JAN 7, 2013 GUADELOUPE

JAN 7, 2013 POINTE A PITRE, GUADELOUPE - French West Indies
After a very rocking and rolling night (and not too much sleep)  we looked out at sunrise to see the massive island of Guadeloupe outside our window - Guadeloupe is really like two islands - one huge and one much smaller joined together by an isthmus which is where the capital city of Pointe a Pitre is located, population 18,000.  Pointe a Pitre is situated on a limestone plateau  on the south west potion of the island of Grand-terre.  As Tim (the shore excursion and destination manager said "consider the Western island to be a healthy lung and the Eastern island to be an unhealthy lung" and that's how the islands look - like a set of lungs. The large Western half of Guadeloupe has very high mountains and was covered in rain clouds the whole time that we were there.

We headed towards the sheltered port, Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin, in the centre of Pointe a Pitre to the Quai where Captain ? from Croatia docked the Tere Moana very gently behind the La Ponant yacht - a beautiful sleek yacht carrying only 46 passengers.  (Ponant cruises owned the Tere Moana before selling it to Paul Gauguin Cruiseline).  There were at least 6 immigration officers from Guadeloupe in the library processing our passports, but eventually all was OK and we were cleared for entry into the French Island of Guadeloupe.  It was 12 noon when we arrived and as we wandered the streets we realised that in true French fashion, almost every store was closed for lunch until 230pm!  Next to the central spice market centre we found a wonderful clothing store with a very helpful assistant - we managed to buy 3 tshirts and a pair of pants for Terry - very cool designs and different than anything else we had seen.  Fortunately he took credit card for payment - and since the entire island takes only Euros we were very lucky since we did not have a single Euro to our name!

Ellen and I found  beauty accessory supply store (Linda looked great, just like Cher, in a long black wig!) but we couldn't buy the items we wanted since they would not accept US dollars and no credit cards - c'est la vie!!

We wandered around the town centre area, maybe 20 blocks, and saw municipal buildings, the memorial centre, the original theatre - some great buildings but only the government buildings in good repair.  All the rest needed some help, and at the very least a good coat of paint!  At 230pm all the stores started opening up agin and we have never seen so many shoe stores - such variety and styles and most from only 15 to 30 euros a pair!  The clothes stores were full of cheap trendy fashions for the young, or young at heart, unbelievably bright colours and wild styles - it was fun - and the noise!  So much music and surprisingly mostly latin music.  We did find a couple of African stores with lovely clothing and accessories and playing great music - especially Oumou Sangare (album Seya)  from Somalia which we really enjoyed - must buy that CD!

Eventually we wandered back to the Tere Moana in Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin and boarded in time for cocktails around the pool. It had been an interesting unplanned stop in Guadeloupe, but not necessarily the best stop for a Caribbean cruise itinerary.  The best news?  After dinner we all settled down for a good night's sleep docked at the harbour with no rocking and rolling - heavenly!!