Another French Island

Fort de France

Sometimes we forget where we come from! A few days ago, we sailed to Martinique from Dominica and the difference bewildered us. The slight culture shock was unavoidable. During the stay in Dominica, the world changed its concept in our minds. It was a place without banks or expressways. It had roads that you could walk or bike on, and people were not in a hurry! Martinique is a reality check and a reminder of the urban social structure.

The second day in Martinique we found Wifi and worked on the blog while people passing by looked at us suspiciously for sitting on the ground! At the grocery store in St. Pierre, I was asked by the security guard to open the back pack so he could inspect it as he showed me a sign in French that apparently said “No back packs in the store”! You automatically feel insulted when accused of something you haven’t done! Furthermore, the ambulance and police sirens are unnecessarily loud and you get the fear factor from them right away! It makes one wonder if there is more crime here or in Dominica?

When we started walking around the small streets in Fort de France, the banks more than anything else captured our attention. They are everywhere! Why do we have so many and what is their actual purpose? There are two sides of the coin! One major role is to keep the citizens of the planet in control. Banks are tyranny and work as an autocracy, all managed by the same individuals. In the modern society we all are slaves to the banking world as our lives and the incentives we procure are controlled by them. Almost all the citizens of the world are connected to the banking structure with a credit/ATM/Visa card and it would be impossible to live without it. We are so attached and programmed by this that it’s unfeasible to imagine it any other way. It’s time for a change and to improve the current monetary system. On the flip side, the banking infrastructure today could be the base for a better needed system in the future! This topic is broad and can not be discussed in one paragraph!    

Waterfall in Didier

All that aside, I like the French Islands! They are European and more developed than the other West Indies. The roads are more solid and you don’t see many potholes in the middle of major streets. Cars are newer and public transportation vehicles are air-conditioned and have timetables! Foremost, I like the French Islands for their great food; cheese, sausage, wine, baguettes, and pastries. The French culture is close to the Persian and Swedish. The Persians were under the influence of the French for a period of time, therefore there are French words in the Farsi vocabulary such as “Merci” which is commonly carried. Contrary, the language barrier challenges me and I wish I could speak French.

Fort de France is the biggest city in the windward Islands. Petite storefronts are all over downtown and we are only 3 minutes rowing distance to shore. The view of homes build on the hill side is eye catching. In the last couple of days, we got the chance to hike in the nature of Martinique to the waterfalls in Didier. The hike was different as we had to walk through a couple of tunnels. The second one was tricky, dark, and needed a flashlight. We walked on a large pipe to the other side. It was wet and slippery in places and the hand rail was missing, if you fell down, you would be in deep mud! We have been to many water falls along the Earthling journey. All waterfalls are different and unique. They are breathtaking and a perfect place for soothing the spirit. The Cascade in Didier is one of the tallest and definitely worth the visit. 

Houses on the Hill, Fort de France

In a few minutes, we will be sailing to Anse D’ Arlet, which is famous for its turtles.

Love from Martinique
View the Martinique photo Album here!

Fruitful Paradise

 This is a piece of land that looks like a pancake from a distance. Marie Galante is considered flat but still has an elevation between 300-600 feet in various places. It is densely green and the trees and bushes seem taller than other places. During the couple of hikes we did, many sugar fields were observed. Our guest, Nico, cut down  some sugar cane sticks, peeled away the hard skin, to chew and suck on the fibers full of sweet water, just like the locals do. In addition, we saw many fruit trees that had fruits ripened and ready to be picked. Fruit trees are everywhere and before picking any fruits, we always make sure it’s not on someone’s property. Here in Marie Galante we were lucky to find random lemon, banana, papaya, mango, and coconut trees and we collected many of them. 

In Marie Galante, you also see tons of pigs. Almost every mango tree has a pig tied up underneath. Then there are oxes and cows! We have not witnessed so many pigs, oxes, and cows in one single island. The pigs seem friendly and some of them walked toward us like they needed petting! We saw big and small pigs, white, black and spotted. Some of the sugar cane transportation on the island is still on ox carriages. Watch out and make sure you are not in the way because these ox are so big that they could crush anything in their path. Moreover, I found my bamboo stick that was misplaced last year. We use to have a stick that was used as an extension for the outboard handle and dinghy depth finder. Now we have attained a new one made in Marie Galante!

                                                  As a cruiser and traveller, you see the most beautiful beaches on these Caribbean Islands. Some of the islands are surrounded by long white beaches and some have very few beaches. In Basse Terre, which is the mountainous part of Guadeloupe the very few beaches have dark sand. In Marie Galante beaches are more white and soft and long. Based on experience, low elevated islands have beautiful long white beaches and higher elevated islands don’t have as many and they are smaller.  

I mentioned that it’s difficult to connect with locals in the French Islands if you don’t speak French. We finally got to connect with some locals through Nico. Apparently, Guadeloupe has a large Lebanese community. In Point a Pitre, many store fronts are owned by Lebanese that have been settled here for over 50 years. Nico got to talk to some of them in Arabic and we were able to socialize. After all, we are all the same and different languages and cultures should not separate us! Our differences should be attracting us to one another and this is the beautiful part of Earthlings!

Right now we are in Dominica and going to explore this attractive land for the next couple of weeks.

Love from a fruitful paradise

Please check out the photo album of Guadeloupe on the fb page!

Passage Venteux

Terre de Haut Island, The Saints

The French Islands in the Caribbean have more of a European culture than the other Caribbean Islands. What’s interesting is that Guadeloupe and the other French islands are still 100% under French control and you actually enter the European Union even though you are not in Europe. Furthermore, if you don’t speak French, you might have difficulties to connect with Locals.

We have already visited Basse Terre, which is the capital and the second largest city in Guadeloupe. We explored Basse Terre on a Sunday, which means everything is closed and the city looked like a ghost town. The streets were empty which gave an opportunity for all the graffiti to stay out. The graffiti is beautiful on the walls here and we were able to experience a couple of locals that were spray painting a new white wall.
Luckily, Fort Louie was open on Sunday and the view from the top of the fort is absolutely magnificent. Fort Louie is just a 10min walk from the Marina and it’s a place worth to visit, in addition there is no entry fee!

The last few days, it has been blowing around 20 mph, with wind gusts at 35+mph. So windy that the wind generator shuts down. The passage from Basse Terre to The Saintes was only 10 miles but we were washed over a couple of times. Iles Des Saintes is a group of small islands off the southern point of Guadeloupe. The highest elevation is a little over 1000ft. We hiked up there to a tower where you have a 360 degree view over all The Saintes. The pictures we took from here look just unreal. The airplanes  were flying lower than us to and out of the airport!
The main transportation in The Saintes used by locals and tourists (who are mostly French) are scooters. Furthermore, you see lots of goats free roaming on the small streets, and beautiful birds flying from tree to tree. Another interesting animal that is free here, are cats, they just come right up to you meowing and wanting attention. Kelly hopes that one of these days one will follow us all the way back to the boat. 

We had to be on schedule and sail to Point a Pitre to pick up our friend Nico that flew in from LA. Traveling on a schedule sometimes can be challenging. Cruisers dislike very much to have a schedule! The weather was not in our favor. An hour into the passage from The Saintes to Point a Pitre, we got hit by the first squall, where winds were recorded over 30 mph for a few minutes. Luckily, the mainsail was double reefed before the anchor was up, but we still healed over heavily and did a high speed of 8.7 close haul. She was washed over several times in the 8-12ft swells. Then, we hit a second squall. At this point, Kelly was scared for the first time with tears in her eyes. After that, the winds came down to 18-20.

We finally made it safe to Marina Bas Du Fort midday Tuesday. Earthling has not been docked in a marina for 3 months. There are several tasks to do when in the marina. Batteries had to be equalized on shore power, scrub and rinse entire boat, water tanks had to be filled, we had to pick up a guest, and do some provisioning. This is the first time I’ve done a Mediterranean-style docking and it could have gone smoother. The dock lines were too short and space to pull in was tight. It only cost 25 Euros for us and it included; water, electricity, shower, and wifi. Shortly after we were docked, “Lucky Luke” came in to dock next to us, he pulled in stern-to and as Alexander was trying to fit his 47’ Bavaria into the tiny spot, his wind generator hit ours and it broke two blades. That was an unfortunate event. However, a good friendship started. Alexander was very kind and he right away offered to cover for the damages. Later on that evening we were invited aboard “Lucky Luke” for drinks and dinner. On our port side “Area 51” is docked. On the starboard is “Lucky Luke” looking for the Daltons and he found a Dalton on Earthling!

Love from Passage Venteux

Passage Venteux=Windy Passage

View the Guadeloupe photo album on the fb page