Up Next: Martinique and Barbados

Our next stop was in Fort-de-France, the capital and largest city on the windward island of Martinique.

Coming to Martinique

The island is a French territory with a land area of approximately 436 mi.² (43 miles long by 19 miles wide) and a population of around 361,000.

Royal Clipper

The economy is primarily driven by tourism, but the growing of sugarcane, bananas, and rum production are also important contributors.

During our last visit here we had extensively walked the city to see the featured sites and were not terribly impressed with the offerings. However, Jane did remember a great crafts market next to the pier. We decided that we would walk off the ship and explore the market and then possibly stroll into downtown if we felt up to it.

Calypso Band

As we were having breakfast, a tall masted sailing ship, the Royal Clipper, pulled into the berth next to us. It was a beautiful ship and cruising on such a vessel was something we thought we might like to try.

We disembarked and walked off the pier and were greeted by a calypso band entertaining the passengers.

Street Protestors?

We listened for a few minutes and then headed over to the vendors. Almost immediately Jane found some goodies that she felt she had to have. We hit all of the vendors next to the pier and then saw another market not too far away. We went completely through the market, but as we have seen with other such markets, all of the vendors offer the same merchandise for a collectively agreed upon price. At this point we thought about heading downtown, but some activities in the street changed our minds.

Stealing the Show

When we first got off the boat we saw and heard people marching and carrying flags in the street. Initially, we figured that this was some kind of parade, but as we got closer it appeared to be more of a demonstration or protest. That took going downtown off the table!

We headed back to the pier market and Jane was hot to buy a sarong that she had spotted earlier. The vendor pulled out a tub of packaged sarongs and Jane picked a black one with some pretty green flowers.

Jane's BLM Sarong

The sale was made and we headed back to our ship, but not before we stopped and listened to the calypso band. Suddenly, this old guy sitting next to us jumped up and approached the band asking for a microphone. Painfully off pitch, he began singing “Yellow Bird” and “Marianne” (old songs but Jane knew them all!). The crowd went crazy over this and the band looked pretty startled.

Back in our cabin Jane opened up her sarong to get a full view of the pattern. Lo and behold, emblazoned along the top of the cloth in big bold letters were the words “Black Lives Matter” complete with a clenched fist rising up through the center!

Rotterdam and Royal Clipper

Obviously, we would try to return this get something different. We had lunch and then headed back off the ship to exchange the sarong, hoping that the vendor would be understanding and remember us as we had no receipt. We found the vendor and Jane explained that this is not which she had in mind (the vendor was black!).

Barbados Rainbow

The vendor laughed and then gratefully accommodated Jane with another selection. So it all worked out.

Bridgetown, Barbados was our next port of call— the island’s capital and largest city. Gaining its independence in 1966, Barbados was formerly a British territory. With an area of 167 mi.², Barbados is approximately 21 miles long and 14 miles wide.

Along the waterway

The current population is around 281,000 with 90% of all Barbadians being of Afro-Caribbean ancestry.

We didn’t schedule any excursions for Barbados, choosing instead to walk to town as we had during our last visit.

Parliament Building

We left the ship and made our way through the duty-free area and headed for the downtown area. We walked along a waterway that connects to the ocean and across a couple of bridges for which Bridgetown gets its name. We walked to a park and sat and people watched for a while and then made our way to the government district where we saw the beautiful parliament building.

Processing Fish

We decided to return to the ship and not revisit some of the churches that we had seen on our last trip to Barbados.

On our way back to the ship we detoured to a sidewalk café situated on the waterway that we had stopped at on our last visit. We relaxed and people watched over a couple of beers before we made our final push to get back to the ship.

Fisherman Repairing His Net

Along the way we encountered a commercial fish market where the fresh catch was being cleaned and packaged for purchase. It was quite an operation with the processing of huge quantities of fresh fish.

Back at the duty-free area, Jane decided that there were a couple of shops that she wanted to browse. However, the browsing didn’t last long as she decided that there were just no bargains to be had! Back on board the ship we had a late lunch and then spent the afternoon relaxing.