Relaxing on the "butterfly islands"

Another three weeks have past. This holiday has really gone much faster than I had imagined! The first thing I did when I arrived the Canella Beach Hotel was to lie down on the big soft bed and look at the sea from outside the wide open balcony doors. A place like this was exactly what I needed after being in Haiti nearly a month.
The “butterfly island” it is even prettier than I imagined. These are the two biggest of all the islands in Guadeloupe. They are called that because it looks like a butterfly. My hotel is in the middle of the butterfly on the Grande-Terre side. Grande-Terre is the east wing and the other wing is called Basse-Terre. The butterfly islands are separated by a river in the middle of the butterfly. Basse-Terre is also the name of the capital of Guadeloupe.


This picture shows the main islands in Guadeloupe, the capital, and where my hotel was.


This is form my hotel


This is also from the hotel

It’s about 26 degrees the whole year. The temperature doesn’t change much during the seasons. It was hot here too, but not that extreme as in Haiti. It was nearly weird to see whole buildings again, and it made me happy. I had come here to relax, and that is exactly what I have done these past weeks.
The nature is of course one of the biggest attractions on Guadeloupe. The beaches was so white, and the sea so clear and blue, that I could just stand and stare at it for hours. The water was refreshing warm, and I bathed several times even though I normally use to feel more comfortable on the land.


They really have the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen



I spent some days on the beach before I felt ready for some activities. I tried out some canoeing in the beautiful falls, and we went on boat trips on the sea. The canoeing was really funny. It went quickly down the river and I was nearly flying in the small falls. I really want to do that again soon.
I also wanted to dive while I was here, so we joined a diver trip to the reefs. We took a boat in about an hour before we could start diving. It was very windy on the boat, and it got cold when I wasn’t standing in the sun. Finally we got there, and we could start diving. We only used diving mask, because we couldn’t dive underwater. One reason was that we was amateurs without any knowledge about the equipment, but it also was to shallow. If I had put down my feet, I would have sand on the ground. But we wasn’t allowed to do that, because it could damage the corals an it could be fishes with poison in their shells, which could be very dangerous to be hit of.




This was a larger fall that we pased


I saw a turtle underwater. It wasn't this turtle, because I didn't have any underwater camera.



Guadeloupe is one of France’s 26 regions, and their language is French. They are therefore a part of EU and uses euro. Because of lack of raw material and the long distance to Europe, they rely on large transfers from France. Agriculture and tourism are their main sources of income.

I wanted to see the capital, so we drove to Basse-Terre to look around. We were only staying there a couple of days. I wanted to see the city, so we walked around, and found a nice restaurant. I ordered safe, and ended up with pizza. Pizza always tastes good.

We went on a historical museum of Guadeloupe, and It has mostly been under France. They also have been affected by hurricanes and earthquakes many times.
We found out that it was a volcano nearby, which we could visit if we wanted. I wanted of course, but I was a little doubtful when I heard that it was active. But they insured that it wouldn’t be any danger for outbreak. It was a long way to go, but when I finally got there, I didn’t regret. It was a big crater where the top should have been. The view was just amazing, and we stayed on the volcano for a while.


it wasn't any smoke while I was there, but it is the same volcano

The time has really run quickly, and I have to start packing. I’m going home tomorrow, something that I think is a shame, but it also is a little good. I’m really going to miss this place a lot. It’s like a paradise, I have to travel back here some other time too! I’m not done with the Caribbean, but I guess I never will be.



- Amanda

From a beautiful island to another

The boat trip to St. Lucia was amazing! It took a while to get there but it was totally worth it, and I saw lots of dolphins! The boat was pretty big and had this delicious food that was typically Caribbean, it tasted amazing. But I must admit that I was a little scared of the pirates and all the stories I’d heard about them.

Piracy in the Caribbean began in the 16^th and died out around the beginning of the 18^th. After the nations of Western Europe and North America came with colonies to the Caribbean and began combating pirates. The reason for Piracy in the Caribbean was because of the existence of relatively lawless British seaports such as Port Royal in Jamaica and the French settlement at Tortuga. There are still some pirates in the Caribbean and it’s often cases involving illegal drugs, but nowadays modern communication technology has made it easier to find safer places to travel and trade.

I didn’t hear about this before I’d already been on the boat for like one hour or so, so it was too late to do something about it. I’ve heard many stories about ships that have been taken over and stolen from. I was really hoping to not bump into some pirates, if not one of them where Johnny Depp, because I would be totally okay with that.

When I arrived in Castries it was just as hot as it had been in Barbados. I was more rested now than I’d been when I arrived in Barbados so I went straight to the beach to get a little tan at least. The beach was as amazing as all the other things here and the water was turquoise and not real cold but not warm either, it was perfect. What I noticed at the very moment I got there was that there where many people selling stuff and different foods at the beach, both good and annoying. They were friendly so it didn't matter that much. When I saw them I remembered that I'd forgotten my sunglasses at the boat and bought a new pair.

I’d never been in a rain forest before and since there is one in St. Lucia I decided to go. It was really exciting and I saw a lot of animals. There are all types of spices at St. Lucia from parrots to sea turtles and it’s a nature-lover’s paradise. In the rainforest I saw lots of different birds and one iguana. The iguana was really big and it was kind of scary, I’m glad I didn’t meet it alone if you know what I mean. There were also a lot of snakes so I was always watching my steps. I went with this guide and six other people, it wasn’t so long to walk and it was really interesting, it was definitely worth the money.

When we’d been walking for like an hour or so the group leader told us to stand still and not make a sound. I was really worried a huge animal was going to attack us or something but it was a snake. Oh god how I hate snakes. There was this huge snake in the middle of the road and when I say huge I mean huge. It was about 2 meters long and really fat if I can call it that. Luckily the snake was more afraid of us than we were of it, so when the leader did something to scare it away it went into the forest again. I was really scared when I went past the place it had gone into because the thought of it jumping up from the bushes and on to me was not a good one.

I also tried zip lining which was so funny, I wanted to do it one more time but it was one time only and if I was going to do it twice but I had to walk like for ages to get to the top, but if I get the change again I’ll do it. It was like flying through the forest and it went really fast. I felt like I was going to crash into the trees all the time but I didn’t and that I’m happy for.

The next day I went to Sulphur Springs, which is a volcano or a black hole in the ground where smoke is bursting out from . I’d never seen a volcano before so it was exciting for me, but someone in the group that I went with had seen one before and wasn’t so impressed about it. So I guess it isn’t something to recommend if you’ve seen a volcano before, but it was fun for me at least, and that’s the important part right?

After two days with going in the forests I wanted to chill completely for a day or so. I was just hanging around at the pool and the beach. I was talking to these nice people who were going to Gros Islet Street Party the same evening and they asked me to join them. I was kind of skeptical to be on a party in the street but it turned out great. There was this BBQ and we danced and had a lot of fun. The locals were so nice as well and I stayed there until 6 am, so the next day was spent mostly sleeping in the shadow.

Now I’m on my way to meet up with Edda in Jamaica and I’m so excited! We haven’t seen each other for a year or so, it’s going to be so much fun. I’m going there by plain and when I arrive we’re going to drive through some of the cities in Jamaica before we end up in Kingston, the capital. I’ve had a lovely time here in St- Lucia and I’ll definitely be back here as soon as I have the money, this is a beautiful island. I totally recommend going here to relax or explore!

- maren

Jamaican Experience

Posting from the hotel-room in Jamaica, this is Edda and Sophie. We are now totally relaxed, sipping coffee in our hotel-room and getting ready for the painful and tremendously unfortunate ride home. This is our last day in Jamaica, tomorrow we`re going home. We can say it has been wonderful here and we`re not, absolutely NOT happy or ready to go home in the morning. We’re dreading it, that’s why were still up at 3 am.

When we first met each other at the Montego Bay Airport we hadn`t seen each other for 6 months so we kind of had a surreal movie moment. We ran towards each other in slow motion and once we met, we dropped our suitcases and surrounded each other in a gracefully huge hug. We rented a car and had so much catching up to do, so we went out in Montego Bay to have some fun. A bit later we got in the car and drove to Kingston. We used two weeks on the road trip though; we stopped in like 5 places. We stopped in Maggotty, Santa Cruz, Alligator Pond, May Pen and Spanish Town before we reached our destination; Kingston.

After 11 hours of driving all night and keeping each other awake we reached the first stop; Maggotty. At first we were very skeptic to Maggotty since maggot means or are a despicable person. It did turn out to be kind of boring like we thought. The only thing we managed to do was to hike in the mountains to see the beautiful falls since we only had one day. We wouldn`t want to stay another anyways cause it was nothing to do there. We went out to eat but we couldn`t find any place and ended up walking for hours, in a circle, hungry and tired after driving. When we realized we wouldn`t find a place we just went back to the hotel and eat a nice fat dinner. The next day we rented a guide to take us to the falls. She was very funny and allowed us to take a bath in the water. It was a complete idyll bathing in something that looked like a rainforest/jungle.

Santa Cruz was far more exciting than Maggotty, something in which wasn’t that difficult to be honest. We arrived late at night after 4 hours of driving, so we went to sleep right away and woke up 10 am in the morning. After a real American breakfast with pancakes, eggs and bacon, butter and cupcakes, we went to the museum of art and history. It was mostly funny for me because Sophie doesn't like art that much, but agreed to join because she didn't really have a choice. It was so cool to see Jamaican art, it is so much more colorful than American. The picture I fancied the most was of a man with dreadlocks, it was so well composed and this man just looks so hopeless and like he was longing for something.

I, Sophie personally liked the café we went to afterwards better. It’s called Gigi’s Bakery and they served delicious sandwiches and this really good Jamaican coffee.

We’d only been inside all day so we wanted to hit the beach for some tanning. Sophie met this guy. He didn’t talk much English and wanted to be alone with her the whole time, which I think was kind of creepy. She escaped by surfing the waves with me. Only we’d never surfed before, so we kind of sucked at it.

This is our coach failing :P

Next destination: Alligator Pond after 4 hours of driving. At this point we were getting pretty tired of driving so much. So we stayed at Alligator Pond for 3 days. The name comes from its founder Columbus. He named it after an alligator shaped mountain, although there`s no Alligators in Jamaica only crocodiles. The mountain stands in the sea, that`s where the word pond is taken from. While there, we went to this crocodile farm and hugged real life crocodiles. It was scary to pet the huge ones but they were bred in captivity so they were sweet. In Alligator Pond we also went outdoors clubbing. We were surrounded by the sea and Jamaican dreadlock people who were great. They kept asking us to dance and so we did. It was a complete different experience than in Puerto Rico. In Alligator Pond they weren’t so open and did not want to buy us drinks. They tried to flirt and be kind of cool and superior, but some of them actually were quite nice. We went out two nights in a row and let me tell you, the third day was the worst hangover day ever; we had to drive 7 hours to May Pen. Neither of us wanted to so we switched every half an hour something which made the ride even longer. We also drove with sunglasses to see BETTER. 

Crocodile farm 

In May Pen we stayed 4 days cause we just had to be there on a Sunday to see the Hazarz Ball game. It’s a football match held every Sunday and a thousand people show up every time. While we were there Sophie and I bought ourselves some popcorn but when we were walking down the stairs a man fell and pushed us so all the popcorn was spilled. The worst part is that he refused to buy us some more and we didn’t bother to either, so no popcorn for us then.

One of the days was like a dream. We woke up with room-service eating a big breakfast with cereal, fruits, toasts, strawberries, garlic baguettes and juice. Then we went to mineral spa with only natural ingredients. The massages and the full body wax lasted 4 hours. After, we got champagne brought to us in the bubble bath we were in. It was separated from the rest of the spa so we were all alone and it overlooked the sea. Later we wanted to dress up and go out to a nice restaurant so we ate at the Pentagon. I ate a Pepperpot soup which was really hot but still good and drank a nice red wine. Sophie ate a pumpkin soup which she fell in love with. She ate every bit of that bowl, I thought she`d lick it. She drank white wine so that we could taste from one another. I actually think the waitresses thought we were a couple since we shared our food and gave each other sips from the wine. We both had Pone for desert which is a kind of pudding that tastes like raspberries and chocolate.

Pepperpot soup

Pumpkin soup

The car trip from May Pen to Spanish town was the most fun one, since none of us where hangover and we had been sleeping a lot last night. It was a rainy day so it was a good day for driving 6 hours or so. Both Edda and I had this real hunger for candy, so we ate about three bags of Jamaican candy on our way, but I have to admit that American candy’s better.

We also stopped at a junk food place to eat dinner, not the healthiest day of our life. Edda was so dumb that she forgot to pee every time we had to stop driving to get candy or water, so we stopped like a billion times in every single parking place we could find. I must admit that driving a car in Jamaica isn’t that much fun, especially when it’s like 36C outside and inside the car is even hotter. Luckily today it was only 20C outside, beautiful rainy weather, just like home in New York.

Jamaican candy

When we arrived in Spanish town it was late at night, so we checked into the hotel and went to sleep in less than ten minutes.

The next morning we decided to skip breakfast and go for a jog. It was really warm to jog in almost 30 C so the trip didn’t take long, after twenty minutes we were already at the hotel eating an early lunch, so much for trying to be healthy.

Spanish Town is the next biggest city of Jamaica, and it was the capital until 1872.  It lives about 148 845 people there, so we were really excited to see the city. Saturday morning we decided to the marked. In Spanish Town there is a special day called marked day and it’s every Saturday.  The marked opens as early as 5:30 am and you can buy everything from clothes to food. We hadn’t been shopping much so a whole day spent on this marked was good for our mood, but not as good for our wallets. We bought a bunch of different things that we really didn’t need but I guess that’s what you do when you are on vacation in Jamaica. After we`d walked around in the marked forever we decided to eat something. We sat down at this cute little restaurant and ordered a really good pizza; we’d never tasted a pizza like that before.

Finally, just finally we arrived in Kingston. After 41 hours of driving we reached our final destination. And let me tell you, we were HAPPY. On our first day we noticed that the Jamaican flag was to see everywhere. It seemed like it was a special holiday or something but when we asked the locals if something special was happening they said it wasn’t. It was really hard to understand what they were saying, so when they started to talk about a completely different subject we just stood there nodding like the dumb people we are.

The flag of Jamaica is very nice and it’s nothing like the American flag at all. The colors are green, yellow and black. A diagonal yellow cross divides the flag into four triangles: green (top and bottom) and black (the sides). The colors represent different things. Green is the symbol for the land and hope for the future, yellow the symbol for sunshine and natural resources and black symbolizes the burdens borne by the people. The flag came to use on the 6th of august 1962 because on that day Jamaica became independent form Britain.

The second day of our stay in Kingston didn’t start that well. Really close to our hotel there was a car accident, and three people were rushed to hospital. We woke up around 7 am from the noise of an ambulance. We went to the window to see what had happened and what we saw was a crushed car in front of a truck that had some minor injuries.

We turned on the TV and it was all over the news. Apparently a teacher and two students had hit a truck and were sent to the hospital. I`m still not sure if they died or not. I’m really not surprised that there was a car accident near us because they don`t exactly drive like angles here and it happens all the time. It’s almost life threatening crossing the street, you have to be really careful.

Another museum… This time we visited the Bob Marley museum devoted to his memory. We saw pictures from the time he was born till his death in May 1981. Sophie was so happy strutting about telling me all this stuff about him.

So here we are, sitting in our hotel room, finished with our coffee and wishing this night will never end. Puerto Rico, Barbados, St. Lucia and Jamaica have been a true adventure for both of us. I think it will be nice to get back to America to our real life. It`s time to go and let everything be another perfect memory only the two of us will share.


 - Edda and Sophie <3

Heaven and hell on the same place

Hey!
I have been in Haiti for three weeks now. I took the plain from Seattle in Washington, USA and the flight was very long. I had mixed feelings because I didn’t quite know what I was going to see. I arrived Port-au-Prince, which the capital of Haiti, in the afternoon and the temperature was really hot. It was between 25-26 degrees. At most it can be up to 33 degrees in July and August, but it’s normally at 28-29. The intense heat hit me as I walked out to get my luggage.
I wondered how the hotel would look like, because I had a feeling that the hotels were not the first thing they thought of rebuilding. I was surprised when I arrived Karibe hotel, it was not so bad after all. It lied a bit outside the city, but was what we wanted. It was lovely to put my feats down in the cooling pool water after a long day of travelling.


This is my hotel in Port-au-Prince






I knew that this country would be affected by the earthquake before I left, but I could never have imagined that it would be like this. The earthquake killed about 200, 000 people and made 1.6 million others homeless. It is about one year ago now. It happened 12.January 2010, and it’s still ruined houses and buildings everywhere. Even though they have rebuilt a lot, it’s still so much left. The process goes very slowly, because of lack of money. It’s still hundreds of thousands of peoples living in temporary camps.
I was surprised anyway, they seem to be happy. They have hope to get things back to normal, even though they still misses what they have lost. I see kids with amputated legs who are running and playing with the others. It's so good to see how they make the best out of the situation. On Tuesday I walked around in Port-au-Prince, and I’ll never forget what I have seen. The country was poor before the accident, and it didn’t make it any better. Peoples who lost their homes are still living in camps, and lots of children without parents or children the parents can’t afford to take care of anymore, are living in orphanages. It’s really sad to see. The orphanage was ruined by the earthquake. It was home to 350 000 orphans before the earthquake, and now it’s still 380 000 orphans living on camps.








Haiti is on the second largest island of the Caribbean, which they share with the Dominican Republic. The Haitians speak French while the Dominicans speak Spanish. When Columbus came, he called the island “la isla Española” with means “the Spanish island”. He started many sugar plantations and imported lots of African slaves. They didn’t threat the slaves well, and many died on the fabrics, but then he just imported more. He took the best part of the island and the other part, which is Haiti, and gave to the France. France kept importing black slaves, and the fabrics got bigger. After a lot of difficulties, Haiti finally declared free from France in 1825. It was the first black republic in the world. Political chaos has affected the country in almost its whole history after that.
Haiti is in a middle of the Caribbean hurricane belt and that makes Haiti to a deferred place for hurricanes. Hopefully it would not come any while I am here. It hasn’t been any so fare.

It was a lot of feelings touching me wherever I was. I was surprised when I saw how everyone helped each other out. The children were playing on the ruins of the buildings, and I saw a woman who was praying outside the ruined cathedral. The cathedral was very important to them, because it was an attraction and a building they were very proud of. Now it’s just a mass of crunched stone.


This is the broken cathedral


And this was the cathedral before the earthquake


This is the bells from the cathedral, whitch was standing nearby


A woman was praying outside the ruined cathedral




Some school kids made a show for us on a broken stone table


The most of their houses were built by metal plates or they lived in camps of tents. Many of those peoples had lost everything they had, even though they didn’t have much before either. Haiti is America’s poorest country, and about 80 percent of the people are living in huge poverty. It’s very big differences between the residents. Two of three are living as farmers, but only a small part of the land is arable. It felt unfair that I was living on a hotel with lots of food and a big pool when many of the Haitians were living in the slum.

In the evenings it starts to rain in a few hours. I found out that it was in the middle of the rainy season here, but it was mostly sun on the day time.
We drove in to the middle of Port-au-Prince and I went to take a look at the National Palace in Haiti. It is the president palace, where the president uses to live. It got completely ruined of the earthquake. Michel Martelly is the new Haitian president. He was a pop star before, and he has never been a politician. I think it’s weird that he has become the president, but I hope for their sake that he will do a good job. He is living at the president office because the National Palace is ruined.


This was the National Palace before the earthquake


And this is after


I walked around by myself a bit. The roads, which were surrounded by some half broken houses, were turned in to a market where people could sell and buy food and other stuff they needed. I walked by a “shoe store” which just was a bunch of shoes who was placed in some of those buildings. If I had been back home it would look like rubbish to me, but this was a place where they took what they could get, and what they could afford. They did it the easy way, not that they had so much choice either. A little girl was selling some handmade stuff. I bought a bracelet because I felt so sorry for her. It was very nice actually.








This is the place many use to wach clotes




A photo showing the iron mark burning afther the eartquake


Now the rebuilding of the iron mark in nearly finished

Yesterday I went to see the sea. When you first have travelled to the Caribbean it would be a shame to not look at the sea and the beautiful nature. We were going for a boat trip, and I was a little scared because they told us to watch up for caimans which is an alligator looking animal. The water was so blue and it was like a dream to look at the beautiful beaches. We kept us tight to the land, because the boat was so little, and the streams could take us away if we didn’t. We didn’t see any caimans either. I was happy about that, but some of the others were a little disappointed. We mostly ate at the hotel, because we wanted the food to be safe. You never know what is in the food you get other palaces. It would not be that funny to get sick.


This is the people who said they would take us on a boat trip. When I look back, I can't believe we trusted them, but the trip was nice and everyone come back alive ;)


The beaches is just so beautiful!


It's really looking like a paradice


It really feels like I’m going to need a holiday now, and I am very happy that I’m going to Guadeloupe tomorrow. All the impressions and al the pictures are spinning inside my head. I need to swallow them and to get an overlook over things. I am really exhausted after this trip. But I feel like I have learned a lot. I have seen the tragedies with my own eyes and that is something totally different than just looking at it on TV. I don’t regret this trip at all, it has been very interesting and I feel like I see the world with different eyes. I have learned to value the small things that I didn’t even think of before I left. But Guadeloupe, here I come!


- Amanda