Escape

So I've been in Martinique for a while now. My blogging of late has been a backlog of the traveling I did through South America. It was a great escape on dull days (far too frequent here) to re-immerse myself in my memories of South American backpacking. Martinique is a great place to be if you have money and a car. Sadly I have neither. So on Sundays I'm house bound with little to do other than get over a harsh rum hangovers from the previous night and catch up with sleep. It's boring. Martinique has been hard work, I found the most awful job on the planet. It's not easy to find work here which is why I tortured myself with it for so long. Monday through to Saturday. Slavery. Teaching English for total c**ts and they really merit that description, I promise. I and all the other former employees (everyone has left) wish them a serious dose of karma for being so hideous. I hope to never have to endure such awful people in the work place ever again. Needless to say it was exhausting and I was paid a pittance. Weeks and months passed by, I will elaborate and blog about some of the essential details of my life thoughout this period although there is not much to do but whinge and expose my strange reactions to quite intense experiences. It has been what seems like one hard endless battle.

I love the Caribbean but I feel the restrictions that life on such a small island imposes after traveling through the vastness of South America where I was truly charmed but the cities (La Paz excluded) and all the other places I passed though, Peruvian jungle remains a highlight. It's cool to know in such a vast and varied continent that there is so much at your disposal. Had enough of the city? Need a change of scenery? Why not catch the bus or plane to the coast do a bit of surfing (I wish) or go to the mountians for some hiking. Have a bit of an outdoor, roots experience. see some floating islands or go deep into the Amazon. This is how, in my fantasies, life would be if I lived Latin. Martinique was a longed for dream that just hasn't marry up to it's over-imagined rose-tinted vision.

Where did it all go wrong Martinique? Not just for me but this place in general has some serious issues it needs to face up to. Socially, culturally and economically. This island is close minded and very annoying if you don't have cash. It's also infuriating if you are female. Daily hassle and harrassment are par for the course. It has been an important immersion into male dominated society. Women are seen as property here, not in the sense that you are bound to a husband forever as in some Muslim societies because there is such a sexual free-for-all. Cheating in rife, sluttiness encouraged (just take a look at some dancehall vids and you get more than an idea of how things go down in this part of the world) and it's endemic, perhaps a product of such a small place, or born out of it's roots in slavery somehow. If you're seeing someone you need to just forget the idea of having male friends. First of all it's impossible because that very idea is not only foreign but extra-terrestrial. I thought I could navigate it but my boyfriend is simply too jealous to ever make it comfortable and on top of that even the guys who approach you knowing the score and seeming to present themselves as understanding friends who just want to chat and pass time won't hesitate to full on jump you as soon as a moment alone presents itself. Something to be avoided at all costs because NO is not easily understood here. Their persistence is a pain, really taxing, exhausting. There is no shame, they try and try and try and TRY. It becomes horribly uncomfortable and it is such a regular occurence that it's boring and awkward if you think you want to still be friends with them (not worth it by the way). The case studies are endless.

There is fortunately an outlet if you ever find yourself alone in Martinique battling work issues and struggling to  make friends that want to be your freind and not sleep with you. It will cost you a mere €119 alle-retour crossing. The ferry to St Lucia. Catamaran or sailing boat crossings are even better if you can find someone to take you for free or not too much since you get to sleep on board whilst there which cuts accommodation costs and makes for a pretty cool holiday experience. Living on a boat is brilliant, especially when you wake up anchored off a Caribbean bay and can jump straight into clear tropical water every morning for a swim. Water taxis with rastas or fishermen are also pretty fun, and hanging out in marinas is well worth doing since you seem to come across all sorts of people all wrapped up in a little sailing haven bubble, which in all honesty is a very nice little bubble to be in.

You can of course also go to Dominica, the island to the north of Martinique. And this is definitely on my to do list, by all accounts it's beautiful and people there are freindly, open, one of a kind. Dominica is wild, and hiker friendly, it seems to me less of a party island than St Lucia.

So I caught the ferry to join my family on a short holiday in St Lucia but had a day on either side of their week on the island knocking around on my own. Which was ace.