Guadeloupe – The French Oasis of the Caribbean – Part 1
Our visit to the island of Guadeloupe was also our final stop of the TRANSATLANTIC CRUISE FROM EUROPE TO THE CARIBBEAN – VIEW HERE.
PREVIOUS CRUISE STOP: BARBADOS – Read the travelogue for Barbados HERE.
Did you know that France is located in the Caribbean? And even when the weather is sunny, a dark cloud can appear, a strong wind can blow, a real downpour can pour down, and then the sun can come out again—all within 5 minutes —you’ll learn about this, as well as climbing an active volcano and other adventures, in our travelogue about the Caribbean—and at the same time French—island of Guadeloupe.
On our last evening on the ship, we had to leave our luggage outside the door, and crew members would collect them during the night and take them off the ship.
The Caribbean is characterized by a few things, besides the gorgeous beaches, such as the fact that a large quantity of diamonds is mined there. Also, rum is something they are known for.
The following day, December 20th, was our last breakfast on the ship. As we disembarked, we had to wait for our luggage to be brought down. In the meantime, we bought some spices from the terminal shops. We already had plenty to give out to our relatives once we returned from the entire cruise. 😊
We got our luggage and the great torture of carrying it around everywhere began anew. We were already carrying one bag less, but we didn't feel its absence because we still had one more suitcase + seven backpacks + a baby stroller + two toddlers to carry around.
We set out on foot through the city of Pointe-à-Pitre, the capital of the island of Guadeloupe, in search of the bus station, where we could catch a bus to the town of Saint-François, where our apartment was located. I just couldn’t get the French name right—was it Saint-Franck, or Saint Francis?—but in the end, it turned out to be Saint-François. So we walked past the fruit and vegetable market, the fishing harbor, and finally, by some truly incredible stroke of luck, we found the so-called “bus station,” which was really just a parking lot. There were no signs or markings whatsoever indicating that it was a bus station. Our bus had just arrived, so we got on. On the way there, they charged us 8 euros for everyone, and on the way back—10. It turned out that on the island of Guadeloupe, everyone charges whatever they feel like.
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Guadeloupe is an island in the Lesser Antilles and is considered an overseas territory of France. The official language is French, and the currency is the euro. Everything that applies to France as an EU member state applies here as well—entry with just an ID card, roaming rates, and so on. Nearly half of the island’s population is of European descent, while the rest are Black. We felt safe everywhere we went. There were many white people on the streets; some were even out jogging late into the evening. Our route to Saint-François took us through the campus of a college, and what struck us was that only white students—Europeans—were walking around in the courtyard.
Intercity transport in Guadeloupe is unscheduled and very unpredictable. That's why people mostly get around by private cars and tourists – by rental cars. The roads were swarmed with white rental cars. That's why the two of us, adults with two small children, turned out to be the only white people on the bus 🙂
We got off at the stop in Saint-François, picked up some groceries at the nearby supermarket—since we were already quite hungry—and set off to find our apartment. The path took us past the city cemetery. It was interesting that, unlike in Bulgaria where there are only headstones, people had actually built small structures there.
An interesting fact concerning supermarkets in Guadeloupe, and indeed all Caribbean islands, is that there are supermarkets for blacks and supermarkets for whites. Everyone shops in their own supermarket. The supermarket closest to our accommodation was one of those for blacks. It offered a far poorer assortment compared to the one for whites, which was located at the other end of the town. We shopped at both, depending on what we wanted to cook.
Finally, we reached the place called Raisins Clairs and Crystal Beach. It was a gated complex of two- and three-story houses with two pools and lots of greenery. Only white French people lived there, mostly permanently, and there were also others whose holiday property it was and who came only for the holidays.
We had rented an apartment through airbnb.com in one of the two-story houses on the first line with a sea view. The accommodation was, mildly said, UNIQUE – with a huge living room, bedroom + terrace, and kitchen in one with a sea view. Our host had made sure we had everything needed for a vacation – there were DVDs with movies in French, inflatable toys for the kids, sand toys, all kinds of toiletries and many other things. Our only problem with the host was that he didn't know a word of English and until the very last moment we didn't figure out how and where to get the key to the apartment. I had to call him to tell me he left it under the front door. And the other negative thing was the lack of WIFI or maybe there was one in the apartment, but we never figured out what the password was, even though we asked both the host and the neighbors.
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Overall, we spent almost the entire cruise plus our stay in Guadeloupe without Internet. On the ship, it turned out that there was no free internet even in public areas. So we paid 25 euros for 250 megabytes, which, surprisingly, was used up in literally half an hour while I was checking my work email and writing an email. Then I went to the computer area on the ship, where the rate was 0.19 cents/minute. Then in Guadeloupe we were also without net, only once did we manage to catch WiFi from the pier and that was for 8 days of stay 🙂
And so… we settled in, had a bite and went to the beach. Just as we stepped on the sand, it started to rain. The beach ahead wasn't anything special. I would even say it was dangerous because once, while swimming in the water, out of nowhere we found a half-meter high underwater rock that looked just like a stick. The sand wasn't anything special either. Despite that, there were various coconut palms on the beach and a typical tropical landscape. Then we went to the supermarket again to shop. The distance from the hotel to the market was 10-15 minutes. Every day we walked at least twice to one of the two markets in the town.
We had just gone to sleep and at one point during the night a cracking and whistling of strong wind started, then a downpour, a heavy downpour, and then complete silence. I think only two out of eight nights didn't have such a storm at night. That's what you call a tropical climate. During the day it also very often started raining out of nowhere. We noticed that if a black or even slightly darker cloud appears in the sky, it will 100% start to rain. It often happened that it rained, and when you looked at the sky – sunny with white clouds. That's why raincoats were always with us wherever we went. Extremely unpredictable tropical weather!
The next day we took a nice walk to the end of the beach in front of our accommodation. On the way we collected many corals, stones and other sea trinkets that the sea had washed ashore. Then we sunbathed a bit on the beach, which, however, our children didn't like due to the presence of waves. Then we went back and while my husband was taking a shower within 5 minutes a dark cloud came, it got stuffy, it started raining and then the sun shone 😉
We walked along the marina, which was clearly the tourist part of the town of Sainte-Anne. We passed by the golf course and the Catholic church and headed home to prepare dinner.
Most of the time we cooked in the beautiful kitchen with an ocean view. We really liked the local potatoes with a white soft cheese that we bought from the supermarket for blacks 🙂 The salami cost 1,30, and the bread – almost 3 euros. Also from the larger and distant supermarket once we had taken ready-to-bake lasagna. It was terrific!
The next morning we got up at 6:00 to prepare sandwiches and went out early so that at 7:30 we could be in front of the Eurocar office from where we could pick up our online reserved car. On the way we were caught in a terrible prolonged downpour and even though we put on our raincoats, we still arrived soaked. The price for two days was 110 euros and when it came time to pay with the credit card it turned out that I didn't know the PIN code!!! We had rented a rental car so we could explore more distant places on the island, but to the horror of everyone our plans fell through… Simeon went ballistic. How could I not know my PIN code! The person from the agency tried in every way to figure out a way to leave cash as a deposit and take the car, but his bosses wouldn't allow him. Off back on the way to the apartment. There, thank God, we found an unopened envelope with the PIN code and then I went alone to pick up the car from the agency. By 10:30 we had already gotten into the car, a Renault Clio, white in color, and set off. Surely half of the cars in Guadeloupe were white and rental.
The roads in Guadeloupe are mostly single-lane. Only the highway has 2 and 3 lanes. The drivers there turned out to be very careful. Maybe because really a large part of the cars were rentals. For example, if someone drives slowly on any single-lane road, no one will overtake them until they themselves turn. Not to mention honking or flashing lights. The restrictions are 100% followed. Such huge peace we have never met anywhere else among drivers. There is definitely something to learn from them.
We passed through the highway to the capital Pointe-a-Pitre. Then we continued to the western coast through the rainforest. We were caught in another big downpour. For two days, as many times as we entered the rainforest, so many times it rained and it had just been raining. The soil there is so saturated with water that when it rains, everywhere we could see small waterfalls and small rivers flowing down the slopes.
Our final point was Malendure beach, where the turtles live. To our huge regret, since it had rained that day and all the water from the mountain was flowing down to this exact beach, all the sea water was muddy and nothing could be seen. There were no boats or kayaks to go into the sea. I still tried, I went quite far into the sea, but absolutely nothing was visible. We were very disappointed because we could watch turtles in Barbados and Martinique, but I had left them for Guadeloupe. Unfortunately, such was our luck – to hit exactly the day it rains.
On the way back, we stopped to see one of the island's most famous waterfalls – . It was easy to get to, as it was very close to the main road, but nothing particularly special. At the other end of the path, there was a designated picnic and barbecue area amidst the jungle.
At around 5:30 PM we arrived at Pointe La Chaise, which is the easternmost part of the island of Guadeloupe. There was a very beautiful panoramic view at sunset. The road there was very pleasant, as it passed through many small sandy beaches.
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The next day, December 23rd, another early wake-up, making sandwiches, and leaving at 6:30 AM. That day we had planned to climb the La Soufrière volcano. Again taking the same road to the capital of Pointe-à-Pitre and from there getting on the highway to Saint Cloud. We had to reach the town of ???, which is also the last settlement on the way to the volcano. The road was so steep that we had to drive in first gear, and once we even failed to take a turn and the car stalled. We found the parking lot where we also left the car – it is free, but small and fills up quickly. Therefore, we made sure to be there by 8:30 AM. I took the camera and the backpack with provisions, and Simeon – our son, and we set off. The beginning of the climb was a quite pleasant walk through a true tropical jungle, where the vegetation was so dense that it blocked the sky and it became gloomy inside. The sounds of the jungle were unforgettable!
After about 40 minutes we came out of it and started climbing a hill with low shrub vegetation and plenty of rocks. The last stage is 30 minutes of climbing over super steep rocks and boulders against the backdrop of a gale-force wind. There were other children on the trail – we weren't the only crazy ones 🙂 It's interesting how so many different microclimates can be observed with such a relatively low volcano. Avi coped perfectly with the climb – we couldn't even catch up with her. Krisko, on the other hand, was the exact opposite – he didn't want to walk at all and had to be carried by his father. Our climb took about three hours with a few short breaks.
We were very funny – just as we started spreading some mayonnaise, bread slices, cucumbers, tomatoes, salamis, it started to rain and we had to either pack the food or put on raincoats. For the entire climb and descent of about 6 hours, several times the rain surprised us and we had to put on our raincoats. Despite this, in the end we were almost completely soaked.
It was very windy at the very top. I’d even say—dangerously windy. When we got to the top, I was the only one who went all the way to the crater, which was located a little off the main trail. It was very foggy, so I couldn’t see much—just a large, deep fissure—but on the other hand, there was a strong smell of sulfur everywhere. It was pretty scary and eerie. I even thought I could hear the lava “bubbling.”
The descent from the top felt faster, but not easier, because our legs took a real beating from the hike down. At the foot of the volcano, right next to the parking lot, there was a designated pool whose water was heated by the volcano. It wasn't exactly a hot spring, but where the water came from, it was very pleasantly warm 🙂
While we were inside for yet another time, it started raining. We hid under the only rocks in the pool, and the other people in the pool were very envious of us because that was the only place to take cover from the rain. However, it turned out that the rain wasn't stopping, so we came out of the pool wet and bare, while the outdoor temperature was between 10 and 15 degrees. We got into the car, turned the AC to max, and changed our clothes.
On the way back, we realized once again that it’s always raining in the rainforest, and it rightly bears the name “rainforest.” When it rains there, it’s always sunny along the coast.
Over the next few days, we had terribly severe muscle soreness from the climb 🙂