Sunday brought rain - so was a boat day. Unfortunately it brought a lot of rain, and areas of Dominica were hit hard, with roads washed out, houses lost and lots of downed trees and such. We were planning on doing more hiking, but with the road conditions and muddy trail conditions we decided it might be better to move on, and visit Dominica again for hiking later. Monday the winds were slightly out of the south, so another boat day, and then Tuesday we headed south to Martinique.
Had a nice sail to Martinique, and got a mooring in St. Pierre. Wednesday we set out to explore St. Pierre, and walked the town, went to the museum, and had a nice lunch followed by ice cream. We have been here before, but still a neat little town. On May 8 of 1902 Mt. Pelee erupted and wiped out the town of St. Pierre. An estimated 28,000 people in town died. The town has never returned to the size it was before the eruption, but you can walk around and see some building remains from that time that survived.
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| Breakfast in the park after picking up some pastries |
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| Kris had to feed the chickens part of her breakfast |
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| Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral Church |
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| Stairs up to theater destroyed in 1902 eruption |
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| The theater -was once inside and covered |
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| Looking at part of the old prison |
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| Part of the old prison |
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| Nice mural on the streets |
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| This nice gentleman stopped us when he saw Jason's camera, and started showing us pictures of all the birds he had photographed in the area. He spoke mostly French, but had a nice encounter with him |
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| More ruins from the eruption |
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| Mt. Pelee |
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| Earth Sciences Discovery Center - good film about the Mt. Pelee volcano |
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| More ruins |
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| Neat old streets that survived the eruption |
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| Its always time for ice cream |
Thursday we sailed from St. Pierre to our current anchorage near Les Trois Ilets. We are in a nice quiet spot, with a convenient dinghy dock near a shopping area that is using old buildings from a brickworks. Some of the buildings from the mid 18th century. It is called pottery village and still has an emphasis on pottery. We walked around the area on Friday, and visited the Museum of the Sea also located here.
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| Dean and Monica getting goofy |
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| Inside the Le Musée de la Mer |
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| The museum had a ton of neat shells to see |
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| Dean checking out the displays |
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| Pottery village is a very artistic area |
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| Neat murals on the buildings |
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| Nice old buildings as well in the Pottery Village |
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| Dean showing off his manly build |
Kris went for a kayak trip with Monica on Saturday morning and then since many places were closed in the Pottery village on Friday since it was a holiday we went back on Saturday as well. We had to try out the pastry shop there, and we were not disappointed. It was quite delicious. Forgot to take photos of our food, as we were so into eating. Had a couple of birds stop by to enjoy what ever crumbs we would give them.
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| Kayaking in the mangroves |
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| Nice little island in the bay |
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| After we cleaned our plates there were still some crumbs to be found |
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| Dean being goofy |
After indulging in pastries, we went for a nice walk on some trails in the Vatable Forest (Don't know what Vatable means)
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| Hiking along a small stream |
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| Lots of roots in the trail to navigate |
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| Nice square at the parking area of the trail |
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| Had many different masonry squares in the square with different designs |
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Not all the walk is great, had to walk about a mile on the busy road to get to the trail
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| Of course ice cream at the end of the walk is always good |
We have rented a car for today and next few days so will be doing more hiking and sightseeing.
