The search for perfection

Another early start to go and get some rum! It seems that that's what you do on Marie-Galante - you get up early, you have a good breakfast, then you go taste rum. So we did. This morning's stop was at the next best rum on Marie-Galante, at Père Labat Distillery. Here, we were able to tour the entire area where the sugar cane is crushed to collect its juice, then cooked down and fermented to obtain the rum foud in stores. And I mean we were walking through the factory, right over the conveyor where sugar cane was being fed into a grinder, then up to a second level where we could peer into the tanks as they filled with cane juice...We were in the heart of the action! Sadly, we've learned in the past that when an operation puts more focus on the tourist aspect of their enterprise, they put less focus on the quality of their product. This seemed to be the case at Père Labat - great tour, great facilities, more installations being created as we toured(seriously. they were pouring the cement as we walked around!), but the product was a little more harsh on the palate than we expected. Don't get me wrong - the rum is probably 10 times better than a shot of Bacardi, but compared to Bielle, that we tried yesterday, I found the 59 proof white rum more harsh, tasting more of alcohol, and certainly less smooth. I guess that's what happens when you start with the very best, nothing can compare.



We headed to the Habitation Roussel-Trianon, an old sugar refinery and plantation, that had been maintained for the purpose of teaching about slavery on the island. The site reminded me a lot of Sepino (in Italy) in the fact that is was preserved and informative, but free-range in respect to visiting the area. Some locations here were more fenced off, due to the fact that vegetation had since grown over the old tanks in the factory, obstructing them from sight, but remaining very dangerous as you could fall into one. It didn't deter Mario, though, as you can probably imagine. The group of school children visiting nearby did that, otherwise I might still be fishing him out from one of those tanks!

Next we headed into Grand-Bourg, to see what the town was like during daylight, when everyone was awake and out of their houses. BIG difference - at 10 in the morning, Grand-Bourg is a happening place! The market, though small, is in full swing, selling all manners of fruits and vegetables, clothing and straw hats, and bottle upon bottle of the sirop de batterie so popular here on Marie-Galante. It is a bi-product of the rum-making process, and has a taste similar to molasses. Though we didn't buy any, we did get the next best thing - a local specialty made with the syrup call gateau siwo, or syrup cake. Dense and tender, it is sold in large slabs that can easily be separated into pieces for snacking, and it is delicious. So much, in fact, that after we split a large piece with fruit juices, we went back to the same bakery and bought 2 more pieces to take away!

We visited another former refinery near Grand-Bourg, the Chateau Murat, which had not only the factory and windmill, but also the master's house in very good condition, housing a museum containing artifacts from life on Marie-Galante. From the second storey windows, you could see all the way back to Guadeloupe, les Saintes, and beyond to Dominica - no wonder they build such a prestigious house here! We also got the chance to see a great audio-visual art installation, les Échos de la Mémoire, on slavery by a local artist who had toured his show to Paris and all the big cities on the main island, and was now setting up at Murat. As luck would have it, he was on site, finalizing the details of the project, and introducing himself to the staff - we thought it was a conference, so we listened in, and learned all about his artistic process and inspiration for such a large body of work on a difficult topic.

Back on the road, we continued our goal of driving every road on the island, and hunting all the windmills, which took us along the coast to Capesterre, and some of the most idyllic beaches ever. Living postcard, really. Sadly, the surf was rough on this side of the island, and the water cooler today, so swimming was difficult at best. Having a picnic lunch in the sand, and taking some fantastic shots of the perfect beach, though, that was do-able. We watched the kite-surfers battle over the waves and crash into the surf, then shook the sand from our shoes and traveled all the way to the other side of the island, in Saint-Louis.

Here, we drove past some swamp lands where the excavation of the artifacts at Murat had been done, but we were headed for another beach, with calmer waters. We did find it, but the beach was less pretty. I guess you can't have it all. Mario laid in the sand and read, while I walked the length of the beach, all the way to Saint-Louis, looking for shells. If I bring back even half of what I've been collecting, I'll never have room for my clothes in my pack!

Satisfied with our coverage of the island, we made our way back to our little bungalow along the lazy river. Tonight, the sunset was particular pretty, though none have been spectacular. Maybe at the next place, our last stop on this trip, the sunsets will be out of this world, but nothing will compare to sitting on our big back balcony, watching the rain fall on the fields as the cows graze in the distance, or the menagerie of animals that visit in the cool evening air. It has been fun.