The story about understanding time

We've been traveling to this island a lot in the past 6 years - so much so, in fact, that Mario and I like to think we've finally got the daily schedule pinned down. Today was a good lesson that we may understand some of it, but there is always a curveball that can be thrown our way. 

Wanting something a little more chill after the strenuous hike up to Chutes des Carbet yesterday, we booked a tour and tasting at one of the newest rum distilleries on the island, Papa Rouyo. Our tour is scheduled for 10:30, but Mario gets an email notification from the distillery that we should be at the place for 9:30. Okay - now I *know* no French tourist in their right mind is going to show up a whole HOUR before the scheduled tour,  they would rather sit in their rental villa and have another café. Against our better judgement, we DO head down to Goyave, and the Papa Rouyo distillery, and sure enough, no one is there. Not even the workers, not even the tour guide, NO ONE. We laugh a little at the ridiculousness of the whole thing, sit at a picnic table in the impromptu beer garden outside, and wait. About 10:20, a woman climbs out of a parked car that we thought was empty, and comes over to tell us that some of the group is a little late, so we will start when everyone gets here. At this point, it's not even surprising, except for the fact that we've not been offered anything to drink, a cool place to sit - the usual Guadeloupe hospitality is a little bit lacking. Eventually, everyone arrives, and we head out on our tour of the facilities.

Murals outside Papa Rouyo	Tasting notes
Rhum tasting at Papa Rouyo	The big still for making rhum

Papa Rouyo is the product of quite a history in the Guadeloupe sugar cane industry. It is owned by the fourth generation of a sugar cane producing family, who turned to rum after the cane sugar industry all but disappeared in Guadeloupe, losing out to cheaper beetroot sugar from eastern Europe. The difference here, in comparison to other larger producers on the island, is that Papa Rouyo is the equivalent of a small-batch distillery, making their products with sugar cane from specific producers, or specific lands, meaning that each has a unique and distinct taste that will likely never be replicated. Not only that, but their product is SO new, their aged rum(at least 3 years in barrels) is not even made with their own rum yet, but white rum they acquired when they opened up shop! Our guide tells us all about this, the history, the production, the distillation process, before she leads us to a cool back room to taste the products. She is well-informed, knowledgeable, had a diploma from the Collège du Rhum - and yes, that is a thing in Guadeloupe. At the end of the tour and tasting, (which by the way, involves some very smooth white rum, though nothing tops Bielle on our list of favorites) she suggests a good place for a bite, a maniocrie that makes everything using the manioc flour, from kassavs to crepes to hamburger buns...We take the bait, get the directions, and head next over to Îlet Pérou and the Maniocrie de Germaine for a lunch that promises to soak up all that rum!

Ham and cheese crepe, Marlin kassav and drinks

Lunch is fantastic, and quiet! As per our observations of French tourists, lunch is taken late, after the morning's activities. Therefore, when we arrive just before noon, the place is empty, save one other table. By the time we finish at 1:30, it is *just* starting to fill up. It is a good place to try some more local delicacies - not only the manioc flour kassavs, which are galettes with any number of fillings sandwiched into the middle, but also wonderful crepes, rolled into cones, also overflowing with delicious ingredients. Ham and cheese are the classic combination, but fish, such as tuna or marlin, is really great, and very local. Everything is seasoned with spicy Sauce Chien, but we would expect nothing less in Guadeloupe. There is an exhaustive list of homemade juices, but also punches, infused rum drinks, and though I am not one to drink alcohol with lunch, the sound of a punch giraumon is too enticing. Giraumon is a local type of pumpkin, smooth and creamy like a kabocha, and so the resulting drink, mixed with coconut milk and spices, tastes like pumpkin pie in a glass. Even Mario can't resist!

Full of delicious local food, we capitalize on the fact that we are still within that "Tourist Lunch Window" of 12-3pm, and drive north to the Jardins de Valombreuse. This is another Botanical Garden, one that not too many people talk about. They all prefer Deshaies. But I honestly think both gardens have their charms, and Valombreuse was definitely worth the visit. After all, Mario and I love learning about the local flora, so that we can point it out on our hikes and attempt to best each other with our retained knowledge. Plus, there is a tourist train, and you know how we feel about a tourist train!

	Pink Ibis
Flamingos
	Roucou seeds, also called Annatto
	Lorikeet

The train gives us a taste of what the park has to offer, but the real visit happens on foot, walking along the skinny paths that crisscross the park, wandering through different gardens, different zones, and offering different sights at every turn. One garden mimics the layout of healing plants the people of Guadeloupe may have once had planted on their own property. Herbs and vegetables share space with medicinal plants and fruit trees. Another garden contains hundreds of cactus varieties, another has a whole canopy of hanging pots containing every orchid imaginable. Entire hillsides are covered in red foliage, or tiny purple pompoms. A pond next to a white house is teeming with lily pads, their flowers only days away from blooming, the purple of their petals contracting with the bright orange of the massive Koi fish swimming underneath. We wander amongst palm trees and porcelain roses, catch sight of hummingbirds chasing each other in the canopy above, and follow a trail of cutter ants carrying their food like bright green sails on their backs. And the park is calm and quiet(save a noisy group of school-aged children in their uniforms), until 3:30, when all of those late-lunching French tourists start making their way back to the attraction sites again. In fact, we are making our way back to the exit/gift shop, and another tourist train passes us, absolutely packed with people. It's amazing how predictable they are!

Guadeloupe rush hour!

For all our knowledge of the typical "tourist" schedule here in Guadeloupe, we forget one fundamental thing. Guadeloupe is still a living, breathing, functioning country. They do not plan *their* days around the typical "tourist" schedule. They have jobs, they go to work, they drive home every evening. Around 4:30. Guadeloupe is also a volcanic island, with one main highway that circumnavigates this side of the island, and little or no secondary routes that contour it. So when everyone heads home, there is a guaranteed traffic jam on that one highway. It doesn't matter that you are a tourist, hoping to get to the beach before the sun sets behind that volcano, making it too cold to go swimming, you are going to inch your way along that highway at 10 km/h, just like everyone else.

View of Les Saintes driving down into town

So we win some, we lose some. It's just another lesson in traveling other places in the world. For Mario and I, time may be standing still as we go about our days, make decisions on the fly of what we want to do or visit, whether it be hike a volcano, go to the beach, or stay at the Airbnb and take a nap. But we need to be reminded, every once in a while, that the world is not on vacation with us. They are going about their daily routines, and we are just a moment, an small, insignificant element that will float in and out of their lives for the briefest of moments. And I think, once you figure that out, then you can begin to see the world just a little bit differently, and we have more respect for the places we visit, since, after all, it is someone's home.