Our daily bread in Guadeloupe

After a treacherous walk back to Les Jardins (straight up hill on a winding road with no sidewalk) to exchange the size for a dress I bought for one of my granddaughters, realizing she would have outgrown it by the next time I see her, I joined my friend, Bob from Pandora, on a milder hike up the creek to a freshwater pond. The water was cold but very refreshing. Later that evening, we watched the sunset and enjoyed cocktails with fresh baked baguette & cheese, with my hiking buddy, his wife Brenda and our new friends and hosts, Mary and Kevin on Pisces.

The next day, both breakfast and lunch were purchased at the local bakery, which has become a daily stop for us in Guadeloupe. We were headed out for Pigeon Island, an excellent snorkeling venue ~ 10 miles down island from Deshaies. After a 2 hour motor sail, we arrived at Bouillante, a touristy beach resort across from the island, bubbling with snorkelers, paddle boards, kayakers and swimmers enjoying the water. I could jump off our boat and find many varieties of fish and coral just 20 feet away.

Later, we went on a dinghy ride to find the laundromat but to no avail. We decided to try the next day and headed back to the boat to get ready for a lovely dinner at Le Rocher de Malendure, an excellent restaurant situated on top the rocks with a great view of the harbor, if it were daytime!

The next morning, we loaded our laundry bags into the dingy and went off to find this mysterious place that we must have passed at least twice the day before. It was behind a rock wall and had a very small entrance so the fishing boat marina inside was easily missed. We attached our dinghy line to a post jammed into the rocks and clamored up with our bags to the parking lot of a strip mall where the ‘laverie’ awaited. We were quite proud of ourselves for figuring out the coin operated system with instructions in French and rewarded our effort with croissants from the nearby bakery.

That evening, we had dinner on board and carefully watched the catamaran of Frenchmen that had anchored way too close to us. Neither of us slept too well with the rocking and rolling so we treated ourselves to a breakfast of French toast, prepared from day old baguette the next morning. What a great use of old bread! Later that day, we left for Basse Terre, where we had hoped to leave the boat in a marina slip and rent a car to tour the island. This was not meant to be when we found the marina too crowded and narrow for us to get into and the car we had reserved was not working. After grabbing some sandwiches at, you guessed it, the local bakery, we spent the night on a mooring and decided to head for Iles des Saintes the following day. I’m told they have bakeries!!