December 22, 2024

Last night, it was dark when we left St. Barts and it was fun to see all the yachts in the harbor beautifully lit up. Of course, the Bezos yacht was there. Is it following us?

It has been many years since we have been to Guadeloupe, an island in the French West Indies. Pointe-a-Pitre is the largest city in Guadeloupe.

Here are some pictures of our arrival.

Pointe a Pitre was founded in the late 17th century. It’s on the island of Grande-Terre, the easternmost of the country’s two main islands. Basse Terre is the western island and together they form a butterfly shape. Basse Terre is a volcanic island while Grand Terre is a coral island which makes the terrain very different on each.The population is 400,000.

Our tour today was a snorkeling excursion at the marine park. We walked to the boat and went through the Salted River which is covered with mangrove trees on both sides. Our guide, Tom told us a lot about the mangroves which really protect the environment in many ways. The ones here are the red mangroves. If you look closely you can see what look like pods hanging from the branches. These separate and are able to float for a year before they take root and grow. When the leaves turn yellow, it means they are filled with salt – it is the way the trees get rid of salt.

No wildlife to see, they do not have snakes, alligators or crocodiles here. There are lots of birds, though.

We enjoyed the boat trip through the Salted River and on to our snorkeling spot. The weather was perfect, not too hot, and the waters were calm.

There were many conch shells in the waters here and lots of beautiful fish. Unfortunately we left the underwater camera on the ship! The fish move pretty fast anyway and I have never had a lot of luck getting good pictures. The coral is not colorful at all here. We snorkel tomorrow again so maybe I will get some pictures then….

I did see a huge barracuda just before getting back on the boat.

We also went to another very small island that people may not go onto. It used to be 6 times bigger than it now is so no one is allowed on it so it can hopefully get bigger again. We could take a swim around it or snorkel, but there were not a lot of fish here.

On the way back to the ship we went past 2 bird islands. The trees were full of birds. Snowy egrets, herons and many pelicans. There were also lots of pelicans just off the islands diving for fish. You would think the fish would be smart enough to go somewhere else!

We got back to the ship, had lunch and I tried to write the blog but the internet was very erratic and I couldn’t get service.

We finished first in trivia today!

We all went to the Oceania Club party and after that, Norm and I were invited to the private dining area – Privee – for a dinner with three other couples, Dominique, our general manager, and Silas, our cruise director. It was a wonderful dinner and the wine certainly flowed.

Norm went to the show with Adam and Mark, Linda Gentile’s second, and I went to the casino where I had a winning night.

Tomorrow is St. Lucia where we will be snorkeling again.