I don’t like the beach. I know. I lived on a Caribbean island for 15 months over three calendar years—how is that even possible? Well, I find lying on the beach boring and it makes me really hot, to which the normal response is to go for a swim, but swimming in saltwater makes me…
After consulting a road map of Martinique and working through the directions visually, we got in the car hoping for the best. In spite of our best efforts, we overshot and ended up driving up and down some of the steepest hills I’ve encountered on this island. Ten minutes later and the car smelling strongly…
In the commune of Sainte-Marie, there is a natural wonder unique to Martinique and a global geological rarity. Here, you can only visit the two hillocks of Ilet Sainte-Marie during Carême—the dry season between January and April—when the tide goes out and the seas part to reveal the tombolo, a sandbar connecting the mainland to…
It took me ten months, windy roads through Ajoupa-Bouillon and heavy second gear in our ’97 Opel Astra up Morne Rouge to finally hike Mount Pelée. That’s right, I climbed the third deadliest volcano on Earth—which sounds way more exceptional when put that way. On May 8, 1902, a pyroclastic eruption (a current of hot…
“That was disappointing,” I told my partner after walking for an hour from Gros-Morne to Fonds-Saint-Denis to see the Le Saut du Gendarme, said to be one of the most impressive waterfalls in Martinique. More of a picnic area or layover during a hike, the five minute walk from the parking lot to the waterfall…
