Welcome to Europe! Wait a minute…

We’re in Fort-de France. So we knew Martinique belongs to the Republic of France. But oh how French it is! “France but nice”, as B put it, I joined with “France with palm trees”

So what is the first thing you do in France? Have COFFEE!

´

One happy B

Since we arrived on a Saturday, having learnt from previous experiences that on Sundays everything is closed – we headed food shopping to stock up. In a supermarket!

E helped as usual, but then she and “Le Pain” disappeared and we found her here:

We were in heaven, and the shopping resulted in this wonderful feast.

Restricted area for chicken

Sunday – we explored Fort-de-France. As expected, it was completely empty. But oh so beautiful!

 

These palm trees are our favorites, Traveller palm tree, it got that name because it moves and follows the sun

Down by the waterfront (which is 200 m from our flat) we found some activities going on:

Martiniquans shaking that ass

And we found the first play ground since we left home.

On the way home we found this little fellow (not so little anyway, approx 1 meter long)

And the evening ended with this sign of civilization…:

Le Big Mac

…With a very nice view from our flat

We’re completely in love!

Island hopping

Friday, we left Carriacou for Grenada by boat. We were quite nervous since E vomited like there was no tomorrow the day before, but luckily we were ok. Guess who was NOT seasick?

And, to follow up from the recent Grenada stay at Olga’s. Here it is. The non-Caribbean dream!

We had an overnight in St George before a 6.50 AM flight to Martinique. I found a last minute great deal at a fancy resort, with pool, restaurant etc – but E travelling on an empty stomach had been in better moods (to be diplomatic), so we stayed in the room the rest of the day and ordered room service. But, they carried our luggage, thank god.

The 5 minutes of smile we got that day, poor thing

Every day chores need to be performed even in the fanciest hotels (Oh! Hot water!)

Relaxing before a very short night, got up at 4 AM…

The plane was supposed to stop in Barbados, but the plane did a (to us) unexpected stop in St Lucia too.

E enjoying the flight, and us mixing baby porridge in zip locks (no need to heat the water here…).

We arrived in Martinique as planned – more about that will continue. Good bye Grenada, Bonjour Martinique!

Who would have thought we would…

..look out for coconut palm trees when parking the stroller (with baby)

..ask ourselves: Where are the chicken breasts? We have been eating chicken 24-7 for 3 months – bur we’ve never seen a chicken breast. Wings, necks, legs, spines, WHERE are the breasts?

…wonder whether or not we’ll be fried when taking a shower, since the water is heated by turning on an electrical switch and the shower head is covered by electrical wires and tape

…forget that there are actually taps there there are two knobs – one for hot water too!

…forget that you usually get menus in restaurants, not just the question “chicken, fish or mutton/goat/pork” (if lucky! Usually only chicken or chicken)

…be surprised to se an actual road sign (in decent readable size)

…be freezing in air condition set on temperature 27 degrees

…not even consider sleeping without earplugs

…find it perfectly normal that the neighbor lady gives the pig salt water one week before slaughtering to drain all the fluids from the meat

…not even blink when greeting people on the street carrying huge machetes (they can be used for ANYTHING, you know! B is getting one for sure)

…find it ok to buy eggs from the back on a van (non-air conditioned) and sometimes start all over again with the pancakes because one contained a dead fetus inside (ooooh, the smell by the way, we will NOT get used too…)

…kill roosters in our back yard

…go into a shack you wouldn’t use for a outhouse, to buy groceries and find it to be a cornucopia of all things useful.

…throw our garbage out the window (for the pigs, chickens, dogs or agouties)

…get used to the strength of the rum-punch drinks

Life in the Caribbean never ceases to surprise you – and yet it’s perfectly normal. Lovin’ it!

C&B signing out (with one of those rum punches on the way to Martinique)

End of Easter–Harvest Day

Having attended the religious Easter procession and mass gave us a lot of cred from the locals – lots of people noticed and have commented on it, the dive master, our land lord and of course our neighbor lady. So, to continue on out Easter celebration – Easter Monday in Carriacou means Harvest. From being an almost completely sleeping village during the week end, Monday morning there was smoke coming out of every outdoor oven and foods being sold everywhere. Everyone was preparing for the Harvest at the church (which happens to be next door to us).

Meats being sold in open air on the street, cut by a machete and handed to the recipient by hand, brought home by the buyer in a plastic bag (that they have to bring themselves)

Our neighbor lady (yes – she IS 90 years old!) cooking in her home made outdoor oven

Party people on the way to the Harvest

Arriving at the church, the neighbor lady was selling home made cake and candy outside the entrance.

In the entrance, some people were selling second hand clothes, the baptismal font was covered in clothes!

Clothes hunting in the Baptismal font!

But what really made the party was the music – from huge broken speakers roared an *oopmf oopmf* making it difficult for one to even think. Catholic hymns? Oh no, loud soca “nasty music” and reggae, and some Kenny Rogers to top it all. The only thing giving a hint that we were attending a religious feast was a pause in the music for the Harvest blessing. Accompanied by a prayer, a man threw (holy?) water on the attendants to bless this years harvest. Then – the music was turned on again. And it kept on going until around midnight – never thought I would have trouble sleeping because of a church party.

We spent the afternoon at the party socializing and buying this and that. Especially the kids had fun. F was popular, every one here loves babies and wanted to carry her around (which they could) and E was given immense amounts of candy, more than she has probably had her whole life.

Selling of lots of things (mostly edible)

Had to add this picture because of the pink outfit to the left – very typical Grenada (and very un-churchy? Not here!)

Being slightly more prepared after the previous religious lessons to E, I told her that we were now celebrating that Jesus came back, he woke up just like Snow white (that we are currently reading on repeat). At the church she found a cross, thought for a while, and said that I was wrong, he didn’t come back, because he was not on the cross. The story will definitely continue….

F didn’t care too much about religion, but thought the balloon was most interesting.

We left at around five (to high complaints from the locals – what ALREADY???) and brought dinner from the Harvest; Fried chicken, fried fish cakes and Roti. Not great- at all – today we are all a bit queasy. But fun we had!

Easter in Carriacou

So its Easter!

We had seen a sign in town that there was supposed to be a religious procession and decided to join. We were told by our 90 year old neighbor lady that it was supposed to start from the airport around 14 and end at the church next door with mass at 15.She led the way, followed by her dogs.

We joined. Though, around the corner she was picked up by a van giving her a ride. She pointed to us in a direction and off we went. And went…and went…

All of a sudden  we had flash backs from our not-so-successful first day of carnival in Tobago –and wondered whether we would actually see a procession. But, on the way, we admired the surroundings

And all of a sudden – there it was! A minivan driving in front with speakers on the roof, two women singing from inside of it, the followers joining in. A man carrying the cross being beaten by three men in construction helmets.

When we reached the last station, they pretended to nail him to the cross (accompanied by a lot of giggling from the crowd), it was quite a show. Not so much giggling from E though, who wanted to understand what was going on, naturally. I was not really prepared for the Jesus-lesson-to-a-three-year-old so had to improvise on the spot, maybe not as successful as I wished. Short version (hers) is now that Jesus was a good man, but some people thought he was evil and nailed him to a cross, he then died and was put in the ground, but then came back. And when people die we sing. (from an earlier explanation passing a funeral…)

We later joined mass in the church, but E was so restless and asking so many questions and we sneaked out mid-way. She kept asking where Jesus went and when he was coming back, and suggested we try another church and see if he was there.

The day ended with this magnificent view from our garden

Getting friendly with the locals–part II

Arriving in Carriacou, we immediately felt the warmth of the people, and realized that the size of the island would make it impossible again not to interact with some locals. And so true. We have realized though, that the Grenadian people can seem quite strict at the first glance, but if you fire away a few ”good mornings” and “a’right?” they are really friendly. By the first week, we are already buddies with the “juice man” (making incredible and cooling fruit juices and smoothies), we have given the water taxi guy a ride to town and been given credit from the restaurant by the beach. B has also received a great compliment from our landlord/car rental guy Sunkey – who said he is “just like a west indian man” after the following episode: Renting a car Carriacou style means

1) Entering the office. Is Sunkey here? Sure! And someone comes with a telephone with Sunkey on the line. He promises to come to the office by 2 pm.

2) B arrives, Sunkey is not there, but again, a telephone conversation – he will come to the beach later.

3) He does – and B jumps in his car and off they go. B comes back with the option of a few cars. The whole operation took a couple of hours. Car – check!

Had to consult this weed-smoking-local-on-a-donkey about directions (And no, it was not the right way…)

Road (?) trip!

We were stunned by how few tourists there are here. When our Norwegian friends came, we bragged about this and took them to our favorite beach restaurant and the FIRST person they interact with is – yeah – a Norwegian guy. He was a bit shaky because he had arrived by water taxi from another country, and on arrival the immigration officer interrogated him for three hours. Later that evening, when H and I were out piña colada hunting, we met a guy at the hotel and I simply asked where to go. We started chatting and when he heard that H was Norwegian he said: Oh! I just met a Norwegian! I am the immigration officer on the island. Hehe.

Piña Coladas. The bar woman commented on the fact that B and H also drink them, “it’s not a manly drink”, so she gave them blue umbrellas at least

Then we have realized that “our” beach restaurant and the lobster restaurant we visited are owned by the same Swedish family. Above us is an American couple who stay here 7 months a year. There is a deli (oh my god they have CHEESE and YOGHURT!) owned by an English woman, and a diveshop owned by a German couple. So, this is obviously the place for expats, contributing to the day-to-day life, but still, I insist, not many tourists.

Sunday, we decided to try take away. Take away Carriacou style means a few women barbecueing “something” on the street. Sunday, there was some kind of sports going on, and what seemed to be most of Hillsborough’s population partied outside the field and a huge congregation of these barbecuing women were present. We joined the fun and tried fried chicken, fish and bbq chicken. One was ok to eat, others went to our neighbor’s pig. We were the only tourists hanging around so we caught some attention, so by now F has been kissed on the head by drunk Carriacouan men, liking it not so much. The school kids say what they think and burst out : “She is so fat and white!!!” and E had her hair touched by a few. All in all, we all interact, and like it that way!

Trying to look like a local

Happy Birthday!

Since it is my dear sister's birthday today, we had a little photo session. (Yeah, the photographers had just as much fun...Happy birthday Ina!