What do you get when you take two Americans, two Kiwis, and two Canadians and put them on a bus? A nice day out.
Basse Terre is both the name of the "West Wing" of the butterfly-shaped Guadeloupe, and also the name of the capital city located on that side of the island (while Pointe a Pitre is larger, and has more associated with it, it is not the capital). Basse Terre has a marina which we could go to, and an area where one can anchor if they want to, but there is a tendency to "rolliness" in the anchorage, and we have no strong desire to go to the marina. We figured the next best (affordable) way to see the town was by bus. This gives the added bonus feature of a chance to see more of the land part of the island. We have seen plenty of coastline already.
We invited Barb and Stewart of 'LaLuna' along for a play date, and they invited John and Shelly (boat name spelling I am not sure of at all), the Kiwis, along, too. We met on the marina dock where we are anchored at 8:00 am and headed to the bus stop. We got to Pointe a Pitre and walked to the terminal where the Basse Terre busses depart from (the side of the island, not specifically the town). The busses in and out of PaP have different departure points, and there is no central terminal or depot where the busses meet. So getting from point A to B may require a 10 to 15 minute walk to change busses. It IS a fun way to explore, though. In Basse Terre all of the busses conveniently leave from the same area.
We caught the more indirect bus (purely by accident) and took the scenic route through Cappesterrere. The bus ride was okay ,except for the music. Stewart is a guitar play, and loves music, and initially he didn'think the music was too bad. We warned him that it would soon irritate him in a manner similar to biting tin foil. After about 90 minutes of the same bad rhythm, poor vocalists, and generally uninspired and poorly done "music", we were all fed up with the music and eyeballing the wires to the speakers. Stewart's comment by the end was that he would have been happy to hear Sinatra (he is NOT a Sinatra fan). We survived, and the scenery of lush fields of sugar cane, bananas and other crops gave our eyes a feast, even while our ears were being beaten with mediocrity.
We arrived in Basse Terre and walked along the very nicely appointed boardwalk towards the centre-ville. Basse Terre has that typical French Antilles old town look. A mix of very old houses mixed with newer buildings that have been stained with mold or water stains. They have a part of a street that has been closed of for only pedestrian traffic. The market is in a covered area and is quite pleasant, with local artwork, crafts and produce all vying for the buyer's attention and Euros. I even found water lemons there (or pomme liane), a member of the passion fruit family that Ken and I cannot resist.
We wandered around and had lunch at a place advertising itself as real Creole food. This is where is became slightly more interesting for me.... The other four speak basically no French, Ken a smattering, ne thought that which left me as the "translator". Thankfully, food is easy to translate as I have been reading it on labels all of my life! The food was decent, and affordable.
After lunch, everyone thought that ice cream would be a nice treat. We finally found 1,001 Glacees (they only had 14 flavours) with only asking for directions twice (I am not good with some of the little details) and maybe a little luck. I saw an ice cream flavour that seemed familiar, and discovered that it was, indeed, water lemon (pomme liane) ice cream. These are possibly my favourite fruit, and as an ice cream, beyond amazing!
I can't honestly say that there is anything special or amazing about Basse Terre, and for us, a 7 Euro per person per way trip was probably the best way to see the town. We will use Deshaies as our base point for exploring more of the "West Wing"
Our trip back seemed a little faster, but the same route. Maybe it seemed faster because we couldn't really hear the music, and when we could, it wasn't the "zouk" (ironically, the same work used for "noise" in Creole). But we really want to check out more of the interior of that part of the island. Ken and I are also planning on taking the bus east to see what is there.