#89 Guadeloupe

It's been a busy week, and I've been trying to get to bed a little earlier, so I've been limiting my computer time. As promised, here is a little story about our adventures on the island of Guadeloupe.

We were on Guadeloupe on Tuesday February 12. We had never been there before, so we were looking forward to seeing it. Guadeloupe is a French island. It is actually governed by France; French is the official language and euros are the official money. What was noticeably different to me when we arrived at Pointe-a-Pitre was that it looked more European than the other islands. There were multi-story buildings, high-rise apartments, that you don't see on the other islands. Also, the buildings were kind of gray and dingy, not the lovely pastel colored buildings you see in the other ports.


Guadeloupe is shaped like a butterfly, and there are two distinct areas of the island. The east side is Grand Terre. It is dry on that side. That's pretty much all I know because we spent the day on the western side of the island, Basse-Terre. Bass-Terre is dominated by a national park and the rainforest and a volcano.

We boarded a tour bus for this excursion that would take us through the national park and over to a place called Pigeon Island where we would ride a glass bottom boat around the Cousteau Reserve. I don't remember the name of our tour guide, but she was a cute little island lady with a French accent. She had the tendency to get very high-pitched at the end of her words, so it was sometimes hard to understand her. She told us that at the end of the tour she would give us local drinks to try. More on that later.

Our first stop was at Crayfish Falls. We had to walk maybe 10 minutes on a very nice trail to get to the falls. We were in the rainforest, and it did rain a little. The forest was incredibly green and lush. The trees were huge and there was greenery all over the place! I know that sounds kind of dumb, but I'd never been in a rainforest before and I was amazed by all the greenery. Anyway, we were walking along this river and it was really beautiful. The falls were small but had a lot of water and it was easy to get to. MT and T walked down to the edge of the falls and took some pictures. I was wearing flip flops and I don't have very steady footing anyway, so I stayed at the above them. On our way back to the bus, I noticed a man taking a picture of a woman by a leaf. The leaf was huge. I pointed it out to Marty while I took a picture of the big leaf. He then stuck his hand out by the leaf to give some perspective. Check it out!


Next we wound our way up the mountain and back down the other side until we reached the Caribbean near Plage de Malendure. It is a beautiful little beach where you take the boat to Pigeon Island. I thought Pigeon Island would be a glorious little island, kind of like Saona in the DR. No. Pigeon Island is basically a big rock just off the coast. The cool thing about the island is not the island itself, but what is in the water all around it. Jacques Cousteau filmed his first underwater movie here and now the area around Pigeon Island is called the Cousteau Underwater Reserve.

We took a boat over to the island. The water was a little choppy, but it wasn't too bad. When we got to the island, the crew opened the door to the glass-bottom part of the boat. It wasn't really glass-bottom. It was glass sided though, and you could really see the bottom of the sea. Man! For someone who may never snorkel, it was as good as it gets. So many types of coral formations: brain coral, volcano coral, big-leaf looking coral. And fish! Lots and lots of fish: little blue ones, bigger gray ones with yellow circles around their eyes, a puffer fish, a little shark. Really cool. We even saw some scuba divers.

The bad part about the glass-bottom boat is that as we floated near the island, the boat rocked a little and since we were down in the hold, so to speak, there wasn't a lot of fresh air. I think some people got a little sea-sick. I managed to stay down there for quite awhile before I had to get back on the deck. T went up before I did. He was a little queasy. He ate some Fruit Loops he'd brought along, and then he felt better.

Then there was time for some swimming or snorkeling. Marty did that and really enjoyed it. Bakc on the boat, the guide handed out her local drinks. I didn't have any because I was feeling a bit green and didn't want to drink the rum she was offering. Marty had a drink that was syrup from the sugar cane plant that you mixed with rum. Marty said it tasted a bit like gasoline. An acquired taste, I guess!

After that, we went back to the land. The sand at Plage de Malendure is black, volcanic sand. It is beautiful there. (When I came home I read something online at MSNBC.com about the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world. Plage de Malendure was number eight or something like that!)

We didn't have time to swim or sit on the beach because we had to get back to the bus, but I would love to go back there someday. There were little shops along the beach and a restaurant that had something cooking that smelled awesome.

Then it was back through the mountains and rainforest and to the ship. T went to Adventure Ocean, the kid's club, and Marty and I went ashore to the shops at the terminal. We bought a ceramic tile thing of a turtle hatching from the artist who created it. She spoke French, we spoke English, and we got it all worked out. It's hanging by my kitchen sink, and I love looking at it and thinking about the beautiful things I saw on Guadeloupe.

Notes about pics: The top photo is Marty and Tristan walking through the rainforest to Crayfish Falls. 2)Tristan at Crayfish Falls. 3) Marty's hand and the big leaf. 4) Lots of fish! Click on it to enlarge and remember that I was shooting the pic through plexi-glass! 5) Scuba divers. 6) My feet on the black sand. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you can see the third toe on my left foot is a little discolored. That's the remains of the bruise I got when I broke my toe on Saona!