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Hidden Gems of the Caribbean Field Report

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Hidden Gems of the Caribbean Field Report Hidden Gems of the Caribbean November 25 - December 6, 2018 ST. MARTIN ST. BARTH’S BARBUDA SABA SINT ANTIGUA EUSTATIUS ATLANTIC MONTSERRAT OCEAN ILES DES SAINTES DOMINICA MARTINIQUE CARIBBEAN SEA ST. LUCIA GRENADINES TOBAGO CAYS GRENADA Sunday, November 25, 2018 Martinique We arrived from different corners of the world to explore the lesser-traveled islands of the Caribbean, our flights touching down at Fort-de- France, the sleepy capital city of Martinique. On the drive to Le Cap Est Lagoon Resort, we admired the lush green vegetation covering impressive volcanic peaks. In the evening, we gathered for a cocktail party and dinner with our fellow travelers, where Expedition Leader Jeff Gneiser welcomed us and told us about our plans for the following day. We mingled amidst the background chorus of resident frogs, before heading off to bed to rest up for our first full day of exploration. Monday, November 26 Martinique / Embark Le Ponant We awoke to a brilliant sunny morning, and after breakfast set out to explore the island of Martinique. Some of us drove out to Presquile Caravelle National Park, which covers the vast majority of a large peninsula on the east coast. We watched as the sugarcane fields disappeared and coastal dry forest began to dominate the landscape. At the end of the road, we explored the ruins of Château Dubuc, a former plantation that hosted a bustling sugarcane production during the 18th century. From there, we set out on trails to explore the area and, with a little luck, encounter the rare white-breasted thrasher, which is found only on the Caribbean islands of Martinique and St. Lucia. Gray kingbirds called from exposed snags as we made our way down to the coastal mangroves and mudflats. Fiddler crabs waved their large arms as green herons fished the shallows. Inside the mangrove forest itself, we witnessed an impressive tangle of gray roots and trunks, and the ever-present calls of the ubiquitous bananaquits. Others explored various cultural stops on the island, starting with Sacre Coeur de Balata, a miniaturized version of Paris’s Montmartre Basilica. The interior was beautiful, with windows and walls decorated in delicate art nouveau motifs. From there, we drove up through drifting clouds and dense tropical forest to La Domaine de Emeraud or “Emerald Estate.” With local guides, we wandered the grounds learning about the island’s many medicinal plants and their traditional uses. On the way to lunch, we caught glimpses of the semi-active Mt. Pelée, Martinique’s tallest volcano at 4,600 feet, notorious for its 1902 pyroclastic eruption which wiped out the entire population of St. Pierre. Three months later, Pelée claimed more lives in the village of Morne Rouge, the very place where we enjoyed a relaxing Creole lunch at La Chaudière. We sampled rum, various fruit juices, and cod balls in a garden pavilion before we tucked into lunch in an open-air dining area. Carib grackles and Lesser Antillean bullfinches were our constant companions as we enjoyed the various courses. The next stop was Fort-de-France’s pre-Columbian Museum, next to a large park famous for its headless statue of Napoleon’s Josephine. We also visited the impressive Schœlcher library, named for the famous abolitionist who donated his private library of about 9,000 books and 250 musical scores to the General Council of Martinique in 1883 on the condition that a public library be built in the colony. We then boarded our ship and settled in for a welcome briefing on board the beautifulLe Ponant. Tuesday, November 27 Tobago Cays, Grenadines This morning we visited the spectacular low-lying islands of Tobago Cays, five small islands and an extensive reef system in the southern Grenadines. While the expedition team scouted the snorkeling, diving, and landing beach, Jack Grove gathered us in the lounge for an introduction to the fishes of the Caribbean. After the lecture, we sped ashore in the Zodiacs. Some of us headed out to the snorkel site just inside the reef. Though the surface conditions were choppy, we spotted resting nurse sharks on the bottom, and groups of surgeonfish grazing the filamentous algae growing on the rocky reef. Others boarded local boats to search for green sea turtles. The turtles were concentrated just off a beautiful sandy beach, with a sea grass meadow extending out across the sand flats. The warm rusty brown color of the turtles was a striking contrast to the brilliant light blue water as we scanned the sea surface for our next turtle to pop up. Some of us went ashore on the ‘turtle beach’ for a swim and to try our hand at spotting some turtles under water. Others roamed the tree studded landing beach feasting on locally caught lobster. After a delicious lunch back on the ship, including some more local lobster, some of us went ashore to join Rich Pagen and Claire Allum for a nature walk across the island and up to a high viewpoint. Zenaida doves foraged under the manchineel trees, while anole lizards perched on the tree trunks. Later in the afternoon, Rich gave his presentation in the lounge entitled, Productivity on the Reef: How Interspecies Relationships Have Built an Empire. We watched the sun dip below the horizon as Le Ponant set a course for tomorrow’s destination, Grenada. Wednesday, November 28 Grenada We arrived this morning at the beautiful port of St. George, with brightly-colored houses lining the waterfront and climbing up the hillsides above the harbor. Fishing boats with heaps of fishing floats piled on them were moored alongside each other. Grenada is known as the “Island of Spice” as it is one of the world’s largest exporters of nutmeg and mace. It is also remembered for a U.S.-led invasion on October 25, 1983, which was catalyzed by both the overthrow of a moderate government—one which was strongly pro-communist— and the presence of Cuban construction workers and military personnel who were building a 10,000-foot (3,000 m) airstrip on Grenada. Some of us headed out this morning to hike to the beautiful Carmel Waterfall, located on the east coast of the island. The hike traversed rolling terrain and ended at a steep box canyon, where a rocky pool below a magnificent waterfall welcomed us. Small fish darted around the rocks as we took a dip into the cool water. Along the scenic drive to the trailhead, we saw and discussed many of the food products being grown along the roadside: breadfruit, mango, nutmeg, and cassava. We also encountered the tiniest of stick insects. These magnificent plant-eaters are masters of camouflage, looking nearly identical to the plants on which they live and feed. But perhaps the highlight of the trip out to the trailhead was a very friendly mona monkey who happily climbed across our shoulders. These Old World monkeys are native to West Africa, and came across the Atlantic in slave trading ships during the 18th century. Others headed off to see the remains of the unfinished international airport, now a flat area which offers a bizarre scene of scrawny cattle and goats grazing on broken-down tarmac around the wreckage of two burned-out Cuban MIG fighter planes. We then visited a distillery which still uses ancient original equipment to produce rum in the traditional way. We watched in anticipation as a jumble of cut and stripped cane stalks crept up a conveyor belt to a mighty iron press manufactured in Victorian England. After watching the extracted juice being fed into evaporation vats above wood fires, we sampled the final product. Our last stop was an estate that produced nutmeg, mace, cinnamon, allspice, bay leaves, and cocoa beans. We saw the tricky drying process for cocoa beans and then walked through a long, narrow shed which smelled sweetly of the spices displayed there both as plants and as finished products. After lunch, the divers set out to explore the island’s rocky reefs. Meanwhile, many of us boarded a local catamaran to explore the underwater world of Grenada by snorkel. We took a tour of one of the world’s only underwater sculpture parks, and explored a rocky reef home to banded butterflyfish, as well as nocturnal squirrelfish that peered out at us from inside rocky crevices. The gorgeous sunset back on the catamaran was accompanied by a delicious rum punch! Thursday, November 29 St. Lucia This morning we docked at Soufrière, a quaint town squeezed in at the base of several very sharp volcanic peaks, their silhouettes softened by the dense vegetation. The tallest and most famous, the side-by-side Pitons, one grand and one petit, rise nearly vertically out of the sea below. These peaks feature prominently on the label of the local beer, aptly named Piton. We piled into the backs of a number of flatbed trucks with benches assembled along the sides, and set off to explore the island. Some of us headed out to the Morne Coubaril Estate for a wander past a re- creation of Carib huts, where scattered artifacts such as tri-pots were now used as planters. Near the handsomely refurbished manor house, we saw a water well run on mule/donkey power, a drying area for cacao beans, and a furnace-like oven where coconut was being turned into copra. We sampled fresh coconut meat, proffered by a man who held a coconut in one hand and then cleaved it in two with one swift stroke of a machete held in the other. We gasped with relief at each bloodless blow, while the man himself maintained a look of bemused serenity.
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