Martinique & Guadeloupe
Two Caribbean Islands with a Touch of France
Sun shines through Martinique’s rainforest canopy, lighting more shades of green than the eye can discern. Hiking paths wind among tall mahogany trees, lianas trail in rope-like ladders, giant tree ferns and fan-shaped traveler’s palms rise above a dense undergrowth where stands of bamboo seem positively frivolous.
The road that rises steeply into the mountains is lined with red-leaved Rose of India, and white begonias tumble from garden banks. We pass trees sprayed with fiery orange and red blossoms, and coconut palms flapping lazily in the breeze.
When Christopher Columbus passed this way, the Carib Indian inhabitants called Martinique Madinina, meaning Island of Flowers. It’s still an apt description for this little bit of France, planted in the Caribbean.
From the creamy, delicately waxy, frangipane blossoms to the flashy, lobster claw heliconia; alamanda bushes, their yellow flowers sunbright against glossy green and oleanders blooming in the prettiest pinks – you don’t need to look far to find natural color here. And there are delicious surprises, like coming across a shaded patch of pink anthurium when you are least expecting them, and falling asleep to the rhythmic squeaking of a tree frog.
In the village of Trinité-Tartane, fish is landed on the beach and served a few hours later in any of the numerous restaurants along a bay that’s ringed by seagrape trees. Banana and pineapple plantations reach to the Atlantic coast, and fields of sugarcane stand proud, waiting to fuel one of the island’s most famous assets – rhum agricole. Invented 350 years ago by a French explorer-priest, Père Labat, who took the methods of creating Cognac as his inspiration; the clear, white rum is made from the pure juice squeezed from the sugar cane. It is used in the powerful Tí-punch, a locals’ favorite tipple, while the rum that’s aged for several years in oak barrels really does rival Cognac.
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