Merci beaucoup for the great time in Gwada...

Back home (in very white and cold Holland) yesterday...
and 35 degrees less (from 30 to minus 5)!
On the way to work today I had to bike on ice+snow, and on the way back i did some bike-sliding...

*****
This blog entry is dedicated to all great people, who made this vacation so wonderful and unique:

->We had sooo much fun with Giuglio+friends (even if Giulio was afraid that i am gonna try to steal his lovely hand-made hat from banana leaves, with which he posed on the picture)....GRAZIE, ragazzi! what a great idea to spend the last hours before the flight on the most beautiful beach, la plage de la Caravelle (first shot)!

->A huge THANK U goes to the so lovely and friendly team of CIP diving club on the beach in Malendure (merci beaucoup Eric, Claude, Loic, Ben, Jean-Albert, Flo, Piou, tout le monde)!!!

->Merci beaucoup for all the delicious punches, which Claire from Sainte Anne made us try. I am so happy with the bottles we brought, as they warm up really well:) As warm as her creole smile!

->The great Swedish-Italian company in UCPA les Saintes was the best for a having multi-culti sportive+cocktail-tasting time...

->>> and last but not least, thanks to ALL of you who passed by for a visit or a look at the pictures! It is always great to know that someone out there is watching, reading, (hopefully) enjoying and sometimes leaving a comment!:-)

Have a great, sunny and SMILY 2010!!!

Coucou from les Saintes!

A very shaky ferry crossing took us on Monday from Pointe-a-Pitre to the cute island group Les Saintes. The islands were named Los Santos by Christopher Columbus, who arrived there on All Saints' Day of 1493. The first French settlers arrived here in 1648. Because of their strategically important position, the Îles des Saintes were fought over by the French and the British in the Battle of the Saintes; they have remained under French control since 1816.

The archipel consists of 2 inhabited islands: Terre-de-Haut (High Land) and Terre-de-Bas (Low Land) and 7 non-inhabited islands. The local population is 2850 people at a total surface of 13 km². On Terre-de-Haut Island one can also visit the Fort de Napoleon, which was distroyed by the British in and then rebuilt during the Napoleonic Era, but never saw use in battle, and was instead used as a prison.

On the way to the UCPA (the French sport association we are staying with) we met some of the most famous local: the iguana. The young ones have green colours, while the adult ones are grey-white ones. Another island inhabitant is the brown pelican, they like to relax on the boats of the fishermen in the harbour.

Next blog entry will be with some underwater images, yesterday was the first dive and it was very relaxing and beautiful under the sea surface.

First Caribbean impressions from sunny Guadeloupe!

It takes whole 7000 km from Europe (Paris) to get to the Caribbean (sea)! And we needed 2 more hours drive to arrive at our first accommodation: the private property "Sous le vent" with cute creole style bungalows, on the hill at the west side of Guadeloupe, next to the village Bouillante. For breakfast we were greeted by plenty of curious colourful honey suckers (colibris in French and Bulgarian) flying around in the beautiful garden with exotic plants.

Jet-lagged and with headaches we headed for some morning shopping of exotic fruits (fresh papaya, bananas, pineapple, avocado) and relaxed later on the balcony with a sweet home pet (the cat was used to the hammock already). The delicious creole lunch (on the picture: grilled fish and 2 different gratin of local vegetables) was followed by another siesta on the beach Melandure (from where the picture of the local girl comes from).

Even if it rained 3 times in the night, it got really hot already by 10am and the refreshing wind close to the coast was more than welcome. Due to the high air humidity the 28-30 degrees feel like 35-38…but we are not complaining:-)

...almost ready for the Caribbean sun in the French Antilles: Guadeloupe + Les Saintes:-)

On Friday (11.12.2009) its time for the departure to Guadeloupe: a 3,5-hour train to Paris and then a 8,5-hour-flight will take us to Pointe-a-Pitre, the capital of the "Butterfly island".

Guadeloupe has this funny nickname because of its shape of a .... butterfly. The programme includes 1 week diving at the little archipelago Les Saintes, then 9 days of sightseeing in Bouillante (next to the National Parc of Guadeloupe) and one week relaxing on/around the beaches of Saint-Francois and Sainte Anne.

Martinique, Guadeloupe and the half of the island of Saint Martin are 3 islands which are overseas French departments, in French the so called DOM: département d'outre-mer.

Below I would like to share with you some shots from my stay in Martnique in 2005. The sea colour is a dream, the underwater world is sooo amazing and all this is rounded up by the friendly local creole population and plenty of delicious local rhums (made by the natural fermentation of the sugar cane juice).