We are now in Guadeloupe, scratching our heads over what people around us are saying. Pretty much every conversation starts with "Bon jour", a "Je ne parle pas francais" and a silly apologetic smile. Thankfully, people are very nice and most people understand at least a little English. At least we know how to ask for beer and the check in French. We will survive!

Guadeloupe is surprisingly different from Antigua. It seems to have retained much more of its character and culture, which is good! (But the infrastructure is mostly paid for by EU and France, hence is in a different league compared to the other islands we visited.) We no longer get the beaches to ourselves, but the beaches here are quite nice. And the sovenirs here are to die for! In Antigua they only had cheap crap made in China with an Antigua sticker on it. Ok, some of the souvenirs here are probably also made in China, but they are at least very cool. There is even a shack outside of the hotel where there is a man actually making woven hats, baskets mats etc on the spot. He seems to be there from sunrise to late into the night. We never saw anything like that on Antigua.

Here we're staying at a resort so some of the authenticity is lost compared to the little hotel we stayed at in Antigua. I really miss my donkey and rooster alarm clock that woke me up every morning in Antigua. I however don't miss the spider and the occasional cockroach as much :) . Oh well, there are some strange creatures here too. I haven't quite gotten used to the typical French topless, smoking "lady" at the beach :) .

But I am busy looking up into the palm trees at the beach so no more blogging today!!

(Very) few pictures are now posted in my Antigua album and my Guadeloupe album.