General: Guadeloupe

I was just sitting in front of him. He was looking at me for five long minutes, his eyes diving in mines without telling a word. Liying on the desk, just between us, his everlasting notepad, presently without any writings on it. He was wearing always the same white suit, immaculate, on which the ray of sun was flashing and amplifiying, obliged me to wrinckle my eyes, as in a western movie, as a fight, a duel. Yes, a figth.

He moves at last his head, and takes out of his bag, probably put down near his chair, a thick piece of paper he shows to me, vertically put down on the desk, his fingers overlapping each side of the paper. As i was looking at the picture on the paper, i know that the duel shall be a hard one. The question he asks me just after, with his harmless tone, doesn’t surprise me : “What does this picture make you thinking of ?”.

Rorschach’s test... Aïe, last time, that was the Rosenzweig’s one and he had succeed in making me upset. OK, he always has the mark of the wound, where the pen go through his right’s hand, where i hit him, but he really attack me with his test last time. One year after, I know now it was exactly what he wanted me to act. It’s a very long love story between he and I !

So, he’s waiting for an answer now. These two dark blots of course make me think about a butterfly, but it’s a so stupid answer that I’m sure it’s a trap. No, i must find something else... Butterfly, butterfly... Arggghhhhh, get out of my head, orange animals, i saw orange everywhere now !...

Ohh, yes !

“Guadeloupe ! (Well i give him a jump). You want a little historical story of that country, Pani Problem !”

We clearly see on this map “Grande Terre” and “Basse Terre” that form a real vegetal butterfly of about 1780 squared kilometers. This island of the West Indians is the biggest one and, for me, the beautiful one, incredible melting-pot of beautiful sand’s beach, tropical vegetation, bluff montains and waterfalls, sugar-can plantations, and of course volcanism with the impressive “Souffrière”.

Do you know that the name of this island was given by Christopher Columbus himself in 1493 in memory of Guadelupe Santa-maria Monastery in Estrémadure. Its story really begin whith its first unhabitants, coming from Venezuela, in 3500 before JC, and continuing with Arawaks in 300 before JC, peaceful sailors and fishers. But, in the early XIV century, indians coming from Amazonian countries came et conquered the small West Indians trough a great knowledge of sailing on their “canoas” (their boats). These Arawaks made very little mouthfuls of the unhabitants of the islands, if you understand what i mean.
In fact, these was these indians that Christopher Columbus encountered when he discovered the new world, very frightening people whith red paints on their body. The step to cannibalism is easily made. Spanish conquerors until 1904 and French ones until 1639 fight against these caribbeans people.

At this point, begin the darkest part of the “Gaudeloupe” history, with Charles Houël, a brasilian black governor, who established the first “Black ebony” importation with africa, using boats, to give “power” to the sugar-mill (sugar-cane is the first resource of the island). Selled to the Indian Compagny in 1664, the number of slaves on the island was about 90000... for about 14000 white people !!! We must wait for the French revolution to stop definitively all this, with slavery’s abolition in 1848. But, during the Second Empire, was established a new form of slavery with the obligatory hard work in the plantations, which killed about 20000 indians in only 30 years.
English and French people fight each other for the island during this period.

Guadeloupe became an overseas french department in 1945.

You want my feelings about this island, Pani Problem !

After a 8 hours trip and a little stop in Saint-Martin where landing was a little sudden, making the pilot tell us with an humoristic voice: “We’ve just fall down on Saint-Martin !”, you will finally arrive in Point-à-pitre.

For the accodomation, you will have to choose between two solutions : first one is to book a room in the many hotels the travel agencies as Accor Tour for example has in the country (the one I chose when I went there), second one is to book room in local hotels in towns everywhere in guadeloupe, but be careful, you might be disappointed by service and quality. If you choose this solution, I recommend you to ask your nearest travel agency for good adresses, and perhaps they might find and propose you interesting prices.

The most important thing should be where your hotel is located. Effectively, even the island is small, the far you are from Point-à-pitre, the far you are from one of the two parts of Guadeloupe. The best choice should be an hotel in the capital, or near Gosier south of point-à-pitre. Prefer theses towns to Saint-Francois or Sainte-Anne, but, if your objective is only to lie on a beach all the day, that’s no problem.
To visit easily all parts of the island, you must rent a car. You will find a rent-a-car service in every hotels hall, but I recommend you to wake up early in the morning beacuse everyone want a car at the same time, and sometimes, good manners has been forgotten (do they really what it is ?) by Parisians !! And the poor girl behind her desk seems to be so lost. Be quite cool, it’s hollidays !!!

Guadeloupe, then, will offer you two faces, each with its particular details.

“Grande-Terre”

“Grande-Terre”, this island, east-part of “Guadeloupe” will charm you with its sugar-cane plantations, the “Mangrove” in the west coast where sea and ground are mixed in a so strange vegetation, the pretty small fisher villages, and all the great cliffs on east-coast, facing the atlantic.
You should absolutly must go to the “Pointe des Châteaux”, extrem east point of Guadeloupe, from where you can see if the weather is not cloudy other islands like “Desirade”. And there, when you look west, you have a fantastic view of this very long ground tongue, crownd by a cross.
You will find there during weekends a lot of unhabitants coming here with all their families and staying here all the day, on the beach, having fun, diner...
North of “Grande-terre”, you will find other bif cliffs, 80 meters heigh, called “pointe de la Grande Vigie”.

I invite you to visit the “Fleur-d’Epée” fortress near gosier, and of course a sugar-can distillery. After that, you will never forget the smell of the rhum, and you will never forget the green color of the mossy pressure-cooker used to produce the rhum, something that doesn’t suggest you to test it after.

The best way to discover “Grande-Terre” is certainly to take the car, a map too, and to go along the coast, visiting all the towns, having a stop when your feelings and your heart ask you to stop, camera in hand. It will takes you about 3 days to see all the most interessant parts of “Grande-Terre”.

“Basse-Terre”

”Basse-Terre”, the west island of Guadeloupe, shows you a quite different face. No more plains, no more fields. It is the island of mountains, magnificently crownd by the “Souffrière” volcano, with its 1467 meters heigh. This part of Guadeloupe is a Rendez-vous point for all the treks waterfalls and powerfull feelings lovers.

Taking the first National Road, you will go through the “Dumanoir” alley, a very impressive double alignment of kingly palms. All along the “Traversée” road, there is a lot of standpoints, little waterfalls like “Le saut de la Lézarde”, and some botany parcs.
All the coast around “Basse-Terre” is not especially beautiful, but creeks and bananas plantations make the trip more interesting (I never saw a bunch before !).

To escape from civilization, you don’t have to go so far. Just go to the montain. The three “Carbet” waterfalls must absolutly have to be seen, especially the first one. I stand in front of it about one hour. No one on this place. Only me and this 115 meters heigh waterfall. It takes about one hour accross mountain, with some parts of the journey a little difficult. But i’m not really a sportman, and i succeed !

And, of course, how could i forget to talk you about the volcano, the “Soufrière”. Climb to the summit is forbidden, but like everyone, you will bypass the interdiction, and after 1 hour, you will discover a new world. The first thing you will notice should be the noise, very strong, powerfull, coming from the center of the planet. Like a huge pressure-cooker, earth eject a hot steam smoke, filled with sulfuric acid with its caracteristic addled eggs smell, making hard to keep eyes open. The second thing is without any doubts the vegetations, made of moss, strange plants, with colors going from green to red, in a fantastic shade off. Probably, the most unforgettable part of my trip in that country.

And finally, to end the visit, I must sugger you to taste the “ti-punch”, the famous local drink, familiar everywhere in the world, that will help you to finish nights, during when dances and songs will put the evil in you, until the last drink of the day, the “On pété-pié” !

At this point, forgotting the place I was, I don’t know why, standing on my chair, shouting as strong as my voice can, I start singing: “Ban mwen an ti bo, doudou ! ».

I don’t exactly remember what happened after. I just saw me jumping at my doctor, triying to kiss him. Ok ! I havn’t seen the two beasts who entered the room just behind me as I was triying to cath my doctor behind his desk. All i saw after was the mocking smile on my doctor’s face as the two bastards helped me wear the strait-jacket and the chains around my ankles. “Slaver !” I shout at him, but he was still smiling. With a move of his left hand, the two dogs left me like a vulgar straw bag, and i heard him laughing in my back as i was brought outside. Carried back to my pad cell by my bodyguards, I heard him telling me : “See you in one year, Groqik, I protract your lease one another year... Doudou !”.

Son of a b....

(PS: Pffff it was very difficult for me to translate my op I wrote first in french. I hope I do not have put too much mis-spellings in it)

Thank you for your comments.
Bye Groqik