What a day! What. A. Day!
I took Daniel and his bike to town this morning at about 6 a.m. The rental car we have reserved for today is 3 miles away. He is going to bike to the rental car place and then come pick me up for a day of touring Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe is a mountainous island with an active volcano on it. Really cool, unless you're the one riding a bike up and down the mountains to get to the rental car company. He made it and picked me up and we were on our way by 7 a.m.
Our first stop was the National Park of Guadeloupe. To get there, I had to ride with Mario Andretti (a/k/a Daniel) driving like he was in a Grand Prix race. The roads were really narrow and lots of mountains. Up and down, hairpin turns and did I mention we got a 5-speed little car to drive around in? I was holding on for dear life and laughing my head off. Daniel did a great job navigating the roads and keeping us alive. People were passing us on the 2 lane roads, if we slowed down just a little to see something. I believe all those years of Daniel growing up driving the back country roads of Alabama equipped him for today. Great job, honey!
We stopped in the middle of the park and went to see "Cascade aux Ecreevisses". We figured this meant some type of waterfall. It was a small waterfall on a really nice paved trailed. It was only a 5 minute walk on a paved path. Easy. Then we stopped at a very nice picnic area with a beautiful stream running next to it. It really reminded us of the Smokey Mountains. We drove around a bit more and headed towards Pointe-a Pitre (the largest city) and quickly decided we wanted to be back in the wild so we head out of town and along the coast.
It was 10:15 a.m. and since we had an early, early start - I was ready for lunch. Daniel found a nice roadside stop and I was sure they wouldn't be serving anything yet but the guy prepared us some delicious sandwiches for $3 Euros each. We then stopped at another large parking area in the National Park and made it to the information building. We had come across the place where you can see 2 very large waterfalls, one you can actually see from the ocean - it's that large and that high. We were told we could walk to the first one, it was only 30 minutes away but it was too late in the day (11 a.m.) for us to do the second one - it was 3 hours away. So we took off for the first one. I made it about half way and my knee wouldn't hear anymore of it so Daniel went on without me. Brought me back gorgeous pictures. The park ranger lady also suggested that we go swimming at a swimming hole, not far from where we parked the car. So we changed and decided to go looking for it. It was straight downhill to get to it and I sucked it up and made it. So glad I did. There was a beautiful smaller waterfall and we could swim in the pool around it. People were jumping off rocks (yes, Daniel jumped - no, I didn't). The water was so nice and cool. It was a wonderful stop and worth the effort to get to it.
After a couple more stops in the National Park, we continued on towards Deshaies, along the coast road. Did you know that they grow cocoa beans on Guadeloupe? Well, they do. We stopped at La Maison du Cacao and bought 1 small (about the size of a Hersey bar) chocolate bar. It cost 6 Euros, but tasted delicious! Daniel said, I guess you know you just ate a $9 candy bar. I almost choked. I'm not good with conversion rates. I didn't think 6 was too bad - but that was Euros! Eek!
We made it back to Deshaies and Daniel let me out. He drove the rental car back and biked the 3 miles (up and down hills) back to me. Before he left me though, he said, dress up for dinner so I was so excited. Put on a dress and everything! I went back to meet him in town and it was almost 5 p.m. We thought we'd catch an early dinner. Not so. Apparently, the French eat late, really late for us. They don't start serving until 7 p.m. Back to C-Time for us but we weren't sad about it. We had had a FULL wonderful day touring Guadeloupe.
I took Daniel and his bike to town this morning at about 6 a.m. The rental car we have reserved for today is 3 miles away. He is going to bike to the rental car place and then come pick me up for a day of touring Guadeloupe. Guadeloupe is a mountainous island with an active volcano on it. Really cool, unless you're the one riding a bike up and down the mountains to get to the rental car company. He made it and picked me up and we were on our way by 7 a.m.
Our first stop was the National Park of Guadeloupe. To get there, I had to ride with Mario Andretti (a/k/a Daniel) driving like he was in a Grand Prix race. The roads were really narrow and lots of mountains. Up and down, hairpin turns and did I mention we got a 5-speed little car to drive around in? I was holding on for dear life and laughing my head off. Daniel did a great job navigating the roads and keeping us alive. People were passing us on the 2 lane roads, if we slowed down just a little to see something. I believe all those years of Daniel growing up driving the back country roads of Alabama equipped him for today. Great job, honey!
We stopped in the middle of the park and went to see "Cascade aux Ecreevisses". We figured this meant some type of waterfall. It was a small waterfall on a really nice paved trailed. It was only a 5 minute walk on a paved path. Easy. Then we stopped at a very nice picnic area with a beautiful stream running next to it. It really reminded us of the Smokey Mountains. We drove around a bit more and headed towards Pointe-a Pitre (the largest city) and quickly decided we wanted to be back in the wild so we head out of town and along the coast.
It was 10:15 a.m. and since we had an early, early start - I was ready for lunch. Daniel found a nice roadside stop and I was sure they wouldn't be serving anything yet but the guy prepared us some delicious sandwiches for $3 Euros each. We then stopped at another large parking area in the National Park and made it to the information building. We had come across the place where you can see 2 very large waterfalls, one you can actually see from the ocean - it's that large and that high. We were told we could walk to the first one, it was only 30 minutes away but it was too late in the day (11 a.m.) for us to do the second one - it was 3 hours away. So we took off for the first one. I made it about half way and my knee wouldn't hear anymore of it so Daniel went on without me. Brought me back gorgeous pictures. The park ranger lady also suggested that we go swimming at a swimming hole, not far from where we parked the car. So we changed and decided to go looking for it. It was straight downhill to get to it and I sucked it up and made it. So glad I did. There was a beautiful smaller waterfall and we could swim in the pool around it. People were jumping off rocks (yes, Daniel jumped - no, I didn't). The water was so nice and cool. It was a wonderful stop and worth the effort to get to it.
After a couple more stops in the National Park, we continued on towards Deshaies, along the coast road. Did you know that they grow cocoa beans on Guadeloupe? Well, they do. We stopped at La Maison du Cacao and bought 1 small (about the size of a Hersey bar) chocolate bar. It cost 6 Euros, but tasted delicious! Daniel said, I guess you know you just ate a $9 candy bar. I almost choked. I'm not good with conversion rates. I didn't think 6 was too bad - but that was Euros! Eek!
We made it back to Deshaies and Daniel let me out. He drove the rental car back and biked the 3 miles (up and down hills) back to me. Before he left me though, he said, dress up for dinner so I was so excited. Put on a dress and everything! I went back to meet him in town and it was almost 5 p.m. We thought we'd catch an early dinner. Not so. Apparently, the French eat late, really late for us. They don't start serving until 7 p.m. Back to C-Time for us but we weren't sad about it. We had had a FULL wonderful day touring Guadeloupe.
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