Our trip to Les Saintes in February 2005

Sunday

Our visit to Les Saintes got off to a rough start. We arrived on time at Pointe a Pitre for our flight over to Terre de Haute, and we waited. The departure time came and went, and we were wondering if we had missed the announcement. The agent called us all over and announced

that the flight was cancelled because of mechanical problems. We would all be bussed over to a hotel for the night, with vouchers for dinner and breakfast.

It was pouring rain. From past trips to the Caribbean we had learned to pack all we needed in our carry on, so we had no need for our checked bags. Having no desire to lug our unneeded suitcases out into the rain onto the bus, then out again at the hotel for the overnight stay, then back onto the bus the next day and then to the airport, we asked if they would keep our bags, and the answer was yes.

We were all taken in a bus to the Salako Hotel, a nice place in Gosier. We all checked in, and we met another American couple at dinner, so we ate together. We had been told to expect a departure time at 8:00 am, and we would be told when to board the bus in the morning. Later that night, the agent called and said we had the 11:00 o'clock flight. Hallelujah! We didn't have to get up at some ungodly time of day to get to our flight. It poured rain off and on all night.

Monday

We had a leisurely breakfast and then strolled the beach briefly before it started pouring again. We were the only ones from the aborted flight departing at that time, so they sent a taxi for us, and we made the trip back to the airport. The showers stopped in time for us to get on the plane and make the flight over. At the airport, there was no sign of our van for Le Auberge des Petite Saintes, so we asked the woman running the airport to call. "They're on their way," she told us, without having to call. Sure enough, Ricardo showed up a few minutes later -- he'd been held up by another van he couldn't pass on the narrow road.

Our welcome to the Auberge des Petites Saintes was right out of the movies. Ricardo took our luggage to our room as Didier welcomed us and made us feel at home with a cocktail. We chatted about our past visits to Les Saintes and our trials at the airport.

We walked into town for lunch and met our two American companions from the flight that didn't make it, so we joined up for lunch. There were a few other Americans in the restaurant from a five-masted cruise ship that was anchored off the new pier. Cruise ships were in port on almost every day, and there were a number of yachties on the island as well. For some reason, most people do not think we are Americans (among the guesses: English, German (!), and Canadian), so when they find out we are from the US they assume we're on a boat.

We rented a scooter for the week, and putt-putted around the town for awhile. It rained intermittently all afternoon, so we spent time at the Auberge, where we had dinner. There was a very mild tremor during the meal, leaving the patrons chattering nervously. That night, in the dark early morning hours, there were two sharp jolts.

Tuesday

We tried the beach at Pompierre, but we left early because of the rain. The weather was much more like we had experienced in August rather than the usual January sunny days. Much rain and heavy, hot, humid days.

We had arranged to have dinner with our American companions at the Auberge (it was one of two that their hotel recommended) on Tuesday, and there was another aftershock about 6:00 pm. At supper, they said they had felt no tremors. Whether this is because we were in the older, wooden frame structure which vibrates more or whether it was the difference in locations we never decided.

Wednesday

We had another tremor during the night. We spent the morning at Anse de Crawen, where it sprinkled enough to make us roll up our beach towels, but it passed quickly. We saw no naked people on the beach there this year, and our American friends said they saw no one optionally without clothes during their visits there.

One of those issues about which we ask ourselves, "What were they thinking?" cropped up on our way to and from Crawen. The main street in Le Bourg has been trenched right down the middle on the west end of town for infrastructure upgrades; they are burying the utilities so that electrical wires are not strung up along the street. They have also moved the pier out west of town. Because of the work, the street is closed, so you have to take round about ways in narrow lanes that do not allow traffic to pass. They have set up stoplights so that traffic is allowed to pass only one way at a time. Getting to and from the new pier is quite a chore now.

We learned that the new pier is supposed to be finished in April 2005, but no one we spoke to expected it to be done on schedule.

We had lunch at La Saladerie, and it was very good. We passed by the island's school on our way to and from lunch. It was rubble. We do not know if the earthquakre reduced it to rubble or if it was later torn down for removal. The steeple on the church near the town park was also either being torn down completely or partially for restoration, as was a building adjacent to the old pier.

We had dinner at Le Triangle, after being told by the staff at the Auberge that Didier and Jean-Paul ate there. It was obvious why. One of us had a salad and the other a grilled tuna. The fish was very fresh and quite good.

Thursday

Three more aftershocks in the dark of the morning. We tried Pompierre again, but we were rained out again. We strolled the little town of Le Bourg, shopping and taking pictures.

Friday

We spent the morning at the old fort, which was crawling with iguanas and tourist, many of whom (the tourists) were American. There was another cruise ship parked off the shore, with small boats taxiiing people to and from the new pier. We had another aftershock in the afternoon.

We ate dinner at Le Case aux Espices, where Thierry and Christin were our host and hostess. It was quite good. We chatted with them and found that their foundation had cracked, and they had not been able to get it repaired -- it offered no immediate safety issues, and the island's resources were already committed.

Saturday

We managed to spend the entire morning on the beach at Pan a Sucre without being rained upon. We had lunch at Sole Mio where we had the Tarte Poire Chocolat, one of the best deserts we have ever had. We highly recommend this desert.

Sunday

Our day of departure. We packed and headed once again to Plage de Pompierre, where we spent a pleasant but short morning.

Despite our warnings to everyone everywhere not to take the ferry, we had decided to take the ferry back to Guadeloupe. Our logic seemed reasonable before the trip: our next hotel was in San Francois, and the ferry went there. Why spend more money to fly to Pointe a Pitre, rent a car there, then drive to San Francois, when we could just step off the ferry already in San Francois, walk to our hotel (The Golf Marine), then rent a car in San Francois.

Trouble stalked us from the beginning of our departure, though, foreshadowing more trouble to come. If only we were reading a mystery novel where foreshadowing is so ham-handed you cannot miss it.

We left the Auberge separately, one of us driving the motor scooter to Rodolph to return it, the other riding with Ricardo. Despite having made an appointment with Rodolph to meet him at 3:00 pm, he was not there. At twenty after, Ricardo said he'd return the scooter for us, so we gave him the paper contract and our extra helmet. (The other was inside the scooter's seat.) He then drove us to the new ferry dock.

We paid 45 euros for two passengers to San Francois, and the ferry departed only a few minutes late. It was a rough ride, and we knew we would need dramamine, so we had taken it. After an hour, it became apparent we were not going to San Francois. We docked at Marie Galante, and a couple of dozen people with rental bikes boarded.

Another hour of rough ride brought us to San Francois. We saw only one passenger lose her lunch this trip -- it is much worse going to Les Saintes than returning.

Two hours on a tossing ferry. Next time, we'll take the plane.

Summary

The best restaurants we found on Les Saintes this year were the Auberge, Le Triangle, Le Case aux Espice, and La Saladerie. Other restaurants were not bad, but these we thought were the best.

Who knows how long the aftershocks will last. Some people were nervous about them, and some just made them new part of daily life. For more information, drop by Essaim de séismes aux Saintes en 2004 which, despite its name, contains updates into the year 2005 on seismic activity on Les Saintes. The updates are in French and are .pdf files; you should be able to glean useful information from the maps.

We spoke to a man who has a business on the island. He said that since the year 2000 his business has dropped by half. Before 2000, he had had a lot of business from Canadians and Americans who had money and from mainland France. Since the dot com bust (our phrasing, not his), there are fewer Americans and Canadians, and those that do come are interested in t-shirts and other souvenirs. We assume this means that most of the traffic on the island is from cruise ships.

Photos are up! See our QTVR 360-degree panoramas at Phanfare and still photos on smugmug.

 Create your own free wiki!Support Community Add to Del.ici.ous Add to Digg Add to Reddit Add to fUrlPublic, Platinum wiki Privacy Policy RSS