Guadeloupe Alive Guide

Description

Guadeloupe is an archipelago in the center of the Lesser Antilles. The main island is actually two irregular ovals hinged together like an open oyster shell. Smaller outer islands float nearby like spilled pearls in the turquoise sea. Grande-Terre, the eastern half of the shell, is basically a flat field of lush sugarcane dotted with colorful towns and rimmed by long, sandy beaches. Basse-Terre is a mountainous forest marked by waterfalls, rivers, hot springs and a volcano. The two are joined by a bridge over the Rivière-Salée, a channel that connects the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. Grande-Terre and Basse-Terre: Why, you may wonder, is the smaller, flatter half of the island called Grande-Terre (big land), and the larger, mountainous half called Basse-Terre (low land)? The only theory that makes sense is that early sailors, with their obligatory obsession for wind, noticed that northeastern trade winds blew grande when they hit the flat eastern shore, but basse when they...