Guadeloupe - part 2

After the excitement of the carnival it was time to see a bit of the countryside so Andreas organized a minibus to take us all on a road trip (there were eight us all together as we were joined by Maria, Peter and little Emil). Heading south we zigzagged along the coast passing through small villages and many beautiful sandy beaches, climbed steep inclines of green forest then going around the next curve to get a view of green hills sloping towards the ocean eventually ending at large cliffs with waves pounding below.





After passing through Pointe Noire we found the road heading inland into the rain forest and after not too long we reached our destination where we walked a short distance to a small waterfall in the rain forest. This was a beautiful place surrounded with multiple shades of green and in the middle water cascading down into a pool of cool clear water that was very inviting after a hot drive. So in we went or at lest some of us, some of us just jumping in the cool water while I (Mr. Chicken) slowwwlyyy walked into the water and eventually got in the water for a cool swim and got pounded a little by the cool water from above (did I say cool again I really mean chilly on scale but who cares it was refreshing).



Time for lunch, so we packed up and headed back to the coast and south to Plage de Malendure where we stopped for lunch at a Cliffside restaurant that overlooked the sea. The view was great, in the distance was an island (made famous by Jacques Cousteau, I will talk more about this later), surrounded by clear blue water, to the south the bay with green waves flowing to the sea and on the cliff side lounged large iguanas soaking up the sun.



After a great lunch with wine and lobster we were off to the beach so we headed north and stopped at a small beach in a cave. We also got a taste of fresh coconut ice cream. We did a bit of swimming, relaxed in the sun and did some snorkeling while the sun slowly sank into the sea, it was a good day for sunsets so many romantic pictures were taken and the kids danced until the sun went down.



It was time for some early morning action, it was time to find some turtles! Getting up at 05:40 (while on vacation) was tough but there was more to come, we walked down to the boat house where we got our wetsuits and walked out into the water (a bit of a wake up call) and got into a rubber boat and once everyone was on board we headed full speed south to the island of Jacques Cousteau, made famous in one of his underwater films calling it one of the 10 best dive site in the world (little did he known that there was soooo much more to see out in the pacific and other places in the world). Lucky for us the ocean had a glassy look in the pre dawn light, this is really a beautiful time of the day (still a bit early though and a bit chilly in a small, wet wetsuit at full speed in a little boat, really fun though). The reason to leave so early is that we will be there before all the other boatloads of people so that we can see more of the life underwater.



After an hour of high speed excitement we arrived at Pigeon Island in the Jacques Cousteau marine park and tied up to the mooring on the south side of island and soon everyone had the masks and snorkels and jumped into the water. The Cousteau reserve is truly a beautiful site with lots of different types of coral and fish and in the predawn light it was amazing to see the sea life interact. Some of the things we saw were turtle, moray eels, snapper, trevally, lobster, plus much more.



After about 1 hour it was time to move along to the next site, by this time the sun was peeking over the lush green hills as we arrived at the next site on the north side of Plage de Malendure where there’s lot’s of sea grass for the turtles to eat. This was a fairly large area so it took a bit of swimming around and in the end we had found four turtles and one the that we stayed with for a while and we got some nice video footage. An hour later we were tired, wet and hungry, and turned north again for a bit more of a ruff ride as it was time for some breakfast, warmth and rest, but in our minds we played over and over the wonders that we have seen in the last hours.



The temperature was very pleasant during our stay, around 25 – 28 during the day, mostly with a breeze, so it never got too hot. At night it was 22 – 24, and with a breeze some of us needed a hoody to feel comfortable. The food at Fort Royal was great, we got really spoiled, with new dishes every day. After another day of eating, tanning and swimming it was time for yet another road trip (road and sail). This time we had the pleasure of having Anna, Andreas and the kids along for this trip (we had been spending a fair bit of time with Stella and Alba these last few weeks on the beach, driving around, at the house and even taking them swimming in the pool, loads of fun).



Once again this was an early trip, up at 05:30 onto the bus that drove us along the coast through sugar cane fields and soon hitting rush hour traffic heading for the capital city of Pointe-à-Pitre (there are a lot of traffic jams around the capital due to the fact that almost everyone has a car. Finally out of traffic we continued our drive east now on the eastern part of the island La Grande-Terre. This side of the island is much flatter and no rainforest. Our bus travelled along small windy roads along the coast for a while passing beaches and small villages before arriving at our destination Saint-Francois harbour where our sailboat waited for us.



This was a very large sail boat and once we stowed our gear we set off for the island of Petite Terre. The trip over to Petite Terre was very pleasant so we all lounged around deck and spent some times up in the front netting, as the sail boat was a catamaran. The sea was fairly calm with large rolling waves (it made some people a bit sea sick) and soon we set the sail with help of some of the passenger. After about an hour or so we were close to our destination and that's when saw that there were large waves everywhere, now for the fun part, we secured the sail and the captain waited for the right moment and then caught a wave heading for shore and while surfing on the wave guided us safely to a quiet bay between two small island. The island was beautiful, surrounded with clear blue water and a large coral area to snorkel in, the beach area was white pearly sand with palm trees scattered along the beach area.



After finding a place on the beach it was time for snorkeling, Andreas and I were the first to see what we could find and we were not to be disappointed, the first thing we spotted was a small octopus trying to hide in among the coral, after that it was swimming in an aquarium with small fish darting in every direction. The area was very shallow varying from half a meter to five meters or more in the boat area so after circling for a while we caught sight of a nice meter or so long shark that we followed off into the bay. Lunch was fish grilled with rice and salad on the beach which was prepared and served by the crew and of course rum punch was available as we were in a rum producing country. After lunch it was time for some more snorkeling and Anna also wanted to see some sharks, sad to say no sharks, after 20 minutes plus no sharks. All was not lost as we were on our way back to shore Anna spotted a sleeping turtle, we circled the turtle for some time taking videos until the turtle woke and decided to take a leisurely swim with us. We swam with the turtle for about 5-10 minutes before heading back to shore to rest and play with the kids.



Before we left Petite Terre I took a little walk to take some picture and as I walked down path I was startled by large iguanas racing out into the bushes as I disturbed their sleeping in the sunshine, at one time two raced out in front of me have a major fight for one reason or another. Jorunn decided to have a look but the first thing she saw while walking along the beach was that were several baby sharks swimming around in the bay, so after a short walk on the Iguana trail decided to go back and get Anna and the kids so that they also could see them. So we all ended up seeing shark that day! In the end it was time to sail back so we packed our things and went to the landing for the trip back to the sail boat, we were lucky here too as a couple of small baby sharks swam by to say goodbye.




The trip back was pretty uneventful but still very pleasant but about half an hour after climbing the waves to get out of the bay we caught a quick glimpse of two dolphins, sadly they did not stay long. Some of the French guys had more than enough rum, and started to sing. Finally we got to shore and spent some time playing hide and seek with bus before finally heading back to the hotel for dinner and some rest.



My head cold had finally cleared and I really wanted to do some diving at Pigeon island to find out what the talk was about and to see for myself why Cousteau called this one of the top ten dive sites in the world. Things were looking very bleak for diving as there had to be a minimum of six divers for such a long trip. Thursday (we were leaving Saturday in the evening and I had to stop diving at less 24 hours before flight to minimize my chances of decompression sickness) I got lucky, I ran into the organizer of the dive trip and he had been trying to get hold of me, the trip was on for Friday morning and it would give me more than 24 hours surface time before our fight home.



After breakfast we drove to the marina where we boarded the boat and headed south for an hour to reach Pigeon Island and our first dive site on the south side of the island, the second dive, after lunch, would be in the bay which they call the swimming pool. Both dives were very good with lot's of beautiful coral, a good amount of fish and even a statue to commemorate Jacques Cousteau and all the things done to protect the oceans. Things we saw; a school of 30 trevally, moray eels, cleaner shrimp, arrow crabs, spotted drum, rainbow runners, lobster, trunkfish, frogfish. We could sadly not find the seahorses, but they have them here. There was a turtle that we watched for some time as he ate a large sponge. This was a very good dive area and was probably better in the 70's when there was more fish but at the time he had not as yet ventured to the pacific too much and had seen the wonders there and may have been a bit hasty to name this one of the top ten dive sites in the world, who knows.



After washing out my equipment and hanging it out to dry (can’t have a wet wetsuit in my luggage) I watched the ocean in hopes of seeing a whales as they were in season now and had been off Pigeon island two days earlier, but no luck this time so for the last time I watched the green hills of Guadeloupe go by as we entered the marina. Thanks to Andreas, Anna, Alba and Stella for everything, it was great to see you all again and for showing us around Guadeloupe.

Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe
04.02.2012 - 18.02.2012



On a cold morning (-14 at home) we headed for the airport as it was time for a vacation and the lure of the Caribbean was calling us and we answered at five in the morning. We sadly had to fly through Paris and change airports on top of that, but we survived again and arrived to a warm evening in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. After finding our luggage we were met with a huge smile by my cousin Andreas (thanks for the water, it was needed).




The drive to the hotel on the windy roads took about 40 minutes but since it was evening there were very few things to see so we caught up on what was happening in Guadeloupe and with the rest of the family until we arrived at the hotel. We stayed at Fort Royal. It was time to meet the rest of family (Elisabeth (Andreas' mother) Johnny, Anna, Alba, and Stella). We were really tired by this time as we had been up since five o’clock Norwegian time, but the dinner was good and it was great to catch up, but in the end lack of sleep caught up with us.



We woke to sunshine and warm weather and got our first look at the hotel area, our bungalow overlooked the whole hotel area with a view over the beautiful blue of the ocean with a small island in the background, to the right was the tennis courts and the swimming pool the, to the left the restaurant with the main part of the hotel on a rock pointing out into the ocean. After breakfast it was time for some sun, there were two beaches, one for all day sun and one a bit more off to the side for afternoon sun, so other than going for lunch this was a day for tanning, swimming and some snorkeling (the snorkeling was not very good in this area at all).



After some time in the sun it was time for some exploring so we headed to the northern side of the hotel (the wild side with more waves and more currents) where we found a beautiful small sandy beach with waves crashing onto the sand, the north high cliffs with waves pounding onto the rocks. This is a beautiful site in the morning and we were later to find out a great place to watch the stars at night.



After watching the view for a while we headed back through hotel grounds to the far beach then up a small path into the bush for a 15 minute walk to the next beach, Plage de la Perle. This was a longer beach with some small cafes and restauranst and we also found sign warning people that turtles lay eggs on these beaches and that you should not disturb the nest (this was all in french like everything else, not very tourist friendly for those that do not know French). We continued on enjoying the warmth and sunshine until we reached the northern point on the Grande Anse where we watched the surfers for a while before heading back to the hotel (had some big surf for a couple of days and it was very funny to watch the guys from the water sports diving for sun chairs that were washed out into the surf).



That evening we had a family dinner at Andreas and Anna's place which was much higher up in the hills among the banana trees with a beautiful view over the lush green hills and the ocean with a couple of small islands off the coast. We had a lovely dinner and caught up with all that was happening around each others life since last we met. We also had some time to play with the kids (Alba and Stella) who we have not seen much since they were born, the night ended fairly early as the next day we were diving.



The next day we were up early and after breakfast we were driven to the dive shop in the town of Deshaies for some equipment and then for a 15 to 20 minute boat trip to the dive site. We still had rolling seas as it had been a bit stormy at sea the the couple of days. The weather was nice and sunny but it was a whole other story underwater, there was lot's of current, bad visibility and a surge, to make things worst the dive master wanted to swim right into the current. There was not a lot to see on this dive site and with the strong current Jorunn and another guy were getting low on air so it was time to head to the surface and get ready for the next dive. The next dive was much better with little or no current, I got a little lost while taking a picture but soon ran into a turtle that was swimming by and and started to take a video and when I was finished I found all the other divers right behind me. The dive sites were: Point Ferry and Paul Thomas; What we saw: Turtle, lionfish, arrow crab, flamingo tongue, various moray eels, pineapple trunkfish and much more (mostly on the second dive).



We did get some rain showers here and there but they did not last that long and after two morning dives this was a great excuse to lay in the room and relax. That evening we had dinner with everybody as Andreas's mother and Johnny were leaving the next day. It was a fun evening with lot's of time to play with kids and learn more about who they are (this is still a mystery to me). This was also a clear night so once again we got to see how many stars that are in the sky that we do not get to see at home.



One day Andreas, Anna and Alba came and picked us up at the hotel for an afternoon on the beach (by now I had got nice little head cold so I was a little out of it) . We first stopped in Deshaies to pick up some chicken and baguette before heading off to Ferry beach a bit further along the road. We relaxed and had a nice lunch before Alba and I got serious and we each started our sand castle, while our first castles got washed away Alba got smart and built her castle on a rock when my third castle got washed away. Andreas and I and thought it would much more fun to throw Alba in the sea, which worked out very well. A group of girls laying close by went for a swim and one of them decided it would be fun to have a picture of her in the water so she takes off her bikini bottoms and holds them over her head, funny picture and luck for her she was in a bit deaper water because if she had been closer to shore all would have been revealed. Jorunn and Anna had a great snorkeling trip, and saw a turtle and an octopus.



Some lazy days on the beach and 3 meals a day (two of them with dessert and it was time to do something a bit more active), not that we had not been doing some long swims, but something a little different, CARNIVAL. Yes, it is carnival season in the Caribbean and here they gather all the school kids local in that area to sing and dance in the streets. This time it was for the schools in the Pointe du Petit area and each school had their own theme for their colourful costumes, some came by car, others came by bus but they came in large numbers from the surrounding area. By this time the kids were getting excited (Stella and Alba were really ready to go as it was hot and kids do not like to wait).



After many buses had arrived it was time for for the bands with their loud swinging music there came one band after another until it was time to start. Things started off with a thunder of load music followed by dancing kids and youth trying to impress the crowds lining the streets. Stella and Alba were a bit reserved in the beginning but as they marched on they got more into the swing of thing. It was a great show for everyone.