Guadeloupe is an archipelago consisting of six inhabited islands as well as many uninhabited islands and outcroppings. North next to Guadeloupe is a Montserat island, south – Dominica island. They all belong to the Lesser Antilles archipelago. Carribean sea is to the West, Atlantic ocean – to the East. Nevertheless Guadeloupe is a part of European Union as it is an overseas region of France.
Citizens of EU thus do not need visas here, the currency used is euro and everybody speaks French (locals use Antillean Creole as well). Flight from Paris to Pointe-a-Pitre takes 11 hours. Still because of the time difference the clock shows only 4 hours later when one lands in Guadeloupe.
We land in Pointe-a-Pitre at 9pm on November 13th 2019. It’s dark, air is hot and we are brought instantly to our car rental office. In no time we are in our car driving squeezed in a busy traffic to Deshaies to find our accomodation. Not an accommodation really – a dream in the middle of the tropic plants named Au jardin des colibris (in the garden of humming-birds). Besides – French is as easy as one should expect – Deshaies is pronounced “de-e”.
Au jardin des colibris looks like a botanic garden – even in the dark when we arrived here. Small bungalows scattered here and there next to palm trees, ferns and other wanders. We have Jaune soleil (sunny yellow) bungalow for the beginning. The party can start – on the terrace we have a pitcher of toddy on the table 🙂
| The Botanic garden |
| Short hikes |
| Mangroves |
| Hiking in the rainforest |
| The gates of Hell |
| La Soufrière |
| To south-east Basse-Terre |
| Carbet falls |
| Les Saintes |
| Mont Caraïbes |