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Guadeloupe |
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March 27, 2008 Going Different Ways |
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Since we could see the end of the trip just around the bend and we all had things we wanted to go and see, we decided to split up and go in different directions in the morning. Marie-Laure and Mélanie went off on an early morning hike up in the mountains, Pascal and I went to the Rum Museum for a tasting, and Kathie made it all happen by staying at the villa as the kids went in the pool and worked on puzzles. |
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Marie-Laure and Mélanie left the house around 7:30 and headed up into the mountains to hike one of the many trails that went along the volcanic ridge of the mountains. There hope was to get to a point where they would have a beautiful view of the island and the waters around. Unfortunately, they forgot that they would be hiking through a rainforest where there would be lots of trees hanging overhead (see right). They also had to deal with the fact that these were not gentle, sloping hills that they were going up and down. Instead, they had to deal with dramatic inclines that were more vertical than horizontal (see below left for the impact of this fact!)! |
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While Mélanie and Marie-Laure were struggling across the peaks of Guadeloupe, Pascal and I set off for the island’s Rum Museum. Located just east of Sainte-Rose, the Museum had a really neat exhibit on the history of rum-making in Guadeloupe as well as an extensive display on how rum was traditionally made in the past. With a lot of first-hand “artifacts,” the museum was quite impressive. The most important part, of course, was the rum-tasting we enjoyed at the end of the exhibition. Since still had to drive back, we had to be a little careful with the samples, but we still managed to have some amazing rums, including some aged ones that tasted remarkably like some Armagnacs! |
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While we were gone, Kathie and the girls were very busy with the pool as well as assembling puzzles. It wasn’t quite the relaxing morning she was hoping for, but it wasn’t too bad. |
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The original plan for the afternoon was for all of us to go to the Botanical Garden on the other side of Deshaies. Unfortunately, though, Victoria had gotten a bad sunburn in the morning because both she and Kathie forgot to put some lotion on her. So while she took a nap after lunch, the Tromeurs went off to the Garden. After her nap, the three of us started a killer game of Canasta. When the Tromeurs got back from the Garden, Estelle and Marie-Laure joined us. |
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The evening was particularly nice. Marie-Laure quite generously offered to watch the girls while the four parents went off to dinner by ourselves. Kathie and I went to a restaurant in nearby Sainte-Rose called Restaurant Clara while Pascal and Mélanie went to a restaurant in Deshaies. It was particularly nice as we had a quiet dinner at our own pace with no bed-times to worry about and the restaurant was fairly quiet since it wasn’t their busy season. Even though there was definitely a bit of a language gap (our waitress spoke a mile-a-minute!), the staff truly did everything they could to make sure that we had a good dinner and enjoyed our evening.
Tomorrow: Le Jardin Botanique |
