When we were in the dry and dusty Saintes we would look over at the ominous dark clouds above Guadeloupe, only 10 miles away, and say “Looks like it’s raining in Guadeloupe today”. Well now we are in Guadeloupe and can confirm that it rains here every day, and I’m not just talking about sun showers. It fills buckets; our canvas is so wet it no longer keeps the water out; it’s rained so many cats and dogs that the turtles now fight them for territory in the anchorage. Upon reading this Adam insisted that I had exaggerated the amount of rain we’ve had but as it has yet to stop raining for more than 2 hours at a time, he has no evidence to support his statement.
Guadeloupe is large island with a butterfly shape. Our initial plan was to sail up the middle and then cross a small river to the top of the Island to its largest town but wind, waves, and our ever changing travel plans were against this in the end and we opted to go around and up the west wing. Our first stop was Pigeon Bay where we enjoyed watching turtles surfacing around the boat, when we weren’t hiding from the rain. In between torrential downpours we were able to row out to Pigeon Island and the Jacque Cousteau marine reserve that surrounds it. We snorkeled through the Coral Gardens which were amazing. We saw big colourful fish and beautiful coral; the only thing that we missed is the underwater statue of Mr. Cousteau which we couldn’t reach with our snorkel gear. It started raining again when we were getting ready to leave and we fought our way back across the channel in the dinghy, Adam rowing us through the monsoon. When we arrived back at the boat my teeth were chattering and my lips were blue but we decided that it was worth the trip. After two dreary days we went north to our only other stop in Guadeloupe, Deshaies. Deshaies is a small and slightly dysfunctional town that is listed as the number 2 destination spot for the island in our Lonely Planet guide. It basically consists of a main street with shops and little restaurants with local, Creole food - very colourful and lots of music filtering out onto the main street. Apparently Deshaies’ claim to fame, as we understand it, is the shops and the restaurants. We were therefore very surprised to find that it is actually a difficult task to actually partake of food or drink – you really have to WANT it. At one particular place we gave our drink orders to a 12 year old boy and after waiting for 20 minutes for our drinks to arrive we decided to go. Just as we were leaving the 12 year old saw us and stopped us at the door, pleading that we return to our table. He quickly brought our drinks and was appalled when Adam took a drink of his beer from the bottle. He handed Adam a juice glass full of ice with a straw and gestured for Adam to drink from the glass the way any civilized…12 year old would drink beer.
Guadeloupe is large island with a butterfly shape. Our initial plan was to sail up the middle and then cross a small river to the top of the Island to its largest town but wind, waves, and our ever changing travel plans were against this in the end and we opted to go around and up the west wing. Our first stop was Pigeon Bay where we enjoyed watching turtles surfacing around the boat, when we weren’t hiding from the rain. In between torrential downpours we were able to row out to Pigeon Island and the Jacque Cousteau marine reserve that surrounds it. We snorkeled through the Coral Gardens which were amazing. We saw big colourful fish and beautiful coral; the only thing that we missed is the underwater statue of Mr. Cousteau which we couldn’t reach with our snorkel gear. It started raining again when we were getting ready to leave and we fought our way back across the channel in the dinghy, Adam rowing us through the monsoon. When we arrived back at the boat my teeth were chattering and my lips were blue but we decided that it was worth the trip. After two dreary days we went north to our only other stop in Guadeloupe, Deshaies. Deshaies is a small and slightly dysfunctional town that is listed as the number 2 destination spot for the island in our Lonely Planet guide. It basically consists of a main street with shops and little restaurants with local, Creole food - very colourful and lots of music filtering out onto the main street. Apparently Deshaies’ claim to fame, as we understand it, is the shops and the restaurants. We were therefore very surprised to find that it is actually a difficult task to actually partake of food or drink – you really have to WANT it. At one particular place we gave our drink orders to a 12 year old boy and after waiting for 20 minutes for our drinks to arrive we decided to go. Just as we were leaving the 12 year old saw us and stopped us at the door, pleading that we return to our table. He quickly brought our drinks and was appalled when Adam took a drink of his beer from the bottle. He handed Adam a juice glass full of ice with a straw and gestured for Adam to drink from the glass the way any civilized…12 year old would drink beer.