Postcards

Our final ferry trip took us north from Dominica to Guadeloupe, another French department. Its two main islands are connected by short causeways over mangrove swamps. We head onto the westerly island of Basse Terre, to the village of Vieux Habitants. Once again we have a self-catering studio, this time with a view over palm trees to the Caribbean sea. With just 11 days left to eat, drink and be merry before Ash Wednesday, it is carnival time on Guadeloupe. Every night there are carnival parades featuring this year's entries from the local villages' and towns' carnival clubs. We went to our local carnival parade in Bouillante, where everyone was in party mood, wearing either their best clothes or something weird and wonderful. When the parade started, just two hours late, down the road came the ... read more

We are living in a bamboo tree house, in the rain forest on the island of Dominica. The house is set alone on a hill, high above the actual lodge. Up in the house we have a bed, a hammock ,a composting toilet and a large balcony. Below, there is a cold shower! Lizards keep us company and an agouti (a long legged guinea pig) lives underneath the house. But the forest comes to life at night. As the sun sets, the quiet of the day is replaced by the sound of raucous insects, frogs and toads. They sings us to sleep – under a mosquito net, in our little tree house in the middle of nowhere. It is a full moon at the moment and we spend the evenings on our balcony watching the fire ... read more

Our last evening on our balcony, watching the sun set into the Caribbean. We spend our evenings cooking in our little kitchen, which has been somewhat challenging. Many fruits and vegetables are unknown or a bit strange – “love apples” that look like plums and taste between a sweet lemon and a pear; a sweet potato that is white inside and looks like an ordinary potato; avocados the size of melons, with a stone inside to match. And can anyone tell me why they sell Waitrose semi-skimmed milk here? We have no problem with the language – everyone speaks English and signs are in English. But to each other the locals speak a Caribbean Patois that is French-based but includes English words. I guess this is the result of the island changing hands 14 times between ... read more

Put together a cheap flight, a few places to stay off the beaten track and some local ferries and what do you get? Five weeks island hopping in the warmth of the Caribbean sunshine. The flight will drop us into St Lucia - home for a week. Then we'll be using the local ferries to head north, first to Martinique then on to Dominica and Guadeloupe. Finally, we'll hop across to Antigua for a few days before heading homeward. In between we hope to explore all the variety that the Caribbean offers - snorkelling in the warm seas; walking up to boiling lakes and volcanoes; staying in apartments, villas, homestays and treehouses; shopping in the local markets and drinking rum punch. We plan to blog as we go along - more from the sunshine of St. ... read more

Early on Tuesday we board the same train that we arrived on two days ago, completing its run to Bucharest. Just 100 miles and it takes three hours … and this is an express! We have a quick change to make in Bucharest but are thrown by the station board saying our next train is heading for Sofia not Istanbul. We discover that we are once again on a train that splits, half will go west and half south. We now have a routine for long distance train travel. We stock up on snacks and water – restaurant cars are not to be relied on and the dreadful breakfast on Romanian railways has put us off for a long while. If it is an overnight trip, wine is essential for the evening. Once establishing ourselves, out ... read more