{"id":3700,"date":"2012-05-18T16:30:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-18T16:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/?p=3700"},"modified":"2012-11-22T02:29:15","modified_gmt":"2012-11-22T02:29:15","slug":"two-weeks-in-martinique","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/?p=3700","title":{"rendered":"Two weeks in Martinique"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3701\" style=\"width: 430px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/martinique.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3701\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-3701 \" title=\"martinique\" src=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/martinique.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"420\" height=\"246\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/martinique.jpg 700w, http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/martinique-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3701\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It&#8217;s not so sunny in Martinique.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Having friends show me around Martinique certainly made my visit here all the more enjoyable. For a change, I didn&#8217;t have to wander the streets like a homeless person or sit alone at a bar each evening looking solitarily forlorn while reminiscing over previous adventures.<\/p>\n<p>Not that everything was as delightfully entertaining as I would have liked. The weather certainly did its darnedest to put a damper on the fun, almost preventing my arrival altogether (Martinique was on yellow alert), and when I finally did settle down safely at the anchorage in Fort de France I was unexpectedly boarded by four burly customs officers while asleep. After questioning me and sifting through everything I owned with a fine toothed comb, they evidently decided I wasn&#8217;t such a bad apple after all and left me to return to my slumber.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3702\" style=\"width: 430px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/mess.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3702\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-3702 \" title=\"mess\" src=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/mess.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"420\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/mess.jpg 700w, http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/mess-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3702\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Do you suppose I can ask them to put it all back?<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Now I don&#8217;t begrudge \u201cla douane\u201d for doing their job, but imagine what it&#8217;s like having your bedroom invaded by strangers, and everything aboard turned upside down and inside out, especially when you&#8217;re so obviously innocent of any wrongdoing?<\/p>\n<p>OK, perhaps I&#8217;m not that innocent, but I insist that I at least look it.<\/p>\n<p>Are we all agreed?<\/p>\n<p>Surely hoarding a tad more aged rum aboard than what&#8217;s usually fit for personal consumption isn&#8217;t a crime. What other souvenir was I expected to buy from these islands? Besides, I&#8217;ve promised to send a bottle or two of quality rum back to Europe, and it&#8217;s certainly high time I delivered&#8230;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3703\" style=\"width: 394px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/yole.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3703\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-3703  \" title=\"yole\" src=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/yole.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"384\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/yole.jpg 800w, http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/yole-300x181.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3703\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Traditional yole racing is all the rage in Martinique<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So what&#8217;s there to do in Martinique that isn&#8217;t yacht related?<\/p>\n<p>Plenty!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3705\" style=\"width: 261px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/headless.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3705\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-3705 \" title=\"headless\" src=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/headless.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"251\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/headless.jpg 418w, http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/headless-179x300.jpg 179w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 251px) 100vw, 251px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3705\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Apparently Josephine wasn&#8217;t too popular back home.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Being a fan of intellectual pursuits (ahem&#8230;), of historical significance of course, I found this statue of empress Josephine rather fascinating. I didn&#8217;t know she was from these parts!<\/p>\n<p>Apparently she wasn&#8217;t that popular here, or having the head removed from memorials is a Martinique tradition&#8230;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3706\" style=\"width: 430px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bums.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3706\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\" wp-image-3706 \" title=\"bums\" src=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bums.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"420\" height=\"213\" srcset=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bums.jpg 700w, http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/bums-300x152.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Not quite Brazil but who&#8217;s complaining&#8230;.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Well then, who am I to defy tradition&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having friends show me around Martinique certainly made my visit here all the more enjoyable. For a change, I didn&#8217;t have to wander the streets like a homeless person or sit alone at a bar each evening looking solitarily forlorn &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/?p=3700\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1095],"tags":[561,1185,1183,323,1184],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3700"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3710,"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3700\/revisions\/3710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ifno.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}