Week 4 : Les Saintes

April 23 2014

We spent Easter in Les Saintes. quite appropriate don’t you think ? 

These small islands , which are just to the South of Guadeloupe, were another pleasant surprise for us. In fact, we were not going to stop to see them at all, but we are SO glad that we did! 

From the many shades of the dark greens of Dominica, we stepped onto the light greys and brown of the dry Island that they call “Basse Terre”. We were greeted by a very clean and pleasant little village where most people either have bicycles, small electric golf carts or electric scooters as their main mode of transportation.

As Les Saintes are French Islands they are modern and very well kept. On our first exploration we were so pleased to find a FANTASTIC playground right on the waterfront where the kids got to do an impromptu “gym class”.

Matthew's favourite Playground

As Basse Terre is a tiny island and you can walk everywhere....we took a few hikes and really enjoyed ourselves in the process.The Saintes have a dry and “Mediterranean-like” climate, so different from what we have been seeing so far. We saw a very large variety of cacti and aloe plants on the  lovely terraced hills....Oh and goats! Goats everywhere ! 

We walked up to a look out and saw beautiful beach below called Pompierre, so we just had to walk down to have a refreshing swim.

Matthew in his element

Meg and Mark

On Easter Sunday we hiked up to see Fort Napoleon where we visited the cactus garden and a very good museum which taught us about the famous “Battle of the Saints”, the local marine life and all about Christopher Columbus.

Fort Napoleon

  

   

Looks like a giant pineapple, but actually is an Aloe plant           

Meg thought this looked like a Hobbit Door 

  Then we went for a swim at the next little island called Islet Cabrit, where Meg got a great shot of a family of cuttle fish. 

A school of Cuttlefish

Even if Matthew might feel like he is “too cool” to wear a mask and snorkel, he gets to enjoy the snorkeling experience too…. in his inflatable ring, as he tags along and looks underwater at his leisure (he opens his eyes under water). We always make sure that he has some sort of footwear so that he does not step on to coral or sea urchins....like he did last year, and getting him to keep these water shoes on is a work in progress...  We had a nice game of "treasure hunt" the other day, looking for the shoes amidst the coral......always keeping things fun that Matthew !

Meanwhile, in the “That’s life” category: Mark has lost his golden crown (not the one that makes him KING, but the one that protects his tooth). He had been so happy to have a gold crown made before we left, "just like a pirate” and now,  it is somewhere in his digestive system (sigh). We hear that there is a good dentist in Antigua so we may be giving him a call meanwhile Mark is not in any pain, as long as he does not eat ice cream, which is not a huge challenge on board given our tiny freezer space which has been reserved for meat. 

 

One of the things we have really been enjoying is the discovery of  many interesting species of plants, birds and other neat creatures. 

 

We are now in Guadeloupe, hoping to visit THE Jacques Cousteau Under Water Marine Park on Pigeon Island and the Botanical Gardens in DesHaies. This will also be our last chance to get our fill of delicious pastries, baguettes and sausages for a while.

Waiting for Ice cream

A little visitor on our anchor chain !

The Bay where Amelie was anchored 

Meg putting up the Quarantine Flag upon Arrival