St. Pierre, Martinique......a hard luck town
St. Pierre has had some seriously bad luck. Gray sand beaches don't remind anyone of Miami Beach. Its not sand anyway, but volcanic ash. Anyone unlucky enough to be here in May of 1902 was incinerated by a volcano (30,000 died in one day....but thinking positively, there were 2 survivors). It was the largest loss of life due to a volcano in the 20th century. The town was known as the Paris of the Caribbean prior to the quake - while a long way from Paris now, it is a both charming and haunting place. We have seen the evidence both above and below water - there are over 12 wrecks in the bay and we have been doing some dives to see them firsthand. By the way, if you prefer your apocalpyses watery, the same town was destroyed by a hurricane in the 1700s.
There might be more tourists here save for the hazards of the parks. One notable hike takes you up the mountain and requires you to walk on top of an old stone aqueduct. No problem, except that if you step off your 18 inch wide path, it's 1,000 feet down (look at the picture below at the start of the hike and then imagine nothing to the right). No railing, no median, no chance if you fall. The only warning is a sign at the start of the hike......a stick man with an apostraphe coming out of his head, like he has an idea........probably, "let's do something else". We started down the hike - as it had taken us an hour of walking uphill to get to the trailhead - only to turn around when it became clear that going any further would require serious use of anti- anxiety medicine.
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| Ruins of the theatre |
St. Pierre with Mt. Pelee in the back
