Wednesday morning, we arrived in Guadeloupe, and by now I was adjusting to the time enough to wake up before we made it into port. Up to this point the ship had cut through the ocean so smoothly that, had I not known better, I would have sworn we had never left port in Puerto Rico and someone was just changing the scenery outside our resort.
We had a light breakfast at the Sun and Sea on the Lido Deck. I had pancakes, French toast, melon and coffee...yes, that's all.
After breakfast, we headed into the port city, which turned out to be very urban, with French style buildings blanketed in graffiti. The town is expensive, and where we had no language problems before, on Guadeloupe it seemed everyone spoke French exclusively.
We had planned to take a bus, but we were told the buses were on strike (although I think this might have been a strike of American cruise passengers only, as buses seemed to be operating).
If we had it to do over again, we would have simply taken a packaged tour to the rainforest, but we only have this wisdom in retrospect.
We negotiated in conjunction with another couple to get a cab driver to take us to the rainforest and then to the beach for $25 per person.
The drive to the rainforest was kind of like taking a freeway through the southern United States, with some nice greenery among the outposts of civilization.
We went to a cascade (waterfall) which was very beautiful, in a pretty part of the rainforest.
Our taxi driver whisked us off through some very unscenic rustic sprawl where we were able to observe inland poverty.
He took us to a French beach resort.
It was photogenic, but the bay was so overgrown with algae that it had almost no fish that we could see while snorkeling.
I don't think the cab driver understood what we wanted, and so there may be better snorkeling somewhere else on Guadeloupe. We hung out at the beach snapping pictures until our cab driver returned for us.
There undoubtedly are better ways to approach this island, and that is a gamble we take by traveling on our own. Next time in Guadeloupe, I would either buy shore cruise ship excursion or get on one of the fixed rate tour taxis whose drivers wait holding maps at the pier.
We returned to the ship for a late lunch at Happy Valley, the Chinese restaurant on the Lido Deck. It was very tasty. I went to another art auction onboard after lunch while Julie read by the pool.
Later, I stopped at the library and checked out one of my favorite books, James Michener's "Caribbean," and re-read the chapter about the “creoles” (which was not a pejorative term in this context) of Guadeloupe and Victor Hueghes.
Before we knew it, dinner time had rolled around again.
I started with palm and artichoke hearts, lobster bisque and poulouett, a Romanian dish that's best described as a caramelized corn muffin covered in mushroom and vegetable sauce. I'd give this meal two stars, although it probably would fare better with somebody who knew what they had ordered.
As always, I could have ordered a second entrée, which would have been happily served, but as you undoubtedly can tell, there's always another meal a few minutes away anyway, not to mention the soft serve ice cream that's available almost any time. Julie had melon and pressutto, salad with honey mustard dressing and New York steak. The steak was excellent. After dinner, we thought we'd try karaoke, but it was standing room only, with plenty of volunteers who were surprisingly good singers.
When show time arrived, we went to the Palladium Lounge for the comedy and music show. Duke Daniels, a singer with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group, the Platters, put on a show that was so funny that we overlooked his problem hitting a few notes on some of his great old hits. The comedian who opened the show, George Solano, was also hilarious.
We had a light breakfast at the Sun and Sea on the Lido Deck. I had pancakes, French toast, melon and coffee...yes, that's all.
After breakfast, we headed into the port city, which turned out to be very urban, with French style buildings blanketed in graffiti. The town is expensive, and where we had no language problems before, on Guadeloupe it seemed everyone spoke French exclusively.We had planned to take a bus, but we were told the buses were on strike (although I think this might have been a strike of American cruise passengers only, as buses seemed to be operating).
If we had it to do over again, we would have simply taken a packaged tour to the rainforest, but we only have this wisdom in retrospect.
We negotiated in conjunction with another couple to get a cab driver to take us to the rainforest and then to the beach for $25 per person.
The drive to the rainforest was kind of like taking a freeway through the southern United States, with some nice greenery among the outposts of civilization.
We went to a cascade (waterfall) which was very beautiful, in a pretty part of the rainforest.
Our taxi driver whisked us off through some very unscenic rustic sprawl where we were able to observe inland poverty.
He took us to a French beach resort.
It was photogenic, but the bay was so overgrown with algae that it had almost no fish that we could see while snorkeling.
I don't think the cab driver understood what we wanted, and so there may be better snorkeling somewhere else on Guadeloupe. We hung out at the beach snapping pictures until our cab driver returned for us.
There undoubtedly are better ways to approach this island, and that is a gamble we take by traveling on our own. Next time in Guadeloupe, I would either buy shore cruise ship excursion or get on one of the fixed rate tour taxis whose drivers wait holding maps at the pier.
We returned to the ship for a late lunch at Happy Valley, the Chinese restaurant on the Lido Deck. It was very tasty. I went to another art auction onboard after lunch while Julie read by the pool.
Later, I stopped at the library and checked out one of my favorite books, James Michener's "Caribbean," and re-read the chapter about the “creoles” (which was not a pejorative term in this context) of Guadeloupe and Victor Hueghes.Before we knew it, dinner time had rolled around again.
I started with palm and artichoke hearts, lobster bisque and poulouett, a Romanian dish that's best described as a caramelized corn muffin covered in mushroom and vegetable sauce. I'd give this meal two stars, although it probably would fare better with somebody who knew what they had ordered.
As always, I could have ordered a second entrée, which would have been happily served, but as you undoubtedly can tell, there's always another meal a few minutes away anyway, not to mention the soft serve ice cream that's available almost any time. Julie had melon and pressutto, salad with honey mustard dressing and New York steak. The steak was excellent. After dinner, we thought we'd try karaoke, but it was standing room only, with plenty of volunteers who were surprisingly good singers.
When show time arrived, we went to the Palladium Lounge for the comedy and music show. Duke Daniels, a singer with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame group, the Platters, put on a show that was so funny that we overlooked his problem hitting a few notes on some of his great old hits. The comedian who opened the show, George Solano, was also hilarious.
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