Chapter 117: Saint-Pierre and another volcano!

After the excitement of being in the midst of the Tour de Yoles, we decided to head for something a bit quieter.  When we initially sailed to Martinique we went first to the southernmost port of Le Marin as we needed some parts.  We decided to head back north and explore some of the areas we bypassed on our initial entry to Martinique.

We traveled to Saint- Pierre and arrived at a lovely anchorage on Friday afternoon. Our anchorage was just off Anse Latouche which was a pretty beach. The city of Saint-Pierre was founded in 1635 and for a time was considered the most important city of Martinique culturally and economically, being known as “the Paris of the Caribbean”. In 1902, that all changed with the volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée. The stratovolcano’s  eruption destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing 29,000 to 30,000 people in the space of a few minutes, in the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century. The main eruption, on 8 May 1902, left only three known survivors:  Louis-Auguste Cyparis who survived because he was in a poorly ventilated jail cell, Léon Compèr e-Léandre, who lived on the outskirts of the city and escaped with severe burns, and a young girl named Havivra Da Ifrile, who fled to a nearby sea cave in a boat, enduring burns from falling ash.  In addition to the tragedy on land, this was a bustling sea port that was full of ships at the time of the eruption. 15 ships capsized that day creating a graveyard of shipwrecks at the bottom of the bay, including sailboats, steamships, and tugboats that are still there to this day and popular as dive sites. 

We started our exploration of Saint-Pierre with a visit to the Mémorial de la Catastrophe de 1902 – Musée Frank A. Perret.  This is a beautifully done museum illustrating pre and post destruction of the city with a beautiful memorial in the center of the museum composed of a list of the names of the 7,045 victims of the 1902 eruptions that have been identified thus far. This is a continued work in progress the Association Martiniquaise de recherche sur l’histoire des familles (AMARHISFA).  We then proceeded outside to read the plaques dedicated to the shipwrecks in the bay until the rain interrupted!  

The next day we woke up to sunny skies so headed back to town to continue our exploration. First we stopped by the farmer’s market which was full of fruits and vegetables, spices, and rum. It was very busy and very colorful.  We then visited the ruins of the Theatre du Petit Paris as well as the jail cell where Louis-Auguste Cyparis survived the eruption.  It was amazing to see both sights as well as interesting to see how the town has incorporated a lot of the ruins amidst the rebuilding that was done. It was a very warm day so we were happy to find a lovely lunch spot, Restaurant Le VSP, that was air conditioned! We had some great coconut chicken curry and enjoyed the views of the water.

On our final day in Saint-Pierre we began by attending church at the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption de Saint-Pierre. The service was all in French but it was still lovely to attend and we enjoyed our time with them. We then walked to the Zoo de Martinique. The zoo is set on the grounds of the oldest house in Martinique, the Latouche house.  While the zoo is not huge, it was beautifully landscaped and laid out among the ruins of this plantation.  The walkways included lush gardens, suspension bridges, waterfalls, and lily ponds! They had an interesting assortment of animals including monkeys, jaguars, pumas, lorikeets, great anteater, flamingos and more.  The funniest though, was seeing raccoons in the zoo.  I guess maybe they are unique in Martinique but it was pretty funny to see them in an exhibit!  

We went back to the boat after our visit to the zoo and decided to finish the day with a bit of snorkeling.  We took the dinghy out to a mooring that was marking a shipwreck.  We were surprised to find the shipwreck directly under the dinghy when we got out!  They were some scuba divers down deeper but we could definitely see the ship and some fish with just snorkel gear.  It was a great finish to our time in Saint-Pierre! Next stop Fort de France!