My day in Basse-Terre Guadaloupe - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

localady · 02-06-2007, 10:38 PM

I have been to Guadeloupe and would love to share my experience, since it was a Port I will NEVER forget !!!

Here is the posting of my day, I apologize for the length, but it was a long and memorable day.

Thursday, December 1st 2005, Basse Terre, Guadeloupe
Today we had a very lovely day on Basse Terre, which was totally unexpected after the reviews we’d gotten from the passengers on the prior voyage. We had heard that this was a place that only French was spoken and was not a friendly island. What we found was just the opposite. We found that this is an Island full of smiling faces and friendly people.

We started our tour of South Basse Terre with a hair raising drive and park job at a place where lace (voile) was handmade. Very narrow roads and non-existent parking for a bus, illustrated our bus drivers true skills. When we arrived at a seaside Fort where lace is now handmade, there was a lovely demonstration of Guadeloupe’s traditional dances. The interesting thing is that the dances were very European, one was even called the "Polka", another was a waltz. The dancers were older, and as it turned out, even some of the dancers families came out to watch.

As I was walking up to the bus, I was approached by an older lady who called to me in French and held out a bag with some fruit in it. She didn’t speak English at all and I speak no French, but her Granddaughter spoke just enough English to let me know that she didn’t wish for me to buy the fruit, that it was a gift. Inside the bag was a lovely bunch of what they call "socre" (or something similar) which are well loved by the locals. When one of our guides, a lovely woman named Jocelyn, saw them, she asked if she could eat one. When I said of course, she popped the small ripe purple fruit into her mouth, just as I would have a very ripe cherry. As she savored it, her expression was that of childhood bliss. As we drove further, I saw another man in his front yard, pulling the small, sweet fruit off the tree and popping them into his mouth.

As I showed the guide the other fruit, something like a pomegrante, which they called a "Graneat", she told me that it was a rare and quite prized fruit here in Guadeloupe. What a lovely present I'd received from a total stranger!

After our tour ended, Jocelyn took us to the "market" where I was able to get the other ingredients that are to go into the punch. They include cinnamon, the "socre" berries, nutmeg, and vanilla bean. I forgot to get the sugar cane water, and will try the recipe with a just bit of sugar instead. I have no idea the amounts to use, but have bought a bottle of rum and am going to try to make some of the punch for tasting later in the cruise.

Contrary to what we were told, we found the people of Guadeloupe to be very friendly. As our bus passed by, many waved and smiled. As we passed people on the way to the market, many smiled and said "Bonjour". I tried to pull up some french and said "merci" many times during the day.
Basse Terre really wants to bring the cruise tourism on to the island. The Veendam is one of the first ships to dock here, and after a reportedly lukewarm reception on the last voyage, the town pulled out all the stops, greeting us with wonderfully colorful dancers on the pier, including some of the most beautiful little girls, big smiles shining as they proudly danced in their brightly coloured red yellow and green print traditional dresses.

Later in the day, as we walked down the main shopping street of Basse Terre, Jocelyn explained to me that they had actually closed the entire street to cars just because we had docked here at the pier today.
After the market, Jocelyn guided us to a very busy local eatery that advertised itself as a "Rotisserie". Even as we walked down the street we could smell the irresistible odor and didn’t hesitate to order as she recommended. It was takeout eattery and they boxed our generous meals up, with some special local drinks, and we took it to a nearby esplanade to sit on a bench and dig in.
Directly across from us sat a older man who appeared to be to be homeless, thin and obviously hungry, although he asked for a nothing as we pulled out the lunch takeout, that looked like a feast for a king. The look in his eyes when we opened the steaming assortment of wonderful smelling meats (lamb, Chicken and beef sausage) in a bed of light and fluffy couscous stewing in a mouth-watering sauce told me just how hungry. Obviously, Bob and I had plenty with one serving, so we offered the other meal over to the shirt and shoeless man. As he dug into the meal, he looked as us gratefully muttering god bless, as he quickly dug into the meal, finishing almost all in the tasty box.
The food was very good, as was the local fruit juice drink that I had to go with my meal. As we all ate heartily on the park bench, a very smartly dressed blonde woman walked up and greeted Jocelyn. After they spoke the woman asked if we were enjoying our stay, which we indicated we were, in between spoonfuls of the tasty meal. After walked away Jocelyn indicated that the woman worked in the government here (Basse-Terre is the provincial capital for Guadeloupe) in the Commerce department.

As we said goodbye to Jocelyn, we thanked her for showing us a piece of her wonderful Island and especially for her warm and caring hospitality. These are truly the kind of days that make travel worthwhile, today I feel as though we really connected, if only for a day, with the island Guadeloupe.

localady · 02-07-2007, 12:49 AM

Here are some of the images from that day!

These are the dancers that greeted us at the Pier.

Sea Otter · 02-22-2007, 03:42 PM

Thanks for your review. They are nice pictures.

I have been here twice. The first time was maybe 10-12 years ago. When I got off the ship there were lots of vans/taxis for tours. I went into town and met up with a couple of people and we took a nice tour. We saw a waterfall and went to a rum mill. I was there on a Saturday and I recall a main street being blocked off from traffic. There was a steel drum band playing in the middle of the street. The people were very nice.

A year and a half ago, I returned. It was like night and day. We got off the ship and there was nothing but police all over the place. No vans/taxis were anywhere in site. It was on the spooky side with the number of police. Believe me, it didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. We had no dancers like Local lady's picture shows, just police and more police. We did go to the market and buy some spices and the people there were very nice.