Let's continue our tour of

Martinique

(Caribbean Martinique. P.1). We came to the rum factory.

The work is in full swing. Tractors almost continuously bring sugar cane, and the local "wizards" turn the plant into a "noble beverage".

The strong oily drink of Hemingway burning the throat appears out of this thick foam.))

After a pleasant stroll, it's impossible not to go in the store and not to buy a couple of bottles of dark Martinique rum to take home. This is a very nice and decent drink - I recommend.

The next stop in Martinique was the town of

Saint-Pierre

. It is located in the north-west of the island, and once upon a time it was called "Paris of America". Saint-Pierre is located right at the foot of the volcanic mountain called 

La Montagne Pelee

("The Bald Mountain"). This volcano was always restless. It was puffing all the time. When in April 1902 it woke up for real, residents of the city did not even think to escape.

The entire population stayed in the city. On May 8, a disaster happened: a cloud of suffocating hot gases, ash and rocks descended on Saint-Pierre and took the life of almost 30 thousand people. Only a prisoner that was in prison in a deep basement survived.

Only charred black stones have remained of the old town.

People do not plan to remove them. This is the memory of the tragedy.

There was nothing left here 103 years ago. Now there's new Saint-Pierre. Everything is cyclic in this world.

We visited several Caribbean islands on our small cruise itinerary - Saona, Guadeloupe and Saint Martin, Martinique. I liked the last one more than others. If I have to choose where to go back, I'll definitely choose this island.
Well, where else can you have a good swim at the almost deserted beach with black sand? I've seen this before only in New Zealand.

This beach is located on the east coast between the towns of Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-France.

The Caribbean is beautiful. Martinique definitely deserves two, maybe even three days to explore.

My taxi driver returned me to the port of Fort-de-France. There still was enough time till the last call, so I decided to take a walk around the city on foot.
Fort-de-France has a very beautiful building of the library, and, most importantly, there is free wi-fi inside))). Moreover, you can see very old and rare books there.

Here's a series of comic books about Largo Winch.

You can buy everything on the boulevards of Fort-de-France. When the cruise ships moor to the shore, streets located next to the port turn into the big market.

You can buy hats and shorts with "glitters".

This is time to return to our ship called "Horizon".