Carnival in Saint-Pierre, Martinique
Monday 12th - Tuesday 13th February 2024
Shortly after 8 am on the 8th May 1902, a massive eruption of Mount Pelee annihilated the town of Saint-Pierre. A wave of incandescent lava particles surged down the sides of the volcano at hurricane speeds and killed almost the entire population of 30,000 people instantly. Only 3 people are known to have survived, including one man locked in a poorly ventilated dungeon. This was the worst volcanic disaster of the 20th century and Mt Pelee is still active, with the last significant eruption occurring in 1932. Saint-Pierre had been the largest town on the island of Martinique and was viewed as the “Paris of the Caribbean”. Today, Saint-Pierre is a small, picturesque town nestled between the beach and the hills behind. It has a population of around 5,000 people, less than 20% of what it was prior to the eruption, and Fort de France has become the largest and most important city.
We had enjoyed visiting the town inn 2018 and were happy to be back. Some things seem to have changed, others seem the same. The former anchoring area was a fairly deep, narrow shelf of sea-bed that ran parallel the shore, with a vast drop off to the west. This area is now entirely full of moorings, which were completely occupied when we arrived on Sunday evening. We were able to anchor about a mile south of town, but it didn’t feel too secure, as evidenced by a 40 ft sailboat washed ashore on the beach, possibly during the recent bad weather. On Monday morning, many boats departed their moorings and after checking-in at the harbormaster’s office we were able to take one the empty moorings. It is worth the 15 euro fee, as we are much closer to the town dock and feel more secure leaving the boat. The mooring itself is in 80 feet of water and there are two independent lines to the ground tackle. This does mean that the ball itself doesn’t spin and as we rotate, with winds and current, our mooring lines end up very twisted.
The town itself seems more prosperous and busy than we remember it. The latter could be due to the fact that it is Carnival time. Over the past several days, both in Dominica and here in Martinique, there have been loud celebrations taking place. It’s noisy out on the boat, but up close the volume is at a whole different level. Late yesterday afternoon I went into town to take some photos, just as a parade was starting. The music was intense and the atmosphere was terrific. There were people of all ages parading through the town, some in wild and wonderful costumes. There seemed to be a lot of people dressed up in drag; I don’t know if that’s part of the tradition. I thought it was great to see everyone having so much fun. I didn’t get the impression that this was in any way a drunken rave, but rather a genuine celebration, particularly for kids and young people. One feature of the parade was a series of cars that have modifications to their engines / exhausts that cause them to emit incredible bangs, like they were back-firing. However, some of these vehicles seemed to be making these noises in rhythm and at will. I have no idea how they do it, but even from the boat it sounds like you are in a firing range. I’m not sure what will be happening this evening but I expect it will be loud!.
Today we walked along to the Zoo de Martinique and spent the best part of 6 hours wandering around. It was beautiful, but we’ll save that for another blog, as I have some nature pictures that I’d like to share. For now I’m just going to include some “people” shots that I took during the parade yesterday. I don’t tend to take many “people” shots. I view it as one of the most important area of photography, but one that I’m not very good at. I went ashore to take photos of the buildings (which I did), but it seemed crazy (which I am) not to try and capture the atmosphere of the carnival by taking pictures of the people.
Mike
I loved all the photos, Mike! (Laura)
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