He is rich as a Creole”, that was the phrase usually heard in France during colonial times when referring to someone who enjoyed the luxury of great families of landowners in the Caribbean islands.

Behind this comment, a whole colonial culture was condensed, enrooted in Martinique and in other French colonial islands from 17th century, a world that enjoyed the exuberance and fertility of this territory that was turned into a tourist attraction in part based on its recent history. St. Louis Fort, La Savane Park, Schoelder Library are some not-to-be missed sites in a city where the traffic is dazzling and the rush of life is experimented early in the morning. Out of the capital, a distinct Caribbean offers limitless possibilities to the traveler who wants to begin a trip along this island. A coastal road leads to the north where the whole life and history are dominated by the presence of Mont Pelie volcano. At its feet, Saint Pierre city is located, the old capital devastated at the beginning of this century by this fire mountain which in recent years has become a tourist attraction. Divers go to the bottoms attracted above all by the sunken ships in front of the city’s bay; hiking lovers can walk along several routes following the signals placed along the slopes of the volcano. Those looking for a cultural tourism may visit Perret Museum and Paul Gauguin Museum where the painter lived for five months in 1887 with his friend Charles Laval, and they both were ill of paludism; and the Volcanology Museum, about the active mountains. The road through the northern part of the island up to the Atlantic is recommended by its beauty where large sugar and banana plantations are seen one after the other uninterruptedly. Again Martinique is aimed at recalling a recent past of these large haciendas when 150 years ago, life centered around a Creole family with some hundred slaves cultivating their land. The hypothesis studied along the time and on the origin of its name, the most accepted one, points out that it is a derivation of the term Matinino (Madinida or Martinina), a Carib word meaning “the isle of flowers”. A legend from the Columbus times says that this was a territory inhabited just by women, and that is the reason why historic re-searchers have the doubt about the meaning of the word, it could be “the isle of women”. From this moment, the traveler has ahead some of the most precious sites of the island, some small villages that have prevented themselves from following the European style of Martinique. To see this you should set out for Diamond region towards the southwest. At first sight, Diamond seems to be just a village of few houses along the beach where the most majestic building is found, a 18th-century church, described as a historic monument with a spectacular wooden roof in its interior. Facing the village is Diamond rock, a volcanic rock of 176 meters that gives the name to the region, and is an attraction for divers of the entire world. Underwater caverns, alleys, full of sea life attract thousand sport men to this Caribbean corner. From Rocher, it seems indispensable to take the sinuous and steep road of the coast that leads to the bays that surround the small villages of Anses D’Arlets and Grande Anse. Here you can still feel that the time has been stopped and the Caribbean air is purer, this Caribbean of surprising images.