Day trip to La Désirade!

Another fun excursion off the island - to ANOTHER island - because you can never have enough islands on one vacation. This brings us up to four, so far. It was an early start again this morning, so we could catch the ferry in Saint-Francois. Be warned, this is not a ride for the faint of heart. Severe roller-coaster enthusiasts should line up for this crossing because, holy cow, it was ROUGH. As we sailed past the Pointes des Châteaux, and head-first into the violent waters we had seen yesterday, the ferry began to fly over the waves, and crash into the surf below. And HARD - we watched as the horizon soared and plummeted beyond the boat, and La Désirade never seemed to get any closer. Behind me, a woman would scream every time the boat bounced and water sprayed inside the cabin, which freaked me out worse than the waves did. Of course, we didn't crash, or sink, and we did eventually arrive at La Désirade, but boy, was it a scary ride! I was glad to get my feet on solid ground again.

Speaking of solid ground, we decided to go it on foot again, walking the island rather than opting for easier methods, like scooters of 4x4s that were being renter in front of the pier. The main - and only - road stretches from one end of the island to the other, so its easy to explore and not get lost. We walked to Point à Galets, know for its colony of Antilles iguanas, a protected species. They come out at the hot times of the day to sun themselves, so if you are lucky, you can catch a glimpse of them nearby. So we headed out in the heat, baking ourselves in the sun, to explore the point and see the iguanas, and did we ever! But they were perched in bushes and trees, not lying on rocks like I thought they would be! And all over the place! We watched them climb up into the branches, or scurry away to hide - we even saw some bright green babyguanas! (Note: this became a sort of game as we hunted - trying to make up the most ridiculous, and relevant, words using "iguana", like treeguana, three-treeguana, seaguana...you get the picture.)

We watched car after car of people from our ferry crossing pass by, as most opt to rent a vehicle, and tour the island that way. We puzzled that they often drove round the point, barely stopping for photos, before driving on, and completely missing the iguanas! They must have thought us crazy to be photographing the bushes, but they were the ones who, later on, we overheard complaining that they had only spotted one measly iguanas, while we have captured a good dozen or so in the trees! It's amazing the little things you see while walking around.

Next, Mario had the great idea to hike to the chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Calvaire, hidden up on the plateau at the centre of the island. It didn't seem to be too difficult a climb, as the end we were on seemed to slope more gently upwards, so away we went. We admired the farmers who had located themselves on the slopes, and had random stand-offs with the wandering goats who crossed our path. We smelled the fragrant blooms that lined our path, as they warmed up in the sun and scent the air with their perfumes, and zig-zagged from shade patch to shade patch to avoid getting too burned. Turns out, it was tougher than expected, and it was still the hottest time of the day, so the going was slow, the road very rough, and I was not wearing good shoes for the climb. We never made it up to the chapel. Just past a little picnic area, where we stopped for lunch and a much-needed break, the road split ways, one side going up, up, up into the mountain, the other descending all the way back down into town. We took the easy way out, I'm afraid, and instead spent the afternoon lying on the beach, cooling off in the ocean, and sipping fruits juices in the shade. But we did have a marvelous morning of little wonders and discoveries from our walk across the island.

I spent the rest of the afternoon psyching myself up for the inevitable ferry ride back to Guadeloupe. Turns out, the return trip is ten times smoother. Thank goodness for that - I was able to breath a sigh of relief and just enjoy the ride.