November 23 - Terre-de-Haut, Iles des Saintes, Guadeloupe

Rain, rain, go away!  Today we’re at Terre-de-Haut, Iles des Saintes, Guadeloupe, which is an overseas department of France.  This island is one of eight major ones, 6 inhabited and two uninhabited, which form the archipelago of Guadeloupe.  The islands were discovered by Columbus on his second voyage to the New World.  When the Spanish determined that the islands had no gold or silver, they abandoned them.  In subsequent centuries both the French and the British laid claim to the islands and battles were fought but the ultimate victors were the French, and so today Guadeloupe has the same status as a department in France on the European mainland.

Terre-de-Haut is small, only about 5.5 km long and half as wide.  It wasn’t found to be suitable for much agriculture including growing sugarcane, so few slaves were brought here.  Instead this island was more of a fortress from which the country controlling it could try to command the surrounding Caribbean waters.  At one point the French used the fort as a prison for convicts being sent to the penal colony in French Guiana.

While first thing this morning the sun was out, about 11 AM the clouds rolled in and a series of squalls has been coming through ever since.  I took the tender in to the little town, the only one on the island in between showers. It is very French. As I walked around the little streets a group of schoolgirls in their uniforms passed me jabbering away in French.  The stores use Euros as their currency. I passed a store that was an ice cream shop and bakery.  The smells coming out the open door were heavenly!  A man came out carrying a bag with a fresh baguette and I was sorely tempted to go in and get one.  I thought back on the ship people  would think I was nuts so I didn’t.

The island in the morning. The beautiful sky was gone soon

It began to rain again and this time it wasn’t just sprinkles.  A tender was at the dock nearby, so I decided the best thing to do was come back to the ship. Friends took one of the few tours offered that went to the fort on top of one of the hills, Fort Napoleon.  To see the major attraction there one had to climb some old stone steps in the rain.  My friends didn’t do it nor would I have, so I’m glad I didn’t book it.

The first three photos above are street scenes and the main plaza; the last is the little boat beach near the tender dock.

The island looks very lush and laid back and is not overwhelmed with tourists.  There is evidently a short runway on which small planes can come and go.  Big ships can’t come because there’s no infrastructure to accommodate thousands of passengers.  There was another little ship anchored here.  It was from a cruise company called Ponant, which is a French cruise line. I think this place gives one a feeling of how it was on many of the Caribbean islands decades ago. I don’t think Terre-de-Haut will be over-developed because among other things they don’t have their own water source or power plant.  Evidently there was a desalinization plant which was abandoned and now the island has undersea conduits bringing water and power from Guadeloupe.

Sorry it's so hard to see but my ship is the white speck on the left while the one on the right is the Ponant ship

I guess that’s it for now.  It’s a lazy, relaxing day with nothing really scheduled for this afternoon.  Have you figured out where a scouser comes from?  That’s another name for someone from Liverpool.  The more common name is a Liverpudlian, but I sort of like scouser.

It's later and we've left Terre-de-Haut.  As we sailed away we passed this little island freighter.  Down here you see lots of them carrying goods between the smaller islands.  On my second cruise very long ago we were docked in Grenada.  We were sitting at a bar on the ship and a freighter about this size but much  older and rustier tied up next to us.  As we watched they unloaded some goats, a couple of cows and a few chicken coops complete with chickens, so these inter-island ships carry all sorts of stuff.

If you've read my blog before you'll know that I'm a sunset lover.  Naturally after we sailed away the skies began to clear and I had to take a few photos of the sunset.  Here are a couple to say farewell to Terre-de-Haut.