We have been travel blogging for a while now, but we have been traveling for much longer than that. In 2006 we met and in July 2007 we made our first trip together. As a destination we chose the tropical island of Guadeloupe. A dream trip and one we would love to show you!
Guadeloupe is actually a part of Europe, since it belongs to the ‘Regions d’outre Mer’ (translates as ‘regions of the outer sea’) of France. This means that you can pay in € – which was a strange feeling on the other side of the world.
The island is shaped like a butterfly and consists of two parts: Basse Terre and Grande Terre. We focussed on both, but stayed on the hilly and lush Basse Terre for the larger part of the trip. This is where our blogpost will take you to first.
Map of the island, with our added locations.
As a base for our explorations on Basse Terre, we choose ‘Habitation Grande Anse‘, a lovely small hotel with appartments, so you can do your own cooking if you like. We did, but most of the time we ate out – Deshaies has some excellent restaurants and the créole cuisine is one of the best in the world if you ask us. If you are ever there: try eating out in ‘l’Amer‘. The best meal we’ve ever had and the location next to the ocean is just magnificent.
We arrived late night in our hotel after a long flight out of Paris and didn’t quite know what to expect when we got there. The view we had when we woke up was amazing: the mood was set for exploration!
The view from our balcony.
Habitation Grande Anse has a lush garden and is very close to the sea (on the right).
A cute visitor at our balcony (Bull Finch).
Maarten enjoying the lovely breakfast. There are worse spots to eat!
The pool. Ideal for relaxing after a day of explorations!
Cute inhabitant of the hotel (anolis).
Habitation Grande Anse in Deshaies is located next to Grande Anse, one of the most spectacular beaches in Guadeloupe. You just have to cross the road and go through a little palmforest to go to the beach. We tried out our brand new snorkling gear there. The pictures where all taken with my underwater cover on, so the beach photos have some water dots on them as well. The beach is however so beautiful that I just had to share those as well…
Trying out our brand new gear. Look at that beach!
Underwater life.
Colourfull fish.
Beach heaven…!
More beach heaven!
A little south of Deshaies you have the Jardin Botanique, a parc filled with tropical flowers and local wildlife. We enjoyed that lush garden a lot!
View on the coast while driving to Jardin Botanique.
Maintenance of the large water lillies.
Hibiscus.
Hibiscus.
Orchid.
Orchid.
Beautiful flowers all around.
Ficus.
The parc itself is extremely well maintained.
Giving nectar to one of the Rainbow Lorikeets there.
Rose du Porcelaine, the national flower.
Banana flower, a pure treat to the eye.
And a treat for the bees as well…
View on the coast as seen from the parc.
Ara.
Anolis lizard again. They are so cute!
Passion Butterfly (Gulf Fritillary).
Humming bird.
For us this was the ideal introduction to the island. In our next blogpost we take you along the ‘Route de la Traversée’ – which translates as ‘Road of the crossing’. It runs from east to west on Basse Terre and takes in some lush forest and waterfalls. Coming up soon!
