Toodles: Two days and a rental car

So we blobbed for a few days, then put our tourist caps on and rented a car for a tiki tour of Guadeloupe.

First step - attempt to speak French and ask for a rental car. Well, actually this was more like go to the tourist information office and ask where the rental car place is, then attempt to find it, fail, then ask a local shop owner to show you where it is, fail to understand them and require them to take you there. Accomplished! 15 further confusing minutes later we have a car! This time it is a little silver Ford focus with what felt like a 300cc engine (still beats Plod the death machine).

Next step - drive around the island. This is more difficult than it sounds. The island is in a butterfly shape so it isn't a simple circumnavigation. Everyone was also driving on the wrong side of the road so we had to swerve to miss them all. Idiots. We have found that the maps provided by the rental car places are also negligently insufficient. There is this thick, usually red line that marks the main road, then a few yellow sub-lines that go off in all directions with no names or approximate distance markings.

We decided to head to the main town Pointe-a-Pitre in the centre of the butterfly. By a great stroke of luck we made it there via a very impressive highway. We attempted to exit the highway to get to Pointe-a-Pitre. We were confronted by a spaghetti junction. After taking the wrong exit and re-entering the highway three times, we make it. This was after we had already tried, and failed, to take the cycle lane there. Although the car was small, there was no way it was going to make it over the pedestrian/cyclist bridge.

Underwhelmed by Pointe-a-Pitre, we continued on to St Anne, a seaside village, for lunch. Much better. I was able to order lunch, a drink and the cheque in French, and was understood! My french was obviously improving.

We spent the rest of the day driving around the island and taking in the views, deciding on what places were good to explore further tomorrow. One highlight was when we saw a huge iguana fall out of a tree at the side of the highway. We debated whether it had fallen asleep or encountered a weak branch, but it was clear that it wasn't the first time (nor the last) that this iguana had fallen out of a tree. It quickly found its feet and after a moments breather, made its way into the bush.

Day two began with a rainforest walk up in the hills where it was nice and cool. The sound of cicadas chirping rang in our ears for the full hour. The cicadas here sound different than at home. Start with the base sound of a cicada, then mix it with the sound of a baby screeching and the sound you would imagine a small dinosaur would make right before it eats you. We kept to the trail, to make sure we didn't come across said small dinosaur.

In fact, there wasn't just one trek...there were two. This time it was to a waterfall. This walk was a lot less challenging than the first, illustrated by the high heeled shoes of the French tourist in the photo. Their idea of hiking gear differs greatly to ours.

It wouldn't be a fun day out for Katies without some animals thrown in, so Gary took me to the zoo. Some of it was rather depressing, although the racoons were cute enough to cuddle...which it explicitly said not to, so I used all my will power to hold back.

It wasn't your average zoo. It had animals ranging from hermit crabs and cockroaches to jaguars and leopards. It also had a tree top trail with hanging bridges between the biggest trees. Gary was interested in the termite trails on those trees, as well as the three ordinary nails that were holding up the bridge wires.

Pickle!

Our final stop was Fort Delgres. Gary went through a fort phase a while back and went to ever fort we went passed. I got rather tired of seeing forts, but this one was different. The fort and its grounds were absolutely massive and largely intact. It even has its own moat. Each building we passed we thought of how we could best renovate it, loving each building more than the last - the stables, the officers buildings, the jail and the church. Gary would also comment "your Mum would love this one!"as we approached each and every one. Unfortunately we didn't get pictures of all them.