The quest for food & rum

A first full day on Marie-Galante, and all we have to do today is get rum and food. Probably in that order, too. But first, coffee.

We head into Grand-Bourg, down the hill from our place, to the place we found Gateau Siwo, syrup cake, two years ago. We walk through town to the church, then down to the market, and past, until we get to the marina. Wait - that's not right. It was right here, we sat at a table overlooking the open-air market...Discouraged, we walk down one street, and then another, assuming the very busy, central bakery had closed during our absence, and attempting to find another one. We do, but it's a little smaller, with less selection, and no cake, so we content ourselves with Pain au chocolat...and they are a little dry. We sit in front of the church to snack, turn around to face the market and, WAIT! What's that on the other side of the square?! Our bakery! Only moved to a new location! I practically skip to the front door(Mario holds me back) and order two BIG slabs of the dark, molasses-flavoured snack. Later on, we will polish off one of these during our coastal hike.

Next we drive along the hilly, bumpy, pot-holed roads that are the secondary routes of Marie-Galante, first to the Bielle distillery, then onward to the Distillerie de Bellevue. We've had the rhum agricole here before - it tastes slightly sweet, hinting to its sugar cane origins, and it's incredibly smooth for something that is 59 percent alcohol! We were turned on to Bielle by our previous hosts on this island, and have never looked back. This trip, we decided we should taste the competition's offering. It's good, and had we never tried Bielle rum, I would be remissed to say the best I'd ever had, but it comes a close second.

Needing to work the alcohol out of our system, we head to the coast for a little hike along the eroded shoreline. Nothing too strenuous, but we packed our boots in the car for occasions such as these! Here, the rocks are like knives, choppy and pointy, digging into my palms as I try to work my way along the trail. Mario bounces along in front of me, like he often does, but takes my camera during the more difficult(read: dangerous) parts. The trail spreads out in a grass field, with mushroom-like caves on the other side - these are the Galeries, heavily-eroded cliffs that offer shelter from the sun, the wind and the jagged rocks, as the caves underneath are worn smooth and comfortable to sit on. We relax for awhile, watch the big waves splash against the rocks, listen to the sub-surface boom they create, then head back the way we came.
Insert here a brief interlude where we lay around on a picnic table on the Plage de la Feuillère, enjoy a way-too-expensive iced coffee at a hipster bar on the beach, watch kite surfers bounce over the water and crash into the waves, and return back to our bungalow with groceries in tow. We congratulate ourselves for this productive last step with a glass of Ti'punch with guava juice - our go-to drink in Guadeloupe.

A desperate search for dinner sends us all over this end of the island - when we have just about given up hope, my nose catches the sweet aroma of BBQ smoke and grilled meats. We discover Henry's Grill, a shack just outside of town, surrounded by clouds of deliciousness, where only the locals are lining up to get their evening's meal. We order grilled chicken legs and fries, a staple meal in Guadeloupe, and are clued into an island specialty here - Banane Piklis - which, at the encouragement of another client and the owner, we add to out take-away order. Turns out Banane Piklis is green bananas, twice-fried, and served with a sweet-spicy-vinegary coleslaw, which happens to pair marvelously with the smokey, meaty chicken in its accompanying sauce. We will be back here again, probably tomorrow, likely the next night, but not Sunday, and only because they are closed. Darn.