Sailing with the Treleavens

Salines Beach on the southern end of Martinique is the perfect crystal clear seas we keep returning to, with an arc of long white sand, palm trees and some perving for the men. Friends of son Ian come and go and we pass our days snorkeling, swimming and Creole Restaurants in the evenings.

Fresh tropical and in season fruits are the highlight that son Ian and friend Caro left with a few days ago. From passion fruit, pawpaw, pineapples’ to avocados’ the flesh is thicker and the flavour intense. After a day of sunshine, guacamole, avocado with lime juice and chili is a craving along with the fresh lime rum mojito’s.

The Caribbean Islands, minus the sails going up, was the perfect tropical island holiday for them.

Still in Martinique where repairs to the deck have been made we now fill in three weeks till our mast arrives on a ship from France. All going well we will be sailing by the 1st March.

Perfect timing we motor to Fort de France for the five days of carnival pre-Lent. Anchoring beneath St Louis fort, Ian is not going to miss this parade. From wicked street parties, cross dressing and devil outfits the first thing that you notice is everyone dresses up. It’s a time for the whole family in bright coloured costumes to have one big street party. The second thing you notice is no barricades, no police and very little organisation but everywhere is relaxed and a lot of fun.

Day one Carnaval Des Juniors (Saturday) is for children all dressed up at various parties.

The next 4 days are parades around a set circuit of the old town passing the port.

Day two, Dimanche Gras is Le Grande Carnaval de la Martinique starting at 3pm or should I say two parades one street apart. On one street its floats from different districts predicting there heritage from slavery to flower ladies and then in the next street its drag and anything goes. Around the town they dance following the bamboo and drum bands belting out the traditional hypnotic reggae tunes, everyone joining in. In the end it all comes together with no inhibitions.

Day 3, Lundi Gras is Mariage Burlesque gender-bending mock wedding day where the males are the brides and the females the groom, followed by attendants, guests, priest and cake make up the party. We are still bewildered as what this is all about but were very funny.

Day 4 Mardi Gras (Shove Tuesday) Vide en Rouge is red day -sexy devil day. The town is awash in red and once again from 3pm around and around the town they go following, ‘The Pied Piper’, drum bands beating out and everyone in repetitive steep.

Day 5 Mercredi des Cendres (Ash Wednesday) Vid en Noir et Blanc is black and white for lent then the burning to ashes Satan to mark the end of Carnival. Around and around they go, hypnotized, nothing changes just the colour of dress code.

Drums still beating in my ear what did we think about Carnival Martinique? It isn’t for the moral minded and lacks the sophistication of Rio but what makes it is the happy fun time they all have. Dressing up the whole family, granddad in grandma’s shoes, boy fantasy of being a terrorist, braided coloured hair for the girls and bewilded children watching dad dressed as a sexy women adds to all of the carnival atmosphere.

What really impresses us is the total integration of all the different cultures, from the original Caribs, (Indians from South America) the Africans from slavery, Indians post slavery, French Europeans and cultures from their Asian colonies all intermarried and from appearances all living together very happily. I think that the French run their Caribbean islands as a direct French province with all the social welfare benefits helps this island economically.

The only race of people missing is the Arawaks, the original South American Indian settlers who were eaten by the Caribs when they arrived in the 12th century. Mind you the Catholic Europeans weren’t much better when they arrived in the 1600’s by drastically depleting the numbers of the Caribs.

Onward we motor north to Dominica and Guadeloupe and will return for rig fitting.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 8th, 2008 at 4:09 am and is filed under 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.