Tuesday, March 7. In search of Sun, Sand and Surf...

Brilliant, some high clouds.

Day 63 of 67. Four more sleeps.

Point-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, a French island group.

We were off the ship at 9.00 this morning and within 30 feet we were in the hands of a black, French-speaking cab driver. Price was negotiated with the use of our hands, fingers and high school French, and off we four went to our beach of choice today, Caravelle Beach, right next to Club Med., a 30 minute drive.

We paid the cabbie and asked him to pick us up at 2.00 and we wandered off in search of palm trees, white sand, and blue water with no debris under foot. After a 10 minute walk we had found our goal and more: Beach Lounge Chairs.

We spent the next four or five hours relaxing, reading, napping, taking pics of passing iguanas and people watching. The beach is very busy but not to the point of annoyance. The mix was quite interesting: Club Med people, other tourists, some locals I think and obviously some ship people, but few of them. Basically all white, or well tanned, 30, 40 or 50 years younger than us as well so, the people watching was a much more pleasurable experience, for me anyhow.

There were some older French people, either native to here or from France. They were identifiable by their tiny French bathing suits with mandatory large belly, [men]. The women here harder to identify, particularly when lying on their backs as they had the same tiny bottoms. Their sex only became noticeable when upright, and their chest area had a definite female form. The ones we saw were very thin, think Twiggy!

I am not sure if this is a exhibitionist thing or they are so self confident that they don't even think about or just don't give a damn . The younger males had a mix of suits but by far the most were of the Shorts style as opposed to European style.

It was a wonderful mix of things at the beach today, it was almost the Perfect Beach. We really had to cover and lather up as the tropical sun seems to get through us even in the shade of the palms and clouds.

We discovered today that iguana climb up into the palm trees, possibly to sleep, and get down by climbing down a palm frond and dropping the last several feet. It is quite a shock to see one do a belly flop in front of you. They are innocent enough but just look so darn frightening.

We had a bite to eat at a rustic beach restaurant and awaited our cab driver. He had not showed by 2.15 so  we nabbed another and were back on board the ship by 3.

We then attended the luggage arrangement table and got the documentation for us to fill out and then, with a bit of luck we will see the majority of our luggage in Langley about a week later. 

Tonight we were invited to a little cocktail party in the captains quarters after dinner. Part of the 'End of The Cruise' thing.

Excellent day. 

A wreck just along the channel markers on the way in this morning.

I love this, coffee on the deck, early, around 6.15 AM.

Our home for the majority of the day.

The view for the day.

Sometimes we shared the beach with these critters. Fellette took this photo.

Heading back for a taxi rendezvous and a bite to eat.

A ham and cheese Panini. It looks big but was very thin and our only food for nine hours today.

Across the street from the Cruise Terminal.



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