Guadeloupe, the island of two halves shaped like a butterfly with a narrow bit in the middle. Pointe-a-Pitre sits in the middle on the south side of the finger. To the east is the area called Grande Terre. It is flat, has some sandy beaches and given over to sugar cane production. To the west is Basse-Terre, mountainous ex volcano country and our destination for today.
Traffic on the motorway through Pointe-a-Pitre is heavy, but once we are through it is driving heaven for David. Our route today takes us up and over the mountains, through rainforest and down to the coast road on the west side. On the way we stop to walk to a small waterfall. There are many waterfalls and lots of walking trails, but not sufficient time today to don our hiking boots. Onwards, onwards to Deshaies (Dey-hay).
Deshaies is well known in the UK as the setting for BBC TV series Death in Paradise, a long running whodunnit where someone gets stabbed or shot or poisoned, etc every week. We were introduced to the show by a Dutchman in Cuba. Now that's a tenuous link! When we were staying in Marina Hemingway in Christmas 2018 a Dutchman and his wife shared their hard drive cache of films and TV, recommending Death in Paradise as a good programme. Four years later we join the dots.
Here are the locations of Honore police station, the bar and the anchorage. I send a postcard to my Mum. We walk around and carry on with the tour.
The rest of the tour consists of driving the coast road south, wonderful views across the Caribbean, and back up the east coast of Basse-Terre. I voted for a visit to a rhum distillery. All tours were fully booked but the tasting shop was open. I was so impressed I bought a couple of bottles, one dark and aged the other orange flavoured. It would have been rude not to.
The final highlight of Jackster Tours was one for David. Need I say it was a chandlery? In the middle of an industrial estate is one of the largest and best stocked boat shops we've seen. Still didn't find anything needed to buy.
And that
was the end of our day of driving around (a large part of)
Guadeloupe.
Honore police station , Deshaies 
Death in Paradise bar 
watching the waves 
Deshaies bay 
end of the day at the marina 
at the waterfall
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