Life on the other side

It's been one month since our last post, one month of amazing bays, swims, hikes, family visits and too many apéro's !

Let's go back a while.




December, 22nd 2018 (still in Guadeloupe).

My brother arrived with his family in Point-à-Pitre. In order to pass 10 days with four adults and four kids, we did "some" shopping... Two hours later and 600€ poorer (life is SO expensive here), we could fill up all our empty cupboards again 😏
Except of a bit of Santa tunes in the mall, we still had no Christmas feeling. It just doesn't work in a warm climate 😎

We were all very happy to be together again. Felt like we saw each other yesterday in Gibraltar 😎 Time goes by really fast!

The first normal thing to do is give presents off course ! Even if it's still to big, the boys had to have the same "play tools" as the girls! 😍 The girls received school games and were ever so happy!

 

Visit # 1: Point-à-Pitre city. We parked easily at La place de la Victoire and walked first to the east to quartier Vatable. It's supposed to be an unsafe place at dawn, which we could easily see. However no worries at 2 pm 😌 The whole city is filled with what once were beautiful houses. They're still very charming and screaming for a bit of money and care...

And there is money in the city! This wedding looked amazing. The dresses are so pretty, all huge cars in front of the church! We would have loved to be invited 😝

And off course, no city walk without your personal guides: Cucarachas!

To fill the voids, there's plenty of great artwork in the city.

 

December, 24th 2018.

Visit # 2: Les Saintes (Guadeloupe).

 

We were able to catch a mooring at Îlet à Cabrit. We realised later it's the best place to be. Well protected, great snorkeling and still close to Terre-de-Haut for a visit of the village.

We went for a hike on the island to Fort Joséphine. Besides the amazing view, the island is not so pretty though.

A quick drone flight, with amazed spectators and one annoyed french lady who didn't like the buzzing noise 😖

 

Here you have chickens in trees 😂

 

And lot's of goats to marvel the girls.

For our Christmas dinner, the plan was to catch a big fish. We did catch a huge Marlin (more than 3 m!). It jumped high out of the water and ... the line snapped. Geoffrey was secretly happy, not knowing how to handle a beast like that on LouiseAnna 😅 So no fish and no reservations, but we were lucky at "Le Genois". We had a wonderful dinner with great hosts and even greater company :-)

Visit # 3: Dominica (Portsmouth).

This is a whole other world. You can see the damage of the hurricanes everywhere. Rubbish in the water is not yet cleaned up, so no snorkeling possible. Clearance is in the basement of the yellow building without a roof...

People are just hanging around on the streets still beaten by the results after the super storms... Seemingly incapable to move and rebuild the country. Except for Elvis and his brother. An honest boat boy, trying to rebuild a business.

 

So we were happy to pay the 25$ per person to go and check out the Indian River (where they filmed Pirates of the Caribbean 😛). Pictures will follow when my brother has some time to share them 😏😚. You can see that a lot of the tropical forest has been demolished but (unlike humans) nature is already rebuilding its forest abundantly. Insist on the hike at the end of the river as it's the most beautiful part!

 After the muddy hike, the cleaning of the boots !

Visit # 4: Dominica (Roseau).

The sail to Roseau was pretty nice. Makes you want to go for a hike and check out the country.

 Boat skeletons everywhere...

The arrival at Roseau puts a hold on our visiting ideas though. Do not stop there if you don't have to... Boat boys are dishonest. You're obliged to take a mooring, which you're not sure will hold. You have loud music every night that makes your boat tremble. And lots of weird guys heavily influenced by drugs...

A swim with a lost turtle was the best we got out of it 😎

Visit # 5: Martinique (Saint-Pierre). Village destroyed in 1902 by the volcano Mont Pelée.

 Local fisherman next to our boat.

We needed to take care of the clearance again. It's apparently at a local restaurant... Closed for now... Or the tourist information centre... Anyway, a good walk to discover the town.

 

We checked out the Tsunami evacuation zone 😯 I guess they chose it to save time ?! 😬

Visit # 6: Anse d'Arlet. Nice snorkeling, no pictures however, since it was raining all the time 😱

December, 30th 2018.

Visit # 7: Les Trois-Ilets. Not a beautiful stop either, however perfect to take a taxi to the airport or visit Fort-de-France.
 Time to say good-by, snif and they got soaking wet again just before taking their taxi. I guess the sky was crying also when they left 😥
However, as soon as they were at the airport, the sun came through again and the rainy days were over 😏

Thanks for your visit! We had a great time!