Merry Christmas

Port-of-Call: Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe (FWI) - coming soon!

Thwarted by a cold! I meant to post a guide for Windsurf passengers stopping in Basse-Terre by this evening, but I've been stuck at home all week nursing a cold. However, I am going to Basse-Terre tomorrow for the market and will be able to do some of the research I meant to do during the week. Hopefully, I can get some at least a draft version up by tomorrow evening.

Panier des Îles

Above, the website for Panier des Îles.

As we approach Christmas, our mailbox is regularly stuffed with supermarket circulars advertising the best, brightest, biggest ways to celebrate the holidays: champagne, foie-gras, caviar, oysters, ouassous, boudin, Christmas ham... Included in today's batch was a little booklet for Panier des Îles. Panier des îles offers Guadeloupe (and Martinique) in a box to friends and relatives in France metropole or Europe.









Above, left, Panier Suprême (€95), right, Super Panier Cadeau (€175).
There is a wide selection of items, such as white or aged Damoiseau rum, creole meat patties, chocolate made from locally grown cacao, Royal brand jam, rum punch... The site offers baskets with items pre-selected and customers can add on extras like a book of reprinted old photos, a music cd, a doll in creole dress and for those with money to burn, even pearl earrings and gold pendants. Panier des Îles gathers, packs, and ships these goodies, with a garunteed delivery within 48 to72 hours. The sender need only swipe his/her credit card before waiting for warm thanks to come from cold climes.

Windstar Cruises: The Windsurf in Basse Terre

Above: Windstar Cruises’ Windsurf (1).

Two weeks ago, when M. and I were in Basse-Terre doing our weekly shopping, Windstar Cruises’ Windsurf happened to be docked at the port. We’d seen the Windsurf during the previous cruise season, and had always wanted to get a closer look, but never had a chance. Approaching the pier, a man with that tell-tale American twang was giving directions to some cruise ship passengers. I couldn’t help but introduce myself. He introduced himself as Shawn, an American living in Guadeloupe for the past 8 years and who has been working with the tourism office of Basse Terre to welcome Windsurf’s predominantly English-speaking passengers. He told me they needed help, as English-speakers are hard to come by, and so I decided I’d start going to the pier the days when Windsurf was in port.

Yesterday was my first day. Between 7AM to after 12 noon I greeted Windsurf passengers, giving directions, answering questions, and wowing them with my impeccable accent. It was physically exhausting to stand for 5 hours straight, but I enjoyed talking to the passengers. I was particularly happy to meet a couple who spoke Cantonese, and a couple from New York!

Windsurf is in port at Basse-Terre for only 5 hours - an appallingly short amount of time given all that Guadeloupe has to offer. It is, however, a good indication of Guadeloupe’s general inability to capture and retain market share in cruise ship tourism. I have been told that Windsurf weighs anchor here principally for unloading waste. Sad, isn’t it? And the fact that Basse-Terre does not figure as a port of call for Windsurf’s 2010 season seems to give weight to the rumor that even in this, Guadeloupe has failed: Apparently, Windstar has found some other port that charges less for the privilege.

But no one ever got ahead by dwelling on the negatives.

According to its excursion brochure, Windsurf offers only three options for Basse-Terre port of call. One excursion leaves Basse-Terre by the west, driving up the leeward coast of Basse Terre to Malendure beach for a ride on the Nautilus, a glass-bottom boat, with a chance of snorkeling, at the Jacques Cousteau reserve. The second excursion leaves Basse-Terre by the east, driving north towards Capesterre-Belle-Eau for the Carbet Falls. The third excursion is a walking tour in Basse-Terre.

Only a handful of passengers seemed to have signed up for even these three excursions (the walking tour was even canceled since too few signed up). The vast majority came down from the boat just for a quick tour of the city. And most came down well past 10AM, having been told, it seems, that there wasn’t much to see or do. Basse-Terre is certainly not well known for its sites, but to say that there isn’t anything to see or do seems to me an appalling lack of curiosity and a willful condescension.

We had nothing to offer the passengers except a few maps, but we soon ran out. And to be perfectly honest, I personally did not find them incredibly user-friendly.

I happen to have gone on a great number of cruises for my young age - eight, in fact, and I am not even thirty. I have also traveled quite a bit off of cruise ships. So, I feel like I know what kind of information a tourist is looking for.

I might have tried to propose writing an English-language map and guide for the Basse Terre Tourism Office and getting paid for it, but seeing that that our little stand on the port had absolutely no signage, no pamphlets, and just a few maps, that they do not even have an actual office, I think it would be a waste of my time. Still, I am sorry to see Basse-Terre (and Guadeloupe in general) so thoroughly maligned - nothing to see, indeed!. So, I am determined, in my own small way, to remedy this. I am going to put together my own little guide for Basse-Terre with an accompanying map and will post it here. Hopefully, I'll have written it up properly so that Google will pick it up and show it as a result.

There are five remaining cruises where Windsurf makes a call at Basse-Terre (2). I'm going to try to have the guide up by next Saturday, December 19, before Windsurf passengers leave home for their cruise.




(1) Photo taken from windstarcruises.com
(2) These are the dates that Windsurf calls at Basse-Terre: Nov 27 2009, Dec 11 2009, Dec 22 2009, Jan 15 2010, Feb 12 2010, Feb 26 2010, Mar 12 2010.

Escaping to the English countryside or on Starship Voyager

Several weeks ago, I received a copy of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice in the mail from my sister J. It is one of my favorite stories and I greatly admire Austen's wit and intelligence. I finished the book rather too quickly, and, having created an appetite for a food wholly unavailable in Guadeloupe, I sought nourishment online. I was lucky to find Andrew Davies' 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in its entirety on Youtube. But I did not expect the cache of English-lit-as-costume-drama available. Ever since, I have been indulging in the genteel notions, the charming dialogue, the silly bonneted women...

I have always been extremely fond of costume drama, especially the more recent BBC productions. But I do suspect that my current preoccupation is also some form of escape. It is easy to fret too much. Having gone over and over again the same fears and worries, I believe that I have worn actual grooves into my brain. Nothing like a trip to Meryton (or Barton Park, or Cranford, etc.) to break the habit and to put some distance and perspective in place. It does remind me, however, of another time in my life where I found escape in costumed characters in a non-existent world...

It began with an unexplained rash that developed on my grandmother's skin. It was probably the result of the summer heat and her polyester wardrobe, but she insisted on having an ambulance come and bring her to the hospital. I wonder now whether or not my grandmother had begun the whole thing out of caprice on a slow summer Sunday. That supposedly unbearable rash would disappear on its own during the hours-long wait in the ER. What was wrong, the doctor said, was not her skin, but her blood pressure; She would be kept for observation. And then, as if prompted by the sickness and dying in the hospital beds around her, my grandmother's health deteriorated rapidly. I am inclined to believe that this collapse came from fear - that fear which secretly inhabits the heart of every old person, where a unimportant trip to the hospital sends them to their death. The details of her sudden and unexpected decline are now confused with subsequent hospital stays. But I do remember that within a very short while, she was unconscious and intubated in the ICU. I remember walking home from the hospital that first day, wailing loudly. Unemployed that summer, I sat with her throughout her hospitalization, keeping her company when she was still conscious, monitoring the comings and goings of personnel when she was not. I spent hours keeping watch over her softly breathing body. It had been my first experience with dying. Perhaps dying is not the right word, as my grandmother survived for another two years. But I had never before given death such solemn attention.

Then, at night, while my parents and sisters slept soundly, I would sit up to watch syndicated episodes of Star Trek: Voyager. My sister S. had been a faithful fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 90's and I had watched with her; therefore my like of Voyager was not wholly spontaneous. Still, I had never shown more than a glancing interest in any of the Star Trek series before that summer, and yet suddenly I was an avid watcher. I found I could not go to bed without having seen that night's episode.



It begins with the opening sequence - the clarion horns, the powerful drums - whose uplifting notes soared. The show was, for the most part, very predictable. There was a certain percentage of drama, and a slightly smaller (but no less significant) percentage of comedy. There was often a moral, or at the very least a discussion of some ethical ideal. And in every episode, a good dose of sexuality, often offered up in the body-hugging uniform of one Seven of Nine. Star Trek Voyager's greatest attribute was that there it reflect my reality in the least. Talaxians? Warp cores? The entire show seemed uniquely crafted for escape.

Television shows that emphasize the necessity of phasers or bonnets, and those who watch them, often seem to elicit the contempt of those with more mainstream tastes. Those who would lose themselves in non-existent worlds are clearly out of touch with reality. But sometimes, that is exactly what's required.

Manuel, Watercolorist

Above, "Habitation route de Balata" ("House on Balata road")

A local free publication, Maisons Creoles, published an article in its latest issue on a Martinican watercolorist, Manuel. I was struck by the prettiness of his watercolors, the meticulous brush strokes. The Antilles, with its picturesque houses, luxurious nature, the abundance of colors, all seem to make the the Antilles the perfect subject for painting.

Above, "Mémoire et soleil" ("Memory and sun")

Above, "Yoles en course devant les pitons du Carbet" ("Racing skiffs past the peaks of the Carbet")

I often find watercolors overly sweet, as if each brushstroke were lace-trimmed and the painting backed with a doily. This isn't very different from the paintings of Manuel. Even shacks and lean-to's made from corrugated sheet metal look downright cozy. It is difficult, however, to entirely ignore the sentimentality, and there is something pleasing to see one's (new) home depicted as a charming idyll.

Above, "Femme entrant dans la case" ("Woman entering the shack")

Visit Manuel's site to see more of his work.

I Love Yogurt

Above, one-quarter of the glorious yogurt isle in Carrefour.

Dairy products - outside of 1-gallon milk jugs, pre-sliced American cheese and ice cream - being completely absent from my Chinese mother's kitchen, yogurt probably made a very late appearance in my life. I don't really even remember eating yogurt, much less enjoying it, before living in France. But I do remember suddenly liking yogurt very much the semester I studied abroad - so much so that I wrote home about it on several occasions. Why the change? Possibly because there is a significant difference between when Americans eat yogurt and when the French eat yogurt; Americans eat yogurt as a breakfast food, or as a snack whereas traditionally, the French eat yogurt as a dessert. There is something particularly satisfying in a cool, sweet, light dessert after a meal. But mostly because there was a significant difference in taste. I remember eating tiny tubs of unctuous stracciatella from Danone, fruit tarts in yogurt form from la Latière... I even enjoyed the creamy prune yogurt!

One of the pleasures, then, of living in France is the yogurt. Besides the typical strawberry-, peach- and cherry-flavored yogurt, there are more local flavors available in the supermarket aisles here.

Above, Danone's Velouté Fruix, Yoplaît's Caresse and Littée's Mixé.

Danone's Velouté Fruix has Guava, Coconut, Mango, and Passion Fruit/Peach. Yoplaît's Caresse has Guava, Piña Colada, Litchi, and Passion Fruit/Peach. Littée's Mixé has pineapple, mango, guava and vanilla. Veoluté Fruix and Caresse are fairly similar - quite tasty - and when we are at the store, we choose whichever one happens to be on sale at the moment. Littée, whose neon-colored labelling might serve as indication, is a bit too sweet.

Occasionally, when there is some pineapple in the house, I will cut up some pieces and add them to some coconut yogurt, with a splash of rum. A bit rich? ... not at all.