Things here are much better now that we are out of the Riviere Selee. We went to Gosier yesterday, it is about 2 miles south of where we are anchored and is a resort town. In Gosier, we picked up a baguette, foies graus, and a bottle of white wine before heading over to a small island called Isle du Gosier. Apparently, it is the place to be on weekends (we went on a Monday and there were about 20 other people. It was a beautiful little island … reminded me of the islands we visited in Thailand.
Our anchorage is between Pointe-a-Pitre and Gosier and is near a small island. There isn’t much wind and there are still a few bugs (plus, it is 30 feet deep even though we are close to shore), but it is much better than where we were and the water is calm. Guadaloupe doesn’t really seem geared towards yachties, unless you pay to stay at the marina where showers, bathrooms, and all the luxeries know to man are available. We have used the marina dinghy dock, although it is about a 2 mile walk into Pointe-a-Pitre.
The markets are open every day and there is a separate vegetable market, fish market, crafts market, and flower market. The French seem to enjoy their food and it is nice to have such a wide selection of food at fairly reasonable prices. As to be expected, meats and vegetables tend to be more, but we are hoping that the markets will be cheaper for vegetables. The supermarkets are good here and it was a nice treat to buy water, milk, string beans, and chicken. Last night, we dined on grilled chicken, string beans, and our white wine (which we forgot to bring a corkscrew to the beach). We agreed it was our best meal since our steak in Bermuda. It is so nice to smell the bread baking in the morning and we have enjoyed getting fresh baguettes for about a dollar. I’m not sure why fresh bread isn’t more popular in the US … I guess people are willing to have less tasty bread for slightly less, but it seems that is missing out.
Our lack of French has been somewhat of a challenge and it is kind of surprising how few people understanding English. That sounds very ethnocentric, but considering that we are surrounded by English speaking islands, I expected they would have greater exposure to English. I’ve been trying to find a CD-rom and book to study French (it seems a lot easier than Japanese), but there don’t seem to be many English sections of bookstores.
I went for a run this morning and you would have thought that I was from another planet the way that people were looking at me. It is a bit crazy to run in this heat (about 90 degrees, sunny, and humid), but it felt good and was a nice way to see the town as the markets were beginning to get going. I found some great running routes in Antigua, but Guadaloupe seems to be geared more towards biking. I may try to bike over to the park in Basse-Terre (the mountainous western side of two half’s of the island that is shaped like a butterfly). I’m not sure how far it is, but I’m hoping that we can at least take a bus and hike up to the active volcano. It is always a nice way to start the day with a run, followed by a cool swim, and 1-wine bottle shower.
Right now, we are only planning on staying here for a week and we told customs that we would be departing next Sunday/Monday. The next island in the chain is Dominica, which is supposed to have the best hiking in the Caribbean. However, the cruising guide recommended skipping it since theft is a major problem. According to Street (who I have precious little confidence in right now), you cannot leave your boat unattended without having someone break in. Considering the only reason we would go there is to hike, which would require leaving our boat for an extended period of time, we might choose to skip Dominica and proceed directly to Martinique.