Caribbean Crusin: Martinique

Boy am I already suckin it up at this whole blog thing! Ugh... Today I'm five weeks into this jaunt around the Caribbean! Woo! One more week and I'm halfway through. It's actually going quite fast, so I'm going to try and remind myself to take the time to enjoy every day instead of rushing through each one!

After leaving Grenada we headed north in hopes of chartering new territory. (Territory that is new to me I guess, as The Bloods have already been to most of the places we have stopped!) We hit three islands we had already been to and ended up in Martinique. Here's my island/anchorage count so far:

St. Lucia

Bequia

Tobago Cays

Mayreau

Union Island

Petit St. Vincent

Carriacou

Grenada

Addendum #1: I'm pretty sure this list is correct, but I'm not 100% sure. My days started running together about two weeks ago! It's hard to keep track of things out here!

Addendum #2: The Tobago Cays, Mayreau, Union Island, and Petit St. Vincent are all part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Carriacou is a part of Grenada. I think. I need to do more research on what is actually going on down here! Ha ha. Shoot. We didn't actually stop at St. Vincent (the biggest of the 32 islands that make up "The Grenadines"), because we've heard it isn't safe to go there.

We've anchored at more than one location at some of the islands, so I've gotten to see a few of them from different perspectives. The Tobago Cays were just a group of tiny islands that we were in the middle of, as you may remember from a previous blog post.

Martinique is where we are currently anchored. (By anchored I mean it is where we have "set up shop" and are spending the night.) As of today we have been here for a week. It's the longest we have stayed in one place, second to a marina in St. Lucia where we stayed for about six nights in the beginning while we got the boat ready. We are leaving for Dominica in the morning, which was one our stops on the cruise I went on a year ago! We've anchored at three different locations on this island - Martinique is the biggest island we have been to so far! It's so crazy how different the islands are. For instance, Mayreau is only about 1.5 square miles with a population of about 300 (300! I'd kill myself!), whereas Martinique is approximately 700 square miles with a population of 412,305. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) I'm not sure how I feel about Martinique, even though it is my namesake. It's a French island, so it's difficult to get around and everything here is mega expensive! I heard somewhere that it is the most expensive island (in the Caribbean? In the area?), who knows?! But I believe it!

Last Tuesday was little Matthew's fourth birthday! We didn't do anything to crazy for it - Jenn made him a cake and we opened birthday presents! He's so cute! Every time I ask him how his day is going he says "Not good!" When I ask him why he says "...I'm sick." He was sick our first week in the Caribbean and it seems as though he thinks he hasn't recovered! Ha ha. What a stinker!

I had a couple of rough mornings last week with the kids - sometimes it's so hard to get them to stay on task! It would be nice if I could remember any of the stuff I learned from my brief stint as an elementary education major...but no. Anyways, I decided to hop off the boat before going completely crazy. I went for a little run, which was great! I've missed running a lot. It's hard to do down here and I've been itching to go! (I'm totally thinking about signing up for another half when I get home, but we'll see.) I did some exploring too - ran to the beach below and walked around some shops before returning to the ship! (BTW, I didn't even make ONE purchase!)

Saturday we did some exploring around Fort-de-France, the capital, and Sunday we were able to go to church. Getting to and from church was quite the adventure! There's just no easy way for nine people to get around, ya know?! We left the boat at 8 am and took the tender across the bay to Fort-de-France again. Luckily we had found the bus station the day before and were able to catch a bus that made a stop near the area the church was in. (Jenn had formerly spoken with some English-speaking missionaries who had given her general directions to the building.) After reaching our stop, we walked quite a ways to reach an area with tons of buildings like the one pictured below. So random - think the times I have attended meetings in a place other than an actual church meetinghouse of some sort are few and far between. I always love coming across our church's signs wherever I am in the world. I always instantly feel more comfortable, no matter where I am!

We ended up being about forty minutes late to church and made quite the commotion when we entered sacrament meeting! Later I learned that there are about seventy members who attend regularly and about 100 others who are inactive. I think the nine of us really shook things up a bit! Apparently there is a small group who meets on the other side of the Martinique and there are ten missionaries serving on the island. The meetings were in French of course, but some of the missionaries speak Dutch and English too. One of the sister missionaries translated for me in relief society and was so thrilled about being there she even used "jazz hands" at one point - go her! (Not...ha ha.)

The best part was trying to get back to Fort-de-France. When church ended, we made another little trek to a different bus stop and arrived before we thought the bus would come at 12:30. We ended up waiting for a bus to come for an HOUR. And it rained. And it was hot. And there were six hungry kids. And a pregnant woman. And a Melinda. (Actually, for the record, I handled it super well!) We ended up calling a taxi and by the time he got there it had been an hour and a half. The taxi was also a bit of a joke - we piled in like clowns in a circus! But what is travel without a few frustrations?!

{Crummy picture, but you get the idea!}

We moved to our final (Martinique) anchorage yesterday. The swell here is really bad, so the boat has been rocking like CRAZY! I'm bouncing all over the place, so sleep = not so bueno. But it is really beautiful here! A couple pics of our last and current anchorage are below.

{Double rainbow!}

{Saint- Pierre, Martinique}

The mountain in the background is called Mount Pelee. (There's supposed to be an accent mark in there somewhere!) Mount Pelee is an active volcano that erupted in 1902 and completely DECIMATED the town of 30,000 people. Only three individuals survived - one of which was a prisoner who lived only because he was in poorly ventilated prison cell. Today we went to a museum with several artifacts that remained from the disaster. It was pretty incredible! We also visited what was left of a theater and the prison where the survivor was found. (Side note - What's also interesting is the prisoner later joined Barnum <and Bailey!> circus in America as a circus freak. He must have gotten burned pretty good...)

Anyways, let's hope the volcano stays dormant so that we're good for the next 24 hours! :) That's all for now! Pics below.

XOXO