Guadeloupe, My Love

The little town of Bourg des Saintes, on Iles des Saintes.  Lots of cruise
ship tourists pass through.

L'Eglise Notre Dame de l' Assomption, named for the
famous victory of the French against the British, 1666.

Up until a few months ago, I’m not sure I’d even heard of Guadeloupe.  If I had, I certainly had no idea where it was. From now on, I will likely be singing her praises.  We have been here less than a week, and have found so much beauty, and have so much more to explore.  And the people!  Wonderful, friendly, helpful and often very attractive people.  A few of them speak English and with the others, we limp along using the few French words that we have learned. 

These little girls were so beautiful and happy, I
just had to photograph them playing in the square.

Google Translate, I just have to say, is a wonderful invention  If you have used it already, you know what I am talking about.  I can enter text in English and it will be magically translated into French (or any other language I choose) and I can also  hear it spoken, repeatedly, if I want.  And I usually do want.  Furthermore, and this is really cool, if I don’t dare speak the translation myself,(which I am rarely too shy to doI can just turn my iPhone horizontally and the written translation will be magnified 10 fold on a blue background so that I can just hold it up to the person with whom I am trying to communicate. Voile’.  

Apparently happy about the menu translation with Google Translate

Plus, get this….. I can hold the phone with Google Translate over a menu and the menu will miraculously be in English!  How cool is that?  

Top-French Courtesy flag for Guadeloupe

We spent a few days anchored in the harbor off Deshaies (Day-yay) where Carl cleared us into Customs and where I made a French flag.  Silly me—before we left the States I’d ordered a flag for every Caribbean country that I thought we would probably visit at some point but I did not find any flag for Guadeloupe.  Duh—Guadeloupe belongs to France, thus the French flag is flown.  Well, I came armed with flag fabrics and made a rather large French flag.  

These little lorikeets fought over Carl, or more likely,
the coconut juice in the small cup.

A bit of flag etiquette here—the flag of one’s own country is flown usually off the back of the boat, and is supposed to be proportionately larger than the other flags that might be flown and of a size that is commensurate with the size of the boat.  Ahem….not so in our case.  Our U.S. flag is very small because it too easily gets wrapped around our AIS antennae.  Ignoring common etiquette, I made a huge French flag, as a sign of respect. It is flown on a flag halyard alongside the mast.

Delicate flower high up in tree

We chose two day-long activities to enjoy while in Deshaies.  There will be several more days spent in Guadeloupe a little later on in our travels.  

Wish I could remember the name of this huge, unusual tree.  

Atop one of the smaller mountains overlooking Deshaies is a Botanical Garden the likes of which I had never seen!  And I have seen some incredible botanical gardens in my time.  

Looking from the Botanical Gardens to the Caribbean Sea

We were awestruck! Here is this tiny little fishing village and only a steep drive uphill takes one to extensive gardens covering several acres over the top of the mountain. 

This little guy is only about 3" long from nose to tail.

Twiggy the Flamingo

Basically, I just want to share some of my photos here since words do not begin to do the place justice.  Oh, and when I phoned the Jardin Botanique, they sent a driver down the mountain to pick us up and they brought us back down the mountain again, too.

A Bus stop.  Sugar cane, the primary crop,
is used to make rhum in Guadeloupe.

The next day we boarded a bus bound for Pointe-a-Pitre, (Pwant a Peetr) a large city toward the center of Guadeloupe.  It lies on a river that bisects the two island halves of Guadeloupe.  

"So I says, Vera, honey, let's go to the beach.  Well, I'm 
here. But no Vera. Guess I'll just chew my cud....again."

We were on the bus for the opportunity to see the countryside as much as for a visit to the city of Pointe Pitre (Pointing Clown).  My personal opinion is that the city’s name lacks the sort of pomp that lends itself to being taken seriously, but the city has survived this long in spite of it, so…..what do I know?

Historic area of Pointe-a-Pitre.

We managed to find our way by bus through the city to the old downtown, along the waterfront of course.  We seem to have a nose for finding historic districts.  The old downtown reminds me of the French Quarter in New Orleans but without the care taken to preserve the old buildings that is seen in the Quarter.  Regardless, it is a charming old district, with narrow little streets, broadly porched buildings with several pairs of 8’ tall painted doors leading to each interior. 

Cemeteries on Guadeloupe.

There are boulangeries (bakeries) here and there of which we are big fans.  Huge! And the ancient trees remain in the historic district, as a testament to the longevity of the old city.  We found what I would call the Creole district with shops of brightly colored cloths made into garb reminiscent of African garments complete with matching turbans.  

Flower vendors in the square.  The old Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul is off to the right.

There are hawkers on the streets, selling all sorts of wares, and a large marche’ (market) just along the water with beautiful vegetables and fruits and  hats and jewelry.  Surrounding all of this is a large modern city, clean and orderly.  The bus back to Deshaies was packed whereas we had the entire bus to ourselves on the way to the city.  

School boys

We rode with shoppers with their groceries, workers going home at the end of the day and high school-age students wearing the colors of their school uniforms.  As more and more people poured onto the bus, the thought came to me….'We are SO white.’  Because it was approaching dusk, we could see some families gathered on some of those huge porches around a lighted table where there would be dinner, no doubt.

Panorama of Iles des Saintes nearing sunset. The very round knob on the far left is
called Le Pain de Sucre (sweet bread)

We have now sailed further south on to another set of small islands which are actually also part of France.  These are the Iles des Saintes (Eel d’ San) and I would be hard-pressed to name another set of islands (yet anyhow) that are more picturesque.  We are moored off a little town called Bourg des Saintes (Borg d’ San) and are surrounded by a cluster of small islands.  

Towns and cities line the western coast of Guadeloupe.

We can see the lights of the much larger island of Guadeloupe about 8 miles to the north.  More immediately surrounding us are the ruins of three old forts atop the smaller mountains of Iles des Saintes. Hiking paths will take us to see them, as well as the goats that clamber around the rocky islands.  

Main streets in Bourg des Saintes.  Lots of restaurants and shops for the tourists.

And the iguanas!  We saw one today while eating the most delicious glace’ (ice cream) that I can recall. It was I that was eating the glace’, not the iguana but I would have gladly shared if he’d have come down off the roof. Not as large as those National Geographic iguanas, but still very impressive, and very, very green.

I will call him "Vert" which of course means "green."

From here, we go on to the island of Dominica, so horrendously ravaged by Hurricane Maria. It is only another 20 miles farther south but we are prepared for it to be a world away from the serenity and beauty that we are enjoying here in Iles des Saintes.  With us we are carrying a few relief supplies and will join with another group of sailboats already there in Portsmouth. After a time in Dominica, my next post will surely be of a more somber nature.   Wish us well as we attempt to help out in whatever ways we can.