Martinique, on board now

Just a short update. I'm onboard now. Leaving Anse-á-l'Ane to sail to St. Pierre. A northern town on Martinique. A town which was burned in 1902 when the nearby wulcano exploded.
I also went to a short tour to Fort-de-france with henning.

Martinique, To Anse-á-l'Ane

Left my hotel at 11:30. This gave me plenty of time to carry my two backpacks to the nearest busstop.
Around 28 degrees, so pretty hot tour...
The busride to Anse-á-l'Ane took about one hour. Price 1.20€ 
Some locals will tell you public transport on the island is none existing. I have found it to run on time, being cheap and with aircondition (well, some of them) :-)

In Anse-á-l'Ane I went shopping to cook a Danish dinner for my hosts tonight. Not an easy task, so I don't think any danes would call it Danish food. Put sure gonna be good :-)

Thomas picked me up at Jojos, a bar/ restaurant. We went to his family.
Maïna, Toh, and Titouan (1,5 year old boy).
After a drink we went to pick up
Titouan at his nanny.
Back home in Anse Mitan I had time to do some sightseeing. A very touristy place. I bought a pen, so now there is no excuse for not writing postcards...
The evening with Maïna, Toh, and Titouan was great. My "Danish" meal (wok dish) turned out to be pretty good, but far from Danish :-)

A very nice evening. Tasted a new rum. Almost whisky like, but still good.

Tomorrow it's time to jump on board the ship "den vilde jagt" (The Wild Hunt)
Hunting adventures!

Martinique, the hike again

Well, I know I wrote I was leaving Anse Cafard today, but then the nice woman at the reception talked me into taking another day. And the whole crew from the ship wrote me they were doing the hike I did yesterday.
They were getting of the bus really close to my hotel, so a great option to met them before jumping on board (or escaping :)
I met them, all nice people. Just as I met them a couchsurfer (Thomas) called me. He offered me a couch tomorrow, and a pickup. And even a drop off near the ship on Friday. Well isn't that great!
Looking very much forward to meet them.

The hike today was easier than yesterday. The crew brought the five year old Tor. I was sure they were gonna carry him the most of the way. He turned out to be the coolest five year old I've ever met!
He climbed to the top and down again afterwards. A three hour hike a lot of adults would struggle to do. Very cool. I showed the Geocache at the top.
At the foot of the mountain we had a drink. Five minutes later the crew found out a bus was leaving in three minutes. They left.
As I was waving goodbye a local man thought I was waving at him. He came over, bought me a drink, and introduced me to two of his friends.
I had lunch with them. They spoke absolutely no English, but I managed to talk with them for three hours.
They were offering me a ride back to my hotel, but they had at least 7 drinks during our conversation. So I took a bus to my hotel. Think they were a little disappointed me not going with them. I was more concerned about which one of them who was driving. The one sleeping, or the one chatting to me French.
Have uploaded a picture of me trying to explain my trip, my job, my age and so on... Pictionary in real life.
Also a few pictures from the hike.

Martinique, Checkout at ten?

A little example on how little English the staff speak/understand (or how little French I speak):
I said to the owner of the hotel "checkout at ten?".... After signlanguage he gave up,  and got the chef. Same story. Signlanguage, pointing to my none existing watch. He was pointing to the nearest mountain. I'm definitely not going there again! So I said "OK, ten". The owner and chef seemed happy, and I'm gonna drink another cup of coffee, and take it easy. :-)

A little follow up. I asked in the reception. Checkout time is 12. I also asked if she knew a good hotel in the next city. Her reply was "no, stay here". :-)
There is plenty though, so leaving Le Diamond today.

Martinique, Blind date

Felt sorry for the restaurant at the hotel. Lots of staff. Nice atmosphere. Nice music (English),  and no customers. Apart from me :-)
The menu was in French, the waitress could only speak French. I just pointed at two things and hoped for the best. A so called menu blind date :-)
I attracted more customers, of course, and my food turned out to be a very nice sandwich with potato chips. Excellent choice after the long hike. I ordered the Le petrus on the menu...

Martinique, swimmingpool, or climbing a mountain

A three hour hike was planned for today.
Some of the crew from the ship had also this plan. Same area actually. They chikkened out though :)
The weather wasn't the best for a mountain hike. The receptionist at the hotel looked at me as I was crazy when I asked for directions for the start of the hike.
After some tries, Garmin helped me, and I started climbing. After
50 minutes climbing I was at the top. Some very hard 50 minutes!
Bob was in my pocket all the way. He was singing a song about dying alone from a snake bite on a remote mountain track.
I met 0 people on the entire hike. It took me about 4 hours, including lunch at the top. Fantastic view!
My clothes was drying in a bush. Soaked of sweat!
On the way back to the hotel I met a German couple. They gave me a ride back to Anse Cafard. So nice.
Even though I have barely seen the sun today my head have had enough sun. The UV index is about 13!
Near the top of Morne Larcher I found a Geocache.
Gonna jump on the ship Friday. Sailing Saturday. First stop is Saint-Pierre on the northern part of Martinique.

Martinique, turtle on the beach

My host made some last minute changes, and flew to Paris today. He was kind to find a payable hotel for me in Diamond. (58€ pr night)
He even drove me to the hotel.

So I'm chillin on the south of Martinique.
I went for a walk on the beach today. It started to rain, so I went to a restaurant. With the rain I think we were close to hit 25 degrees. Pretty cold :-)
At the restaurant I ordered the fish menu of the day. I'm pretty sure it was a piece of salmon - just like the one you buy in Denmark. Not particularly Caribbean I guess? :-)
In the close by supermarket they had Norwegian fish in the fridge... Hmmmmm. Strange world...
I was, of course, being environment friendly, and bought local food. Rum and bananas... And sunscreen.

On my way back to the hotel a man kept waving to me. I was sure he was trying to sell me something. Then I realised he wanted me to stop. There was a giant turtle on the beach. She was lying eggs. Cool!
After a while there policemen came, and blocked the beach. But they were also busy doing what all others were doing - taking photos.

Very cool experience.

I'm in Diamond until Wednesday. Then I'll move close to Anse Lane where the ship is. I'm hoping to find a couchsurfing host for the last two days.