traveladdict

Martinique

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TRIP 2 January 2016 – March 2017

January 2016

ARRIVING IN SUMMER
From -7 °C to +30 °C in a couple of hours – how nice at the arrival  to see the palm trees along the street, to hear the birds singing, to see the sun and the blue sky - all that was elimnated by the strong winter who just started in France and Germany. Not to mention: We were VERY happy to leave the cold. 

On arriving we stayed on a friends boat the first week, until we found an own place to stay. Titnony found a little studio to rent for a month, that would give us time to find something bigger, but then friends from our last stay in Martinique asked us if we want to stay on their sailingboat, since they were leaving for France and trying to sell it. 

What an great oppertunity - we jumped on it, I bought a wifi antenna to be able to work on the boat and there we went, one day later we were boat people :)

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TRIP 1 February – June 2014

 

June 2014

SWIMMING WITH A DOPLHIN
We had the luck that a dolphin swam around Marielles boat this morning, they called us and we swam 20 min over to their boat and spend about 2 hours swimming and playing with the dolphin!
He once swam around me in circles for minutes, turning on his back, opening his mouth, up and down over and over again,... they are so elegant when they move in the water and so fun to watch playing. It
was very untypical to see a dolphin in the Bay of Sainte Anne – all alone – and even more untypical for him to stay around the boat for so long. I think he got lost and wanted to take a break. First he was 

very calm, just taking circles around the boat, relaxing and some-times just floating without motion, but after 2 hours he began to play with us.
It was the most amazing thing I ever did!
Luckily Alex from the Natiyabel Diving School came swimming by aswell with a camera and he gave me his photos and videos – as you can see in the gallery, I cut them together and made one video out of it. He send the images to some marine biologists and they found out who the dolphin was:
Name: Gee-Gee
Age: 4 years
Gender: Female
Last seen: Guadeloupe / now Martinique

 

TRADITIONAL FISHING IN MARTINIQUE
Titony went out a couple of times for a day of fishing, with our friend Gilles. Hard work, that starts with teh first light of day at 4:30 am to 3 pm. They caught a 50 Kg tuna and about the same weight marlin plus some smaller tuna and a 7 Kg thazar.
They were fishing very ecofriendly with a single line tied to a buoy and with fishing rods for the bait. No "bycatch" - which would be thrown dead into the sea! At the industrial fishery they have around 40% "unwanted" fish that dies for nothing.

 

May 2014

OUT WITH THE DOLPHINS 
We did a very touristy thing for once: an ecofriendly dolphin-watching tour ...
plus snorkeling. After going out with the boat for just about 30 miniutes we found a large pod of bottlenose dolphins, we turned our engine off and let us float. Curious as they are the came closer, flyng by the boat with increbidle speed and one even made a 5 minute jumping-show at the horizon – breathtaking and once again one of the best things I have ever done.

 

LE MARIN – ON FRANKIE'S BOAT
Our friend Frankie has been living on his sailing boat for 5 years – every winter he spend in the carribeans – in the summer he is working as a surf teacher in France / Montalivet. I made his corporate identity for this business: FRANKIE SURF SCHOOL
Now he is going to sell his beloved sailingboat and leaving for France in a few days, so we had a last come together + fishing + photo-fun on "Ralph Rover"... 

 

LEO NEEDS A HOME
He came across us on the street, a piece of fear, not even a year old we guess. He is so skinny that you can see all of his spine bones and hip bones not to speak of the ribs. The next day we saw him we
decided to give him some food, it was hard for him to follow us, but he decided to do it against his fears. It took him immmensly long to even eat a bit, he kept on running away and coming back unsure
of what to do. We gave him time and little by little after 6 days of "picking him up each night on the street,  now he comes into our appartment, stays calm, loves to play with us for hours in the backyard.
We called him "Leo", he made a huge jump from beeing an immensly scared creature to an almost normally calm dog. We decided to give him a refuge, to feed him and teach him a bit. We are going to stay here for at least 4 more month and during this time we hope to find a nice family for him. Update: Found a family for him in Le Vauclin!!

 

ON THE WATER
Visiting Gilles, Marielle and their son Teddy on their sailing boat off the coast of Sainte-Anne a couple of times, was always great. Gilles is fisher and caught a 

200 Kg Marlin two days before we met the first time and made some a great sushi and grilled fish for us... they actually have 3 sailing boats: the big one where we stayed on, a second one where their son lived on for some time and they just saved an old wooden boat from the Mangroves which got stranded there. To renovate it and make something beautiful to rent out like a mini-hostel.

 

TARTANE
A fishing village in the north-east of Martinique, close to the town »La Trinité«. It lays on a half island which is almost completely a natural reserve, with hiking trails all over. There we found this beautiful beach and surf-spot »Anse l'étang«. Titony found a bunch of jugglers who met regularly there and were really nice guys. 

 

15.02.–15.06.2014

SAINTE-ANNE
In the very south of the island there is Sainte-Anne, a cute small touristy fishing village with amazing beaches. We found an apartment here, 500 m from the beach, in a quiet corner a bit up the hill, with a huge palmtree-backyard and a view of hills + forest.

Titony build almost all the furniture out of pallets in the first 2 weeks, there were just two beds and 2 closets, one bed in the living room, where we made a sofa out of and one in the bedroom. All the rest homemade-furniture :)
We needed some pictures on the wall, so I made the selection and sizes from our Peru and France travelpic's – and the famous "Keep calm"- poster which my friend Mya send me as a present once got all printed in good poster quality and made it right away comfy looking! PLus I made a worldmap out of blue tape, which turned out pretty cool. Since we planned on staying for a couple of month we might aswell make it a beautiful place. 

 

01.-13.02.2014

FORT-DE-FRANCE

Carribeans, finally in the warm again! 28 degrees and not humid at all, a bit of wind all the time just perfekt!
But as soon as we arrived in Fort-de-France, the capital of the french island, we wanted to leave it again, it is too loud and busy ... especially when your hostel is right next to the highway, but we stayed here for
1 week because we had to wait for our car to be ready. A black Fiat Bravo for 500 Euro including "contrôle technique" – not too bad!.