December 29 – Pointe-A-Pitre, Guadeloupe

Weather – 28º, sunny

Steps – 8,212; unless we put in some effort, we can’t make over 10,000

Humidity – 70%

ginger - all over the park

As soon as we looked outside this morning, we recognized Guadeloupe (pop. 395,700). This is our third visit, and the port is easy for us to remember with it’s 5 story buildings decorated with street art. Guadeloupe is an “overseas department” of France - people are French citizens with French passports, the Euro is

1 or 14 suspension bridges

the currency.

1 of 14 suspension bridges

Because we have been here previously, we have done the typical things…rum and waterfalls. This time, we picked a tour to a nature park with the highlight to be suspended wooden bridges…this turned out to be a zoo with a course of 14 narrow suspension bridges in the
treetops. The suspension bridge (65 feet above the ground) part was quite cool, but the place was too
busy to accommodate people very well. What was supposed to be a 30-minute suspension bridge trek took at least double that time. We didn’t have anything else to do, and weren’t pressed for time, but sheesh! There was dense, lush foliage so gaze upon, but after 10 minutes of that…I could have moved on.

lush everywhere

enormous leaves

Then there were animals that were cool to see, but I’m not a fan of enclosed animals. In the end, we figured the tour was a bit inaccurately described, with the suspension bridge part being over hyped. We thought the suspension bridge part would be a main focus…it was in terms of time needed, but otherwise, not so much.

It was a bummer, but again…some tours are duds, and some are great. Sometimes it’s good to
experience duds to know when you get a good one. Plus, dud tours are really pretty rare.

There were some really cool plants and flowers - birds of paradise, bright yellow cannas, wild orchids and wild ginger.

what's the hold up???

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at Cascade aux Écrevisses one of Guadeloupe’s 100

Cascade aux Écrevisses

waterfalls. I am a sucker for all things waterfall, so I wasn’t sad we stopped here. We had in fact visited these falls on a previous trip – we remembered that one being in a torrential downpour. It was a short walk over a cobbled tourist friendly pathway (the French seem to pour money into the nature infrastructure here) to look at the falls and then back to the bus. That’s all that was necessary.

We grabbed a plate of lunch from the buffet and ate on our balcony. We were in the shade again, so took advantage. We are on floor 10 this trip, right under the buffet and pool on 11. I was a bit worried about the sound from above, but we’ve heard little. It is very convenient in terms of popping up and down.

Our entertainment was watching Mormon door knockers stream out of an apartment building across from the ship. 4 or 5 at a time would come out, pile into a car and be off. We didn’t see any return.

good bye Guadeloupe

On cruises, you typically choose the specific room you will stay in. There are pros and cons to location. With Regent, we usually (not always, if we can get an OK price on a aft facing room we’ll splurge a bit on that) choose the least expensive room – on Regent, once you are out of your

local beer - 3.5 euro

room everyone is treated the same in terms of inclusions. Unless you really splash out, all of the rooms are the same size and layout…the difference is the location.

don't know what they are but...gorgeous!

When we booked this cruise, the inexpensive rooms were booked, all we were able to get was a ‘guaranteed’ room. Meaning, you are guaranteed to be on the ship, but the room you get is a crap shoot – the price is better too for guarantee. You could
luck out and get a primo room, or not. As we always pick the least desirable category, we figured it would work out. We ended up with in a ‘Concierge E’ room.

more flowers

Regent introduced a category of concierge rooms a while back – these give more internet log ins (we get unlimited), a pre-cruise hotel night (not bad) and a ‘better’ location (not important to us). With the guarantee we had, we got none of
this, so essentially, our room is the same size as most are in a better location (higher up).

Diana – Yeah, a bust…you win some and you lose some. I figure getting the Wordle in 3 is skill, in 2…luck. Yesterday it took us ALL the tries, we finally got it, but it took some time.