Blogs from Guadeloupe, Central America Caribbean - page 4

At a Saint Patrick's day party here in Portsmouth, Dominica – thanks Orla – late into the night, we were introduced to Susie who said “Oh, you're English, do you want to come sailing?” And we said yes, of course we said yes! Sailing North A week later we were motoring out of the anchorage at Prince Rupert Bay aboard Spirited Lady of Fowey heading north to The Saints and Guadeloupe. We were a crew of 7, Susie, Roger, the two of us, 2 dogs and a cat. The cat stayed out of the way. The sail across was fabulous, with 2 reefs in the main and a steady force 5 we cut through the swell easily. We all took turns to helm (just the humans) – it was a joy and produced big grins. For ... read more

Over three months since my last blog and I am still living the sweet life in the Caribbean. Myself and my Renault Clio have been darting around the island and have been reunited with Simon after a month of lonlieness. From the humble beginnings of staying in a boarding school and at the weekend, being followed by some rather unsavoury characters to an empty boarding school, in the middle of nowhere was enough for me to flee my lodgings to the house of my contact teacher. She kindly let me stay with her until I found my 'logement'. So I set about my search and rather luckily stumbled upon a fine gite (villa). Myself and Simon are now the proud renters of the the top part of a beautiful villa just beside La Grande Anse. In ... read more

Guadeloupe is an overseas department of France, like an English county, Essex say, in the Caribbean Sea. This makes it a big contrast from Antigua; it has a thoroughly modern infrastructure, boulangeries and pharmacies in every town and French roadsigns. Del’s parents met us at the airport, we picked up our hire car and made our way to the accommodation, which is a Gite, a self-contained apartmet near Bouillante on the Basse Terre side of the island. Guadeloupe is a big, butterfly-shaped island, its capital, Pointre a Pitre, is in the centre on the narrow strip of land that makes up the body of the butterfly. Its left wing is called Basse Terre, which is the more underdeveloped, green, mountainous side, we’re about halfway down the wing’s outerside. Grande Terre is the right wing, flatter and ... read more

No, nythän minä pääsin oikeaan viidakkoon asumaan. Guadeloupen luonto on huomattavasti vehmaampaa ja maasto kumpuilevampaa kuin Kuuban, Puerto Ricon ja Antiguan. Täällä sataa joka yö kuten kuuluukin aidossa sademetsässä, joka yltää kaupungin keskustaan asti. Saint-Annen pikkukaupungissa (20 000 asukasta), perhosen muotoisen Guadeloupen Grand-Terre -siivellä voi hyvin kuvitella, miten nopeasti luonto valloittaisi takaisin sivilisaation kapean rantakaistaleen. (ks. kuva terassiltani) Täällä on niin kuumaa ja kosteaa (30 C yöllä), että pyykki ei kuiva kuin päivällä suorassa auringonpaisteessa. Ilmeisesti elimistöni on tottunut kuuman kosteaan, kun se ei enää tunnu niin pahalta. Optimaalinen huoneilman lämpötila on tällä hetkellä minulle 27 C, koska 26 C on jo liian kylmä ja 25 asteessa palelen ja suljen ilmastointilaitteen. Näin ei voisi olla Suomessa. Onneksi kuitenkin ilmastointilaite ... read more

Guadeloupe I can’t believe we have only been here a week and already so much has happened After the terrible trip to Deshaies we woke up the next morning find the sea calm,. Sparkling and enticing. It was pleasant and so of course we had to go out to the 100 metre mark to put out the fishing rods. Alan’s arm is a lot better. Pigeon Island was only about an hour and a half away. Pretty little anchorage, took two attempts to make the anchor hold. Lots of eel grass, very slippery stuff. We put our gear on and did a dive. It was very clear, pretty and full of fish. There was a big spotty green moray eel who wanted to be friends, but I was not too keen on him. It was clear ... read more