OUR FIRST TIME IN GUADELOUPE!

MSC Divina / Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, French West Indies

Wednesday

82F, morning sprinkles, a few clouds, sunny

Today was an adventure! The four of us disembarked the ship now in port at Point-a-Pitre and were greeted by raindrops, a little sprinkle. Guadeloupe is a French island within the European Union and uses the same monetary system as most of Europe does. The population is around 402,000.

Arriving in the port, Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe

Negotiating for a taxi almost became an art form and thankfully my French came in handy. The port taxi drivers were on strike, so we turned to the regular taxis outside the port gates. We started negotiations with a cost of 35 euros/pp for a van, but we had to find four more people. By the time we were finished, we “contracted” with George for 50 euros per person, for a four hour tour. Even though George hardly spoke English, I think we had the best deal—just the four of us, the timeframe we wanted, and I could translate.

Guadeloupe is shaped somewhat like a butterfly, so off we traveled on the larger “wing,” La Grande Terre.  (on the right in this map)

Our first stop was a cemetery, Morne L’eau. According to George, the oldest tomb dates back to 1847 and the black and white checkerboard tombs are the custom. The large, unique cemetery sits on a hill and I am glad that I go the gym because George beckoned us to the highest point. When I looked down on the cemetery from on top of the hill, I was in awe at the sight of such unusual tombs. Maybe earlier burials were for the wealthy, but George said that is no longer true. He also said people of all Christian faiths are buried there. This is not the only cemetery with black and white checkerboard tombs on the island. George led us to a tomb with the name Colombo and I just could not understand what he was trying to say about the family. I just solved the mystery. Julio Colombo, presumably the son, was a famous French soccer player. I will check a little more about this.

Cimetiere de Morne-A-l'Eau

TK's photo:  Cimetiere de Morne-A-l'Eau

Another view: Cimetiere de Morne-A-l'Eau

Fields of sugar cane were growing along the road, and it wasn’t long before we were touring a rum distillery, Damoiseau. We saw the process, from grinding the sugar cane to fermentation to bottling. George said the Guadeloupe economy depended on tourism, sugar cane, and fishing. Even though we did not sample the rum, we liked this stop. None of us had ever visited a rum distillery before.

As we drove into the Damoiseau Rhum Distillerie

Bottling the rum, ready for the boxes

Boxes ready to ship out

Another stop was Pointe des Chateaux near the town of Saint Francois. The well-known active volcano, Soufriere, is located on the other “wing” of Guadeloupe, but I noted that Pointe des Chateaux is coral based. La Grande Terre is flatter than Basse Terre. I did not learn the story of the cross high on the hill. We sampled delicious coconut ice cream here and the vendor was cranking the handle to make it! Very fresh!!

Pointe des Chateaux

Pointe des Chateaux

Pointe des Chateaux, another view

We passed by Sainte Anne and its popular, very crowded beach—I am glad that we did not plan a beach day.  Our last stop was an overlook park near Pointe-a-Pitre—Guadeloupe’s bays and blue water are spectacular.

Donna, Lawrence, Janie at the bay overlook--concerts are also held here

TK and I think more cruise ships will start visiting Guadaloupe. Today MSC and a German cruise ship were in port, but this clean island, with interesting history and features, will beckon more people! Actually he just checked online and many cruise lines do visit this island, but not the lines we usually travel with.

Sunset in Guadeloupe before dinner

Tonight was Italian night in the dining room, a red, green, and white runner dressed the table, and a basket of fresh garlic bread was waiting for us at 6 p.m. We chattered over calamari, fried potato puffs with peas, lasagna Bolognese, chicken parmesan, and lemon cake, and tiramisu about how much we enjoyed our day trip to Guadeloupe. We all decided it was a better tour than the ship’s tour that was more expensive.

After dinner Donna and I searched through hundreds of photos to find our photo taken in Roadtown as we disembarked. This ship has many photographers, but they do not display all the photos that they take—many are placed in boxes for guests to shuffle through. That is far different from other ships we have been on. I did purchase the photo after Donna found it. 

TK is looking forward to St. Maarten tomorrow—his plan is to go to the beach airport where the planes fly over very low to the ground. St. Maarten is a great place to shop, second only to St. Thomas. Enough said.

TK’s Takes: Guadeloupe reminded him a lot of France, similar transportation system—the roads, the traffic, passing going up hills [George did not do that].  He was very pleased to see the solid chocolate cruise ship (about 10  inches long) in our stateroom tonight, a gift from MSC!