Martinique, trés chic.

If you have to travel from Dominica to Martinique, or to St Lucia, or anywhere for that matter, please: avoid the express ferry at all costs!

A ferry trip should be, well, something of a Caribbean-cruise like adventure. Right? Happy bikini-clad passengers, milling on a catamaran-style boat, slicing efficiently through turquoise waters on the way to paradise. No. What we get is a boat traveling at the speed of a bullet, being tossed about by angry high seas. Passengers vomiting to the left and to the right, desperately clutching appropriately green sick bags. Steve, prone to motion sickness, takes a total of four Dramamine, yet spends the ride staring intently at the horizon, drenched in sweat. I make sure I have a bag nearby, and try not to hear the contagious vomit sounds around me. Really, this is hell.

We FINALLY arrive and find a cab to take us to Sofitel Bakoua. We later learn it is a short ferry ride away. Although the cab takes over an hour due to traffic and costs nearly $80, it is well worth it. No more boats!

Sofitel Bakoua is a rather fancy place in Les Trois Islets. We arrive tired from our ride through hell. The receptionist manages to make me feel guilty for getting such a good deal on the room (if you can call $290 Euros per night a "good deal" - they do) and I end up springing an extra $100 Euros per night for a room on the beach. "On the beach" means exactly that - wow! The room is small, but the gorgeous location makes up for it.

I am too tired to leave the room. Steve makes a food run, returning with a taco salad for me, fajitas for him, from a tex mex place in the Creole Village just blocks away from the hotel. We wash it down with rum punch, and things are starting to look up. Tomorrow will be a better day - no ferry trips on the agenda!