{"id":11600,"date":"2021-01-25T12:59:10","date_gmt":"2021-01-25T17:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11600"},"modified":"2021-01-25T12:59:10","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T17:59:10","slug":"carnival-martinique-a-cant-miss-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sailpandora.com\/?p=11600","title":{"rendered":"Carnival Martinique: A can’t miss celebration!"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I sit here in chilly New England, I can’t help but think about missing Carnival in Martinique that will kick off in a few weeks.\u00a0 Having said that, it’s hard to imagine how an event that draws nearly every resident of the island to Fort de France, for days of riotous (but in a nice way) partying and parades each year, can possibly be safe in the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Pre-pandemic, Brenda and I joined in the fun last February when we visited Martinique.\u00a0 Days of parades passing by for hours beginning in the late afternoon. \"\"We enjoyed the events along with a number of other Dawgs but I’ll admit that it really feels like a thousand years ago.\u00a0 \u00a0After nearly a year in the clutches of the pandemic it feels like a different lifetime.\u00a0 And, as I look back on our days in Martinique during Carnival, and think of all\u00a0 the crowds, it’s\u00a0 a bit frightening to consider what might have been.<\/p>\n

Carnival ended on February 26th and Covid-19 was first detected on the island on March 5th, a little more than one week later.\u00a0 Given the massive crowds we experienced, I can only imagine what might have happened if the virus had appeared even two weeks earlier.<\/p>\n

Martinique has had 44 deaths from the virus as of January which is about 1\/10th of the death rate of the US.\u00a0 \u00a0If our death rate per capita was equal to Martinique, we would have had about 44,000 deaths, a fraction of the 400,000 that we have to date.\u00a0 However, had the virus been prevalent during Carnival, I shudder to think of what might have happened.<\/p>\n

But back to Carnival.\u00a0 It’s hard to understand what a multi day party of this scale is rally like but this video, posted by Playbox Limited<\/a>, a developer of high quality videos I understand (I have to give credit where credit is due) gives a pretty good feel for what it was like to be there with day after day of celebrations in the street.\u00a0 \u00a0 It was indeed a hoot!