Fort-de-France

Today, Insignia brought us to Fort-de-France, Martinique … the second new-to-us-port on this cruise.

Mui had decided that he would skip swimming in Martinique. Instead, he suggested that we head up to Jardín de Balata … a little more than 6 miles from where we docked in the capital of Martinique.

Leaving Insignia behind, we followed the long bridge that leads into town. The plan was to take one of the public buses — #25 — to get ourselves to the garden. Easy peasy … except that we made a rookie mistake and didn’t check out the schedule. No matter … we just had a long wait for the bus, but we got where we wanted to go … €5.40 R/T for the two of us.

The ride has to rank high up there as one of the hairiest ones we’ve been on. Route de Balata traverses a narrow, winding road up into the hills. Up, up, and up we went, hanging on as the bus took the hairpin curves at speed, honking its horn to alert oncoming traffic on blind corners. After visiting the garden, I can equivocally say that it was worth it.

The private botanical garden was developed by a horticulturist named Thoze and opened to the public in 1986. It is situated on former farmlands, with the entrance through a typical Creole house. The grounds are quite extensive … a path leading visitors around. With the help of the map we were given, we managed to stay on track. Going down ramps and steps … then up … then down … then up … and on and on. Signage was limited … or well hidden, but with my Seek app, I managed to identify a number of the plants.

We thoroughly enjoyed wandering around the garden … hearing nothing but French spoken all around us. I would, in fact, venture to say that we might have been the only English speakers around since the Oceania tour groups had already been and gone. Our pleasure in the visit was compounded by the fact that it was much cooler up at the elevation at which the garden sits.

We left the Jardín de Balata around 1:00p, walking up to the bus stop just as #25 turned the corner and came into view. Another hairy bus ride returned us to Fort-de-France.

The plan for the afternoon was to walk over to Fort Saint-Louis, cutting through La Savane, a park where we were told we could find some small eateries. None of the food options appealed. So, we continued with the rest of the plan, which was to go to Plage de la Française so that Mui could take a dip before returning to the ship. Nope, not gonna happen. Contrary to what we’d been told, the water was quite yucky.

By this time, we were overheating under the broiling sun anyway, so we decided to head back to the air conditioned comfort of Insignia. Lunch at the Waves Grill … a relaxing afternoon in the cabin … and soon it was time for Insignia to slip off her lines and set course towards Gustavia, St Barts. Not so fast.

Turns out that St Barts is experiencing heavy swells … with conditions expected to worsen tomorrow. Not good for tender operations to get ashore. Instead we’ll be heading to Sint Maarten for a day of fun in the sun and surf.

Tonight’s social event was a cocktail party for Oceania Club members. The take away — there are 568 passengers on this cruise … 349 of them being repeat passengers. Every level of the Oceania Club was represented tonight … with the most traveled guests at the top of it all with 900+ days on Oceania vessels.Read more