The good, the bad and the ugly

 It was a day of discoveries and small wins for us, but it was also a day of small trials to overcome. Not everything went the way we wanted, but ultimately we had a great day and finished with smiles on our faces, and that's all that is important, right? It was a slow, hot morning, not necessarily encouraging for getting out exploring. I got stuck into a rather long blog, while Mario used the time researching things for us to do for the week here in Port-Louis. We decided today would be the day we'd find our dinner plan, and headed out to the shop that gave be the food advice yesterday. Yes, they had rotisserie chicken, but as luck would have it, the stuff was so popular, it was already sold out! Most had been pre-order last night even! Just our luck. The owner promised us more on Tuesday, and so we exited empty-handed. 

Right across the street stood the neighborhood dancing man. Upon our arrival in town we drove by his house a couple of times looking for grocery stores, and he was parked outside his house, next to a rather loud karaoke system, dancing by himself. It was a comical sight. Today, he was doing the same, joined by a couple of buddies drinking beer on the sidelines, but this time he was dancing behind a large grill covered in chicken legs! What luck! We headed over to inquire, and left with a packet of smoky grilled chicken legs, and a complimentary bunch of finger bananas! I think we just found our spot. 

Food safely stashed at home for later consumption, we headed back out to visit the Beauport Sugar Cane factory museum. It was one of the suggestions made by our Airbnb host, and we are aware of its existence, but Mario and I have an aversion to anything that involves a tourist train, so we've never really looking too much into visiting it before. Turns out we were very wrong about the place. It is not a silly train ride with a museum attached, it is the history of a sugar refinery that established a town, and an employee co-op that radically changed the perception of the sugar culture in relation to slavery and proper employment, up until Hurricane Hugo came along - twice! - and destroyed all of that. 

So we get to the place, following the hours posted in all the guidebooks, on Google and on the official website. There are train tours every hour from 2 pm on. We arrive at 12:30 to be able to tour the grounds, enjoy the museum, but the ticket window is closed, and the doors are exit only because Covids. So I dance around the window until I get the attention of the attendant inside. She explains to us the plan of the site, how the train tour will take us through the sugar cane fields, but that we really should come back for the next tour at 2:15 so we can follow the guided tour. We should go home for an hour to relax and have lunch. Ok, I  guess we'll do that - see, we had already eaten lunch in anticipation of spending the afternoon at Beauport, so her suggestion was not really a welcome one. Regardless, we follow her advice, go home, lie on the bed for a while, trying to keep cool, then drive the 6 minutes to get back to the museum. 

Great, she said, glad you are back, it's 2 pm, here's your tickets, go and enjoy the museum and grounds to the fullest, but come back here for 2:15 for the beginning of the tour. Umm...ok? 15 minutes to appreciate something to the fullest is not gonna happen, but we figure we'll just get more of a chance after the tour to do so, so we really don't think too much on this fact. 

The tour is great - really great. Our guide(who's name escapes me, sadly), is knowledgeable, animated, entertaining. He interjects personal experiences and stories into his explanations, making the history he is talking about seem much more real. We travel through a series of buildings, all used in different roles during the time of the sugar refinery - a dispensary, a kindergarten, administrative. There's the "master's" house, which after the abolishment of  slavery in 1848, became a place to welcome important investors or dignitaries. We tour inside the president's home, a beautiful wooden case creole, designed in the same style as some of the places we've stayed in, but much more grandiose. Turns out, this too was razed to the ground following the Hurricane, and rebuilt completely following the agreement to begin restoration of the site in 2002. 

We make our way towards the back of the site, where we pass the ruins of a windmill, so common in this area, then the skeletal metal structure of what is still standing of the main sugar refinery. You can't go inside for obvious safety reasons, but our guide mentions how they have been working to try and fix this, shore up walls and roof piece to make certain sectors safe for everyone. The obstacle they hit it the reluctance of the older generations not wanting the ruins touched, fearing that in making it new, the history will be lost. Sadly, it's in doing nothing that the buildings will eventually fall, metal returning to the earth, and the history most certainly will be lost. It's a sad battle to be fighting.

The train ride is actually quite nice. The cars are brand new and beautifully painted, their bright orange standing out so well against the blue of the sky. We travel the rail line that was used to transport the cut sugar cane from the fields of Beauport back to the factory for processing. Five kilometers from the site, a small station is set up, with a park and snack shop(closed because it's Sunday), for us to spend some time enjoying the views of the still-planted fields, though they are now used for the production of rum instead. And 10 minutes later we are back on the train, following the same rail line back to the museum. This train is supposed to run every hour, but ours is the only one I've seen - and heard - all afternoon. Besides our tour group of 6, a family of 10 people have joined in for the ride, with 3 little girls fighting for the best seats or best swing in the park, even though there are enough for everyone.

Back at the station, our guide explains the production of sugar from the cane, showing us all the derivatives and by-products, including vinegars, freshly-pressed juices, syrups and molasses, and, of course, rum. This is followed by a tasting of a few of the products, some of which are produced by the association in charge of the factory and museum now, and are available for us to pick up in the gift shop. And with that, he bids us a good afternoon, and starts cleaning up. Everyone heads to the exit - but I ask if we can slowly wind our way back through the site to get a more in-depth look at the exhibits we passes through so quickly earlier. He says, sure, we can head up to the windmill to climb it, but that the other buildings are closed after the tours because - you guessed it - Covids. So we do climb the windmill, and head back to the gift shop, which is also closed, and exit through the gate that the custodian is waiting to lock up behind us, as we are the last car in the parking lot at this point. 

Can I say that I feel slightly short-changed about the whole visit? We arrived early enough to be able to visit plenty of the site before starting our tour, but were promptly sent home. We were paraded through several buildings offering a wealth of knowledge, and he promise of being able to enjoy it all, but then the doors closed behind us. We should have been given the chance to explore the site at our leisure, but instead were almost ushered to the exit, and the gate locked behind us. I understand the restraints that Covid has placed on all industries - heck, I work in a restaurant, I know better than most about restrictions - but at the very least, make your audience aware of this on the website, in a press-release taped to the ticket window, or even verbally when selling the tickets! Don't short-change your clientele and then use Covid as an excuse after the fact, because that's just unfair. Needless to say, this particular visit was a real let-down, and an expensive one at that.

After that, the heat and disappointment was getting the better of both of us, so once back at the rental, we grabbed our bathing suits and walked down to Plage du Souffleur for a dip in the cooling water. Bobbing away in the ocean, I could feel my bad mood floating away with every wave. Even though we were on the busiest part of the beach, with the beach bar blasting music in the distance, children shrieking in the cordoned-off swimming area, and sea-doo buzzing by, I didn't care - I was at one with the water. Mario and I floated there until the sun dipped below the mountains of Basse-Terre across the bay, even though it was past 6 pm, then, cool and refreshed, made our way back to the rental.

This evening was something else - it was going so well, with our tasty chicken dinner(we'll be going back to dancing man), and relaxing on the deck, but there was a large spider in the shower, and then and even larger spider on the deck, and I really don't want to talk about it, so we'll leave it at that. If you really want to know more details, Mario summed it up on his Facebook, and I can't even read about it, it freaks me out so much. Needless to say, I had a tough time sleeping after that. Hopefully, tomorrow brings the promise of a new, and less stressful day.