Late Tuesday my Dad and I decided to take a hike to the nearby village of Sainte Anne.  There wasn’t much too it aside from a few bars, cafe’s, souvenir shops, and a beach, but the buildings and views made the trek well worth it.

This was a cemetary along the coast.  It overlooks the bay our resort is on, and if you walked towards the ledge you could see exactly where we’re staying.  You see a lot of these around the island.  The graves are very ornate and are usually either in a pure white tile or a light blue.

My Dad in Sainte Anne.  Behind him you can see Club Med about to receive a downpour.

A typical building in Martinique.  Below you’ll see the bull that greets visitors near the entrance to the resort.

Late Sunday night we finally arrived in Martinique’s capital, Fort de France.  Club Med had arranged for a taxi to drive us to the resort, which was about 45 kilometers to the south in Sainte Anne.  Not a bad ride, but the price-tag was a bit of a shock – 75 Euros.  Convert that to American dollars, and you’ll  see it’s quite a bit.

Club Med has turned out to be quite impressive.  The beach here is amazing – everything you’d imagine from an island in the Caribbean.  The food and drinks fantastic, and readily available.  If you’re looking to relax, this is the place to do it.

If you know me well, you’ll know that sitting around being lazy is a hard thing for me to do.   And it’s been an adjustment.  But I’m beginning to think I could get used to this.

A few early thoughts:

• I’m the whitest person on the island
• I really wish I spoke French
• I’m probably the only person to ever visit Martinique with a laptop
• If you come here, don’t arrive on a Sunday.  Transportation is rough.
• I should have gotten a tan before I arrived.  Sunburn sucks.

More to come.  Below is a pic of a thunderstorm forming to the north from the beach here at Club Med.

Remember that trip I won earlier this year?   Round trip airfare for two and reservations an all-inclusive resort on the French Caribbean island of Martinique.  Well I finally went, and I brought my Dad along. 

It’s not every day you win a trip, so at first I was a bit skeptical.  In fact, I remained skeptical up until I received the plane tickets and hotel reservations in the mail.  But it turned out to be legit, and now I’m sitting on a deck surrounded by palm trees, sun-burnt from head to toe.

The trip from Hartford to Martinique was a long one. Out flight left the airport at 730 in the morning and landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We had about 7 hours to kill before our transfer left the airport so we decided to take a taxi into old San Juan, where we checked out a few shops and the Fort San Felipe del Morro, walked around, and visited some shops.

Then it was back to the airport where we boarded our rickety two-propeller flight bound for Martinique.    I’ll post more later as I’m tight on time at the moment, but for now here’s a few pics from San Juan.