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| Ten full days of a rental car!! Let’s get going! |
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| Rain, rain and more rain. So, is this why they call this the ‘Rain Forest’? |
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| Sill smiling, but the worst is yet to come! |
The last blog was just a few weeks ago, but Guadeloupe deserves one all by itself. We have been three nights on moorings in the Saintes, having left Pointe-a-Pitre on January 17th. We left at the same time as Steve and Maria aboard Aspen, but they went around the south-western corner of the island and headed north to Antigua.
We had arrived in Guadeloupe with bad weather on our tail; heavy winds and easterly waves threatened the whole Windwards and Leewards, with no weather windows in sight, due to a strong north storm. However, we anchored in the clay-bottom of the harbour, to the south of the main channel, in 24 feet of water, and neither the high winds nor the high waves found us. The winds had to come across a significant portion of the flat side of the island, then piled up because of the high mountains of the west half of the butterfly. As well, the reefs at the harbour entrance cut down on the size of the waves that found us.
We had two days to kill before Steve literally ran the 6 miles out to the airport to get the car, and they were spent touring the aquarium and the new slave museum, as well as a walking tour of Pointe-a-Pitre. The fairly new slave museum is a massive structure, a work of art from the outside. Inaugurated in 2015, the Memorial ACTe has high credentials. Reverend Jesse Jackson called it “the best of this type of interpretive centre in the world”. We spent two hours going through the exhibit, each with an electronic device which added information about each presentation, triggered by a radio transmission at each exhibit. Even at night, from our anchorage, the building, with the unique architecture and night lighting, was centre-stage.
With the car, we ran over every major road on the island, and stopped at all the major attractions: La Maison de Cacao, with both a history and description of the chocolate manufacturing and a tasting session; two historic forts with significant exhibits, and the Musee de Rhum, which had a dispenser of rums and rum products which you could visit and revisit numerous times as you went through the exhibits; and the Grande Anse beach, with great surf, view, and the best value in restaurants.
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| Louis Delgres statue at the Fort Louis Delgres, a Guadeloupe hero in the fight against slavery and for human rights. |
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| Museum de Rhum |
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| Nurse sharks at the Aquarium |
The hikes were a different thing. We did most of them, as with the attractions, in rain; often soaked to the skin. Some were absolutely delightful, with walkways and stairs of concrete inlaid with flagstone, through lush tropical rainforest, and with the most majestic waterfalls in the Caribbean. Others, terribly damaged by Hurricane Maria, were almost impassable due to the demolition of the trails by erosion: high exposed roots, pools of mud, washouts, and sluices where stairs used to be. We got through some of these, but as the pictures tell, they were often neither fun nor safe. Sadly, we could understand from the damaged infrastructure that they had been national treasures, constructed with good materials through high cost and effort.
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| Many of the boardwalk type structures were still sitting up high, but the ground all around them had been washed out during Hurricane Maria, making it easier to walk beside the structures than get up and down from them. |
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| Sometimes short legs are a disadvantage with these high steps. |
Regardless, we attempted ten of these hikes, and finished near seven of them. The views were outstanding!
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| At times, these roots were so exposed they were difficult to get over. No photos of the really difficult ones since we had both hands, and eyes making big decisions on where to place the next foot. |
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| Finally, a section of easy hiking!! |
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| Steve, our capable driver with Maria on and Dawn at a fort entrance. |
We found good meals, but not without trouble; and had to learn where to go, when to go, and which establishments were appropriate. Interestingly, there were many restaurant fronts, and signs, but it appears only 1/4 of these are actually functioning. Cleaning out old signs would certainly benefit the tourists. The bakeries came out on top, with excellent sandwiches and paninis, while we otherwise learned to only go to the touristy sites, never the rural or non-tourist venues.
We hope you enjoy the pictures.
TECHNICAL
As we had little time on the boat during our visit, we neither broke nor fixed anything!
