Lots of Hiking

Today's adventure: hiking in the Parc national de Guadeloupe, on Mamelle de Pigeon and Mamelle de Petit-Bourg.

But first, we had a major problem to address: we have no more baguettes!  The baguette has become an integral part of our lunchtime sandwiches and, according to our first AirBnb host: "finding good bread on this island is hard!"  Through our stays on different parts of Guadeloupe, we have found that each region has a slightly different interpretation of the baguette, some better than others, and we weren't fans of the baguette from the local bakery in Ferry. Today we decided to take a chance at the bakery in Pointe Noire.  They had nice-looking baguettes, but I opted for buying the biggest pain brioché that I've ever seen, and it was delicious. Arriving in the park, I make our usual lunchtime sandwiches in the trunk of the car - just like car-camping.

Mamelle de Pigeon was an excellent hike. It began with fantastic stone stairs that always amaze me, given that they are installed in the middle of a jungle in the middle of a mountain range. These stone stairs lead to well-build wooden-framed natural steps, that take us all the way up the mountain, through the massive palm and jungle foliage, the trees and air-plants and entire ecosystems on one trunk, all the way up to the top. 

Here, a wooden belvedere, which somebody had to carry up here in pieces and install here, offers us wonderful views of the surrounding mountains, Pointe-à-Pitre, even all the way out to the Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin and most of Grande Terre! On really clear days, you can see all the way out to the islands of Marie-Galante and La Désirade!

On the flip side, the trail for Mamelle de Petit-Bourg is falling into disuse. Now, it might only be that the first trail saw an influx of funding and work recently, and this one is slated for the same in the near future, but I am hiking it today. The boardwalk leading from the road-side parking is missing boards and has a big hole in the centre of it, which we have to cross to just access the trail, which is a great first impression. Further along the rather muddy path, the same wooden box stairs help us scale steeper inclines, but here they are dilapidated, or holding in the water, so they are just big wooden boxes filled with mud. In fact, the entire trail is filled with mud, likely from an overnight rain that we did not see nearer to the coast. Plus, the ground here is volcanic clay, which makes walking even more slippery and sticky. Think Krafla mud sticky - it cakes to your boots in big chucks, building up a base that is so heavy, it even slows hiking progress! And when we finally reach the top of the mountain, the peak is in a grove of trees! Oh, and was the descent ever slippery - there were a lot of slow-motion, Looney Tune-style slipping moments...but it was fun. It was a good hike, though challenging, and I was still smiling when we finally got back to the car, though maybe a little more from finally being finished. I would hike it again, but next time, I would definitely hike Petit-Bourg first and Pigeon second!

We stop again in Pointe-Noire for more baguette for tomorrow, but also at the grocery store for Champagne for tonight - even though we are not going out to a fancy restaurant, it is our anniversary, and 24 years is definitely something to celebrate!

We end up at la Perle beach again to cool off in the ocean, but today the waves are rough, and since neither one of us wants to get overwhelmed by the immense waves, we are not going for a swim. Instead, we play in the rough surf for a while, we sit in the sand, taking sips from a bottle of orange Fanta, and bites of a pastry we bought with the baguette, and we watch an incredible sunset fall over the point on the end of the beach. It's a perfect way to finish off a beautiful day.

But,  as we are driving through Deshaies on our way home, watch all the people making their way along the main street to their chosen restaurants, all the lights go off. And it's not just one string of lights or one restaurant. As Mario continues to drive, I start noticing that all the houses are dark, and the street lamps - it's a full-on power outage. It follows us through Deshaies, along the twisty-turny roads, down into Ferry, and all the way home. Imagine if we HAD been in restaurant, just sitting down to order our food?! Lucky for us, we travel with flashlights, the rental has a gas stove, and the last renters left some tasty morsels in the freezer which we hadn't really thought about until just now. 

Mario and I sit at the best table in the place, a nice little tête-à-tête with ultra-romantic lighting, enjoying a quiet meal of Emmental crêpes and broccoli with a delicious bottle of Champagne, and toast to the night, to the longest vacation ever, and to another 24 wonderful years together, plus another 24 on top of that.