Deshaies, Guadeloupe
16.18.477N
61.47.871W

Since we were still in the same spot as when we went to bed last night, we figured that it was safe to go ashore and see what Guadeloupe had to offer.

We knew from our reading that historically, the island has always been French but were somewhat surprised to learn just how few people speak English, unlike the other French islands that we have been to. Luckily, we had a map from our cruise guide and could pretty much find our way to the Customs office up the hill. Since they called it something else, and the office we found was closed, we had to ask around to make sure that we had indeed found what we were looking for. We had; it was just closed. We knew that there was another Customs office in a town further down the coast and since we wanted to tour the island a bit anyway, we took our documentation with us to rent a car so that we could complete the formalities later in the day.

During our LeMans tour de France, my initial impression of the island is how clean it is. The towns are small and quaint and the streets are two lane but everything is very tidy and well kept.

Our first stop was at Jardin Botanique, the local botanical gardens. This was quite possibly one of the most beautiful gardens that I have ever seen. An incredible variety of tropical plants from around the world together with an impressive display of orchids growing in a natural environment were artfully showcased along 12 acres of beautifully manicured grounds. There were also koi ponds, flamingos, parrots with loads of fountains and water gardens tucked in for good measure. A couple of hours vanished in the blink of an eye.

We continued on our drive by heading south along the road that rings the island. An hour or so later, we entered the port city of Basse-Terre where another Customs office is supposed to be. We had our trusty guide with a description of where it was located but had absolutely no luck in locating it. I’m not sure if it’s a French custom or if it’s an island custom, but they close for 2-3 hours for lunch and everything grinds to a halt. Of course, that’s the time we were trying to track down the office. We heard that there was another over at the commercial port and we tried that one as well but of course, it was closed too.

After wasting a couple of hours searching for offices that were either not open or we couldn‘t find, we decided to continue on our journey and hope for the best. Dale enjoyed the twisting and turning roads through the mountains and along the coastline. The little Renault actually registered 45 at one point, so he was having a blast pretending that he was racing in the LeMans.

When early afternoon hadn’t found us very close to the turn off for the waterfalls we were looking for, we decided that it would be best to return the way we had come because we certainly were going to make the full circle around just our half of the butterfly.

We tried once again at the Customs office in Deshaies but it was still closed. We did meet Buddy and Melissa off Indigo Moon from New Orleans camped out on the doorstep. We’d seen their boat in English Harbor the day before. They’re on their way south as well, so we exchanged boat cards and promised to get together soon.

As for Customs, we’ll try again tomorrow.