocean. (Ben, remember that place on the Red Sea in the desert? Like that… but not as awesome because it lacked the 7 layer fruit juice drink and unlimited buffet trips.)
So we had a good lunch and we were ready to head out for the day. It was around 2:30 so we caught a taxi into Sainte Anne to await another Taxi to take us to FDF. It didn’t come for an hour. Finally he came and half-way to FDF he told us to get off and had his taxi-driver friend who was already going there with his van full of people to take us the rest of the way. So then we get to FDF and we have to find the bus back to St. Joseph. We see it pass us by and we try to flag it down but we miss it, so we go and try and find the stop. After a lot of misdirection and hoards of sketchy characters, we found the bus stop and a million other people waiting for it. The next one came a half-hour later and we got on, standing room only for the windy roads and hills, then got into two traffic jams, then came to a dead stop for 45 minutes because of an accident…we think. By the time we got to our stop, it had taken us 4.5 hours to make what would have been a 1 hour trip in the car. We spent as much time trying to get home as we did at the beach. I was pretty cranky after that and went to bed at some ridiculous hour like 9 or something.
Saturday morning we went into FDF after waiting an hour for a bus to come and pick us up at our stop (me and Sarah, the girl I live with until tomorrow morning when she leaves….sad…) We shopped around a little and I became very concrete in my decision to hate FDF. It’s dirty and disorganized and there are too many people and not enough open space. After that we went back and just kind of hung around until we went grocery shopping at the big market in Lamentin which apparently everyone else in Martinique had decided to do that night as well. So after fighting people for a hand-basket we intrepidly guided ourselves through the aisles overflowing with people and got what we needed.
That was the end of my night. I went to bed before 10 again I’m pretty sure. I just have no desire to leave the house because it’s so hard to get anywhere. Sunday we went to mass with Marie-Ange and it was long. Almost 2 hours. The sermon was on marriage and fidelity and sticking together and being wise about expectations. I understood most of it but my attention faded in and out because the pews were to slabs of wood at VERY unfortunate angles for my bum and my back. And so I was writing around most of the time trying to get comfortable. And we sang a lot. We sang every song in our little service guide 3 times at least. They do love their singing. It was interesting to see the African/Antilles cultural influence on the Catholic church. They took a little liberty with the liturgical dialogue and some of the prayers were a little different from what I understood but it was more or less the same.
Right when we got back from mass, we headed out on our “Tour du Nord” of Martinique. We did the entire northern half of the island in one day. 7 hours on winding roads and going up and down and up and down and I don’t need to be in a car again for a LONG time. But I found that I prefer the northern landscape to the south. The beaches are black sand for the most part. There is the Caribbean side and the Atlantic side. The Atlantic side is rougher but has better views. The northern half reminded me of what Dominica would be like if it had a decent road system, even though Martinique’s is severely lacking, at least the roads are drive-able and don’t have huge pot holes in them every 10 feet. We w
ent to see Saint Pierre and all the northern coastal fishing villages. Fresh tuna was being chopped up on roadside stands and you could see the boats in the water were catching more. Talk about eliminating the middle-man. We saw Mt. Pélee sort of, it was covered in clouds because the weather today was very fickle and it rained off and on all day. I have included a picture of what it looks like without clouds. We went to the museum and saw how the entire city of Saint Pierre was destroyed in about 5 minutes because of th
is huge explosion of gas from the mountain. They said they guessed the ambient temperature of that cloud that incinerated the entire city instantaneously was between 800 and 1000 degrees centigrade. That’s a big number. They have pictures of what some of the bodies they found looked like… not pretty. Anyway, we saw the old ruins of the buried city and some restored buildings and it was nice. We drove to some beautiful beach towns looking for a place to eat and some old plantations with beautiful gardens and colorful trees. The picture is of a place called "Habitation Leyritz" in Basse Pointe. It's an old sugar plantation that has been turned into a hotel and meeting place.
Aside from almost getting carsick several times because of the roads, it was a very enjoyable day. The north attracts less tourists but still has a lot of beautiful things to offer. We didn’t make it to Anse Couleuvre which Marie-Ange says is her favorite place on the island but I hope to once I get some reliable transportation. There are a lot of things I want to do. Take a kayak trip through mangroves and rivers, scuba dive where all the wrecked ships are, surf in the north, hike that trail in the south. I’m excited about all there is to do, but I’ll be more excited about it once I know that I have all my paperwork in.
Before we got to the beach I had seen that there was a good system of foot trails all around the southern tip connecting several beaches over about 20 miles. It wasn’t all continuous but the beach where we were going, there was a good 5k trail from our beach to the next one up that went across what is known in Martinique as “Les Sables de Petrification” or the petrified sand. It was described to me as a lunar landscape. I was kind of excited to see it and even if I couldn’t run it, I decided I would at least walk around it and have a look.
So we were dropped off at the beach and watched with sad eyes as the only reliable form of transportation on Martinique, personally owner and operated motor vehicle, drove away from us. But we didn’t let the thought of getting home get to us until later. I surveyed the situation, we found a spot and set up camp, then I took off running. I found a map of the trail I had looked up online posted by the road to the beach so I took a look at it to get my bearings and from then on it was almost total bliss aside from a blistering hot sun.
I ran down a paved road that lead to a couple of beaches and a campground, then after that it turned into a dirt road, then it turned into a gravel path that was restricted to pedestrians only. It was from this point that the run started to get really good. Aside from fun puddles to jump and a couple of beaches to run across, I got to the point where the landscape changed from sand and marsh to petrified sand. I crossed a footbridge, hopped some big stones and entered another world
. If it had been silent I would have believed I was on the moon. The ground was various colors of red, gray, beige and black. It was cracked and very dry and there was little to no vegetation at all. I could hear the ocean to my right but all I could see to my left was reddish craggy formations and strange hilly mounds with sparse green patches. I posted a picture from the website and it gives a good bird's eye view of what the landscape looks like. But it makes everything look very small since it was taken at a high altitude so the clifs that you see are about 30 feet out of the water at least. and the stretch of land is about 1.5 miles long, to give the viewer some perspective. The trail was marked by little yellow “=” on rocks. Sometimes they were hard to find and I strayed from the path a little but nothing too extreme. The run was hard because the terrain was very rocky and very hilly. I found myself struggling for footing in some places. But after a few miles of baking in the hot sun I made it to the next beach down “Anse de Trebaud”. I reached out, touched the sign, and then I took a deep sigh and took in my surroundings: turquoise ocean crashing on huge rocks to my left (now that I had turned around and was going back) and this crazy dry desert-like picture on my right. I love how creation can be so diverse and accommodate so many different kinds of life in just a short space. I’m finding out more about that as I explore Martinique. It’s so varied as far as terrain and layout and elevation. I started back and was just happy to be alive and able to run through such an awesome trail in such a strange place. I wish I had brought my camera, but I plan to go back and hike it and take more time.
I got back to “Grande Anse des Salines” which is the main beach in Sainte Anne, and contemplating running straight into the water, shoes and all. I was so hot and just felt completely broiled from the sun. I managed to control myself until I had gotten into my swimsuit and then plunged into the very refreshing, beautifully clear water. I could have stayed in it forever if it wasn’t so salty. Caitlin had brought some snorkeling masks so we did that a little but mostly I just hung out in the water. It was something like 95 degrees and really humid so laying out on the beach for longer than 5 minute made you feel like you should be adding spices to yourself and turning slowly on a spit. I retired to the shade in-between splashes in the ocean and read a crappy novel that a former assistant had left behind. I didn’t stay too long because every time someone would drive by they would hiss. I hate it that the men here hiss. I hated it before in France and I hate it still. Why hiss? Why is that a good way to get a woman’s attention? Are you going to spit poisonous venom at me too? I suppose that could be true in a figurative way.
Anyway, aside from the hissing, a very pleasant beach spot because you have your choice of shady and quiet palm trees, soft white sand (caution: VERY HOT! Able to burn bottoms of feet, wear shoes always…) and beautiful water. Then, a short walk down from there, we discovered a fresh fruit juice stand. They have all these different kinds of local, fresh fruit laid out and they’ll make you a huge fruit salad or any kind of juice you want. You can mix and match and play around with different combinations. I just went with grapefruit juice because it was right in front of my
and looked delectable. Caitlin got Pineapple-coconut juice and Sarah got grapefruit also. They picked a fruit from their stand, cut it up, put it in a blender with some water and maybe a little cane sugar and presto! Instant deliciousness and refreshment! I hadn’t even gotten past my second sip and I was already thinking what kind of fun combinations I could make up on my next visit to the stand. We ate lunch at a little truck that is parked along the beach road. A lady brings her grill, some ingredients, some drinks and some bread, puts up a menu and charges a hefty price for a delicious but somewhat meager lunch. I have become a big fan of the “assiette accras crudités”. Accras are these little fried balls of vegetables and shrimp or crab meat that are like beignets. They are very spicy and have a great texture to them. Crudites in Martinique consist of grated carrots, cucumber, avocado (which is sweeter here for some reason) tomatoes and maybe some green beans. I enjoyed my lunch very much, especially since we were literally RIGHT on the ocean. (Ben, remember that place on the Red Sea in the desert? Like that… but not as awesome because it lacked the 7 layer fruit juice drink and unlimited buffet trips.)
So we had a good lunch and we were ready to head out for the day. It was around 2:30 so we caught a taxi into Sainte Anne to await another Taxi to take us to FDF. It didn’t come for an hour. Finally he came and half-way to FDF he told us to get off and had his taxi-driver friend who was already going there with his van full of people to take us the rest of the way. So then we get to FDF and we have to find the bus back to St. Joseph. We see it pass us by and we try to flag it down but we miss it, so we go and try and find the stop. After a lot of misdirection and hoards of sketchy characters, we found the bus stop and a million other people waiting for it. The next one came a half-hour later and we got on, standing room only for the windy roads and hills, then got into two traffic jams, then came to a dead stop for 45 minutes because of an accident…we think. By the time we got to our stop, it had taken us 4.5 hours to make what would have been a 1 hour trip in the car. We spent as much time trying to get home as we did at the beach. I was pretty cranky after that and went to bed at some ridiculous hour like 9 or something.
Saturday morning we went into FDF after waiting an hour for a bus to come and pick us up at our stop (me and Sarah, the girl I live with until tomorrow morning when she leaves….sad…) We shopped around a little and I became very concrete in my decision to hate FDF. It’s dirty and disorganized and there are too many people and not enough open space. After that we went back and just kind of hung around until we went grocery shopping at the big market in Lamentin which apparently everyone else in Martinique had decided to do that night as well. So after fighting people for a hand-basket we intrepidly guided ourselves through the aisles overflowing with people and got what we needed.
That was the end of my night. I went to bed before 10 again I’m pretty sure. I just have no desire to leave the house because it’s so hard to get anywhere. Sunday we went to mass with Marie-Ange and it was long. Almost 2 hours. The sermon was on marriage and fidelity and sticking together and being wise about expectations. I understood most of it but my attention faded in and out because the pews were to slabs of wood at VERY unfortunate angles for my bum and my back. And so I was writing around most of the time trying to get comfortable. And we sang a lot. We sang every song in our little service guide 3 times at least. They do love their singing. It was interesting to see the African/Antilles cultural influence on the Catholic church. They took a little liberty with the liturgical dialogue and some of the prayers were a little different from what I understood but it was more or less the same.
Right when we got back from mass, we headed out on our “Tour du Nord” of Martinique. We did the entire northern half of the island in one day. 7 hours on winding roads and going up and down and up and down and I don’t need to be in a car again for a LONG time. But I found that I prefer the northern landscape to the south. The beaches are black sand for the most part. There is the Caribbean side and the Atlantic side. The Atlantic side is rougher but has better views. The northern half reminded me of what Dominica would be like if it had a decent road system, even though Martinique’s is severely lacking, at least the roads are drive-able and don’t have huge pot holes in them every 10 feet. We w
ent to see Saint Pierre and all the northern coastal fishing villages. Fresh tuna was being chopped up on roadside stands and you could see the boats in the water were catching more. Talk about eliminating the middle-man. We saw Mt. Pélee sort of, it was covered in clouds because the weather today was very fickle and it rained off and on all day. I have included a picture of what it looks like without clouds. We went to the museum and saw how the entire city of Saint Pierre was destroyed in about 5 minutes because of th
is huge explosion of gas from the mountain. They said they guessed the ambient temperature of that cloud that incinerated the entire city instantaneously was between 800 and 1000 degrees centigrade. That’s a big number. They have pictures of what some of the bodies they found looked like… not pretty. Anyway, we saw the old ruins of the buried city and some restored buildings and it was nice. We drove to some beautiful beach towns looking for a place to eat and some old plantations with beautiful gardens and colorful trees. The picture is of a place called "Habitation Leyritz" in Basse Pointe. It's an old sugar plantation that has been turned into a hotel and meeting place. Aside from almost getting carsick several times because of the roads, it was a very enjoyable day. The north attracts less tourists but still has a lot of beautiful things to offer. We didn’t make it to Anse Couleuvre which Marie-Ange says is her favorite place on the island but I hope to once I get some reliable transportation. There are a lot of things I want to do. Take a kayak trip through mangroves and rivers, scuba dive where all the wrecked ships are, surf in the north, hike that trail in the south. I’m excited about all there is to do, but I’ll be more excited about it once I know that I have all my paperwork in.
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