Guadeloupe!

Back in March of 2015 Anthony and I, together with my parents and my oldest brother and my niece, went for a get-away holiday to the Island of Guadeloupe. It's French territory but located in the southern Caribbean Sea. Guadeloupe is just a two-hour plane ride away from French Guiana and although very expensive to get to, is just drop-dead gorgeous. Surrounded by turquoise water and clean white sandy beaches with that French Kreole Carribbean feel to it... ah, it's positively charming. The island is also shaped like a butterfly; need I really say more?

The island is divided into two "halves", Basse-Terre on the west and Grand-Terre towards the east. We stayed in a hotel based on Base-Terre, which is less inhabited than Grand-Terre because of its mountainous and rocky terrain. This side of the island has been kept more "untouched" than its eastern counterpart. So for us nature lovers, it was the natural choice.

So, Anthony and I have never really been on a real holiday together. It was going to be a first for us. Right. So I like to think I know Anthony pretty well by now. Which means I am aware that he likes to keep active. What I wasn't aware of, was that he likes to keep extra active on holidays. See, when I go on holiday I like to relax, kick my feet up a bit. I was imagining reading in the sun, drinking fancy pineapple juices with curly straws by the beach... this sort of thing.

 At least IN-BETWEEN keeping active. I mean, don't get me wrong; I like to snorkel and get out there and discover new stuff too. But not at 7 o'clock first thing in the morning. It's just less appealing before I've had breakfast. I am not even jesting here though, in the five days we had on our resort, I got him to lie down for about a good 15 minutes.

Good thing he's resourceful as well as (abnormally) active.

I just love this picture. It describes Anthony perfectly. There I was joyfully in the sun when I thought to myself. Right, I'll just go have a look, see what he is up to. I walk across to the other side of the resort when I come across this placard and see Anthony packing up his kite-surfing gear. 

He didn't die, so I got over it.

The little village just down the road offered some local sights and excellent dining. The architecture varied quite a bit from Guiana actually. Bright coloured buildings with hand-painted pieces were all around. I also found that the evening light in Guadeloupe was fantastic for taking shots and tinted everything with that warm Caribbean feeling. Like the first taste of rum warming up your insides. 

Yes, those are real shells... the size of your hand :)

Food couldn't possibly taste bad when you're looking at this.

On one of our days we travelled to Saint -Francois, the very tip of the other half of the island on Grand-Terre. The sea was blue and beautiful but fierce. The rocks are almost black in colour and form sharp edges when they crumble.

A man and the sea.

We have always been sea-lovers in my family but waves in Finland do not reach this height. It was really enlightening seeing the sea from such a different perspective. The sea is not only extremely salty, but vigorous too. It demanded attention.

We took it upon ourselves to hike up the little side-path to reach the viewing sight at the top of the hill.

The view with the island La Désirade in the backdrop.

Up top!

Next stop, boating and snorkeling!

Because we're a big boating family taking a day trip out to sea was a must. Luckily, Anthony managed to both research and book us an all-inclusive private boat trip. We were expecting it to be nice, for sure. But we got much more than we bargained for! Like snorkeling around an old shipwreck. We headed out from the port through an alley of mangrove trees and headed out towards the blue. It felt great to be out at sea again after such a long while. 

Once we navigated to the shipwreck, Anthony (of course) was first in. The rest of us, followed suit shortly after. Because the ship-wreck was really just under the surface of the water, the bottom of the wreck being at about 5m depth, it was easy to view the fish and other sea-life.

 

Everybody was fantastically impressed.

Woop woop - Thumbs up!

Second stop was a tiny island close by the wreck. The entire coastline is actually protected by a natural coral barrier reef. But sadly, because of the strong sea, we were unable to take the boat out to see it.

Anthony, determined, snorkeled out to view it. Naturally.

 

As if the trip hadn't already been wonderful enough, the last stop was really the cherry on top. A small island close to the coastline sported a naturally formed knee-deep walkway straight out towards open sea. Taking a stroll, essentially in the middle of the sea, seemed almost fictitious.

Happy faces all around!

But it wasn't finished yet. Hungry anyone?

The metal lining of old car-tires worked as barbecues and the smell of rum-dipped banane flambé was in the air. The shed-like structure was simply standing in the water and worked as kitchen and dining room all at once.

Our captain preparing our dinner in our sea-side saloon. Unreal.

I've certainly never had dinner whilst having a foot spa. A one in a million 2-in-1 experience!

You can trust the French that dinner came complete with wine, baguette, rum and even coffee with dessert. Absolutely unforgettable.

Beautiful and true to itself.

Thank you Guadeloupe!

Trip to Îles du Salut, the "Salvation Islands"

Bonjour tout le monde!

This post will cover our day-trip to the three islands located about 14km off the coast of Kourou in the Atlantic Ocean. Collectively they are known as the Îles du Salut (the "Salvation Islands") because the few missionaries who managed to get to these islands survived the outbreak of the plague which hit the mainland. However, the history of these islands are more commonly known for something far less pleasant. Specifically, it was a French penal colony with a reputation for harsh living-conditions as well as draconian brutality.

Originally, our trip was claimed as a fishing tour, but we caught no fish. So really, in my opinion we cannot call it a fishing tour since we didn't actually catch any fish to speak of. Not even one small one. Zero. Well, we had bait on the boat in the form of dead fish, but we bought that, so really it wasn't much of a success on the whole catching fish -front.

When your alarm clock rings at 6AM on a saturday morning, one is generally not pleased. When it rings at 6AM intentionally and it is pouring down cats and dogs outside and you're supposed to spend the entire day on a boat with four other (presumably fish-smelling men), you are definitely not a riot of excitement.

Having said that, when you are greeted with this sight when the whole river is just waking up and the rain has just subsided, you cannot help but feel a sense of peace come over you.


And I even got the chance to get creative with my camera. So really, I was over the moon.

Anthony (sporting his free tourist gift) and I, having stolen his jacket that kept me nice and warm. Thank you dear.


Here you see the very fancy fishing gear being employed when we were still feeling young and eager. There will be no more fish-gear related photography featured in this post because, as I said, we caught bugger all. But within no time the weather had cleared and we were greeted by the open-armed rays of sunshine.

and this glorious-looking island: Île Royale. Shortly upon arrival our designated sea-captain started feeling rather ill, and as we were not catching any fish anyway we decided to jump off and discover the island a bit - And good thing we did too!

This is the harbor on Île Royale. Naturally, it comes lined with palm trees and a fantastic quaint little feel to it.

Anybody fancy a dip in the blue? :)

Anthony ventured up some of the steps and found this fantastic looking building which we late found out belongs to some "premier resident" of the island.

A green explosion.



A spiked tree. Yes, I said SPIKED TREE.

The vegetation on these islands is mainly covered by palm trees. The ground was simply covered in coconuts in various forms of degradation. The coastal areas, all the way down to the very edge is covered by palm trees.

Remains from the islands rich historical significance. We didn't actually go see any of the cell remnants as we didn't have enough time so we left that for next time.

Any my favourite encounter of the whole day: MONKEYS! To be precise, these are Capuchin monkeys and they sure were a friendly bunch. We ran right into a big family which was very busy tricking tourists into giving them food, just for being a monkey.

Some very nice (and prepared) tourists had brought some baguette with them. The monkeys are on French soil, which makes them French, which by default means they love baguette as all French blooded things do. Obvious really :D Anyway, they gave us some of their bread so we could feed the monkeys too. Thanks guys, awfully cordial of you :)

This monkey is clearly lost in thought. It's funny, because Anthony gets the same face when he eats sometimes. Relatives.

Look at this little cute guy!

namnamnamnam....


Anthony also tried to feed some but he was not given any bread so he was trying to cheat them into coming close with only a dried leaf to offer. Needless to say, they learned quickly that he really wasn't bringing anything tasty to the situation.

A beautifully back-lit acrobat.

We also saw these little guys, called an Agouti, which is some kind of native large-sized rodent. Anthony called them local pigs.. but really they look more a jumbo-sized sporty version of a  hamster/ guinea pig. Whatever they are, I thought they were ridiculously cute and thought we should casually steal one and have it with our chickens. Anthony was not as keen.

The color of their shiny fur was a gorgeous fox-red in the sun.

We then stumbled upon some of the older buildings riddled with decay, but absolutely gorgeous nonetheless. Situated right by the modern-day hotel which sits on the top of the island overlooking the Atlantic.

And here is the view from the top of the hotel grounds. Not a bad view to get up to I say.

This is for my mum, who loves flowers. (Dom var helt ljuvliga mamma - Hit skall vi absolut fara när du och pappa kommer och hälsar på!)

The vacated buildings had something fantastic about them just because they were so grand somehow, yet completely empty. It kind of felt like walking through a beautiful historical ghost-town of sorts.

Equipped with a bright red lighthouse.

Anthony peeking from behind the vacated grounds.

A modern-day convenience, the helicopter pad.

So picture postcard perfect that it almost looks a if we have been photoshopped in - but I swear! It's completely authentic. I don't have those kinds of skills.

If you look closely you will find a brightly colored hammock with a leg sticking out of it (which would be mine). We even had time for the midday nap - which I have to say, I am the biggest fan of. I swear people would be generally happier and more effective if they got a chance to take a nap every day. If given the chance to have it in a hammock amongst the palm trees whilst listening to the hush of the sea, all the better. Probably the best nap I have ever taken, hands down.


I had to take a picture of this when I saw it whilst glancing at the ground. I am not sure if it is a set of roots or an odd rock formation, but to me it was clearest shape of a heart and since I absolutely loved my day, I had to capture it as a memento (along with my oh-so-comfortable trusted tourist-shoes).

A sensational day in this exotic paradise!

Thank you world :)