Poison and Poisson - 30/09/07

There’s a tree in Martinique called the mancenillier which you can see growing all along the beaches here. It looks a bit like a gnarled old apple tree. However the little fruits growing on it are incredibly poisonous, as are the leaves, the bark and the sap. In fact, the tree is so toxic that if you shelter under it during a rainstorm and any drops fall onto your skin they can cause severe burns!

Crabs can run really fast I found out today. Courtney and I chased one along the beach this morning but it got away from us quicker than we could say crabsticks (which incidentally would’ve been unlikely to incite any fear in my little pincered friend since crabsticks contain virtually no crab whatsoever). The curious little fellow had been nipping at my flip flops while I was sunbathing and when I looked up to see what was going on, he zoomed off sideways, on nippertiptoes, winking his little crabby eyes and waving his pincers in the air as if to say “Ha ha! Can’t catch me!” and then ran into a hidey hole in the sand, peeping out every so often to see if we were still there.

I had some delicious fish this evening. It was called dorade, which translates in my dictionary as bream – but I don’t really know what that is or if I’ve had it before. I marinated it in lime juice, garlic and salt for an hour before frying it and ate it with some rice and salad. Mmmm...Delicious!