Yesterday at lunch we had scanned through our e-mail messages quickly looking for anything urgent. This morning we actually read through all the messages, which took hours. We also did a little tidying around the boat. Colin packed and got ready for his flight. It didn’t seem like we had done much, but suddenly the morning was gone.

At lunch time, we went to another restaurant within the marina complex. The food was really good here. Christi ordered accras, which are traditional salt fish fritters. Out came a plate of small, deep fried doughy things that looked kind of like misshapen donut holes. And they kind of tasted like donuts sans the sugar. They were delicious, and not at all fishy. Colin despises fish and he had some, which says a lot about how not fishy they are! This place serves enormous portions of food.

Today it was much hotter than yesterday. Yesterday we were enthralled by the warmer weather, but today it is not pleasant. We thought we were going to have heat stroke on the short walk back to the boat. We turned on the air conditioning while we called around looking for a car rental. We found a company who would deliver a car to us in 20 minutes. Now that is service! Of course, 20 minutes was closer to an hour, but who can complain when they bring the car to you? We gaped in awe at the Grand Cherokee SUV. This is by far the biggest rental car we have ever gotten, which we don’t necessarily view as a good thing.

As soon as all the car paperwork was done, we took Colin to the airport. He was flying to the nearby island of Antigua on a standby ticket, and he wasn’t sure if he would get on the flight or not, so he wanted to get to the airport ASAP to check in. The airport is just a few miles due north. We exited the airport and hopped on the freeway with no problems. After driving for a few minutes, we crossed over the bridge that goes over Salt River into Basse Terre. Oops, the airport is in Grande Terre. Obviously, we made a wrong turn. We did eventually find the airport, but we definitely took the scenic route. We saw a fair bit of town on the drive. All the roads we were on looked to be mostly industrial, with lots of low warehouse style buildings housing everything from grocery stores to construction material centers. Most looked to be reasonably well maintained. There were a few tall office complex type buildings and a few big residential apartments scattered here and there, as well. The most interesting part of the drive was the cows. All along the roads there would be a cow here, or two or three there, happily grazing away at the grass along the side of the road. We see farm animals on the side of the road all the time in less urban areas, but this may be the first time we have seen them on an actual freeway. The cows look like they are owned, like people bring them to the edge of the freeway in the mornings to graze. The cows seem to have enough sense to stay away from the cars whizzing by.

Once we made it to the airport, Eric and Christi dropped Colin off and went sightseeing.
This time we took a different series of roads and saw the more residential areas. The architectural style is an eclectic mix. They range from buildings that look like they belong in Paris, houses that look like they belong in New Orleans, some colonial style homes, some plantation style homes, bungalows with gingerbread trim, and more modern style designs. There are some beautiful buildings that look to be well maintained. Most buildings looked like they were nice once, but are now seriously weather beaten and run down. There were also more than a few scary looking dilapidated shacks, probably poorly built to begin with, and now looking like they would collapse at any minute. There was a shocking amount of graffiti. We intuitively sensed that this was not the kind of neighborhood one should walk around in. We didn’t see any cows in the residential areas, either. Maybe the cows also intuitively sense that it isn’t safe to walk around in those neighborhoods.

We found the very heart of the city center, a large park called Place de la Victorie along the commercial harbor. There were a few commercial looking vessels around, but it doesn’t look to be an active shipping port. The park is attractively landscaped with flowers, statues, fountains, gazebos and pretty ocean views. The area right around the park looked to be better maintained than most of the other places we passed through. The second and third photos are of the buildings around the park, to give you a sense of the architectural diversity.

We continued south along the road that parallels the water, and only one block away from the park we were in another scary looking residential neighborhood. This road took us back to the marina, but we continued past the marina to the town of Gosier, just a couple more miles south. From the marina on, the atmosphere was newer, nicer, cleaner and safer.

At the northern end of Gosier is a lovely looking park that borders the bay, and we decided to take a walk in the park. Just a few hundred yards from the shore is a small island, called Isle de Gosier, and there were several boats anchored there. It looks like a nice anchorage — very scenic.

After just a few minutes of walking, it started to rain a little. We took shelter in a “snack” across the street. Right after we walked in, the light rain turned into a violent downpour, and we were glad to be sheltered. We ordered sandwiches and were delighted to find they were tasty, huge, and cheap. When we ordered, the guy behind the counter warned us that the sandwich would come on round bread similar to a giant hamburger bun, as opposed to a baguette as is standard in France. He was worried we would turn our nose up at the idea of eating a non-baguette. We found that entertaining.

Once we were done eating, it was starting to get dark and we went back to the marina. Lonely Planet says that some neighborhoods are downright dangerous after dark, and since we didn’t know one neighborhood from another yet, we didn’t want to take any chances. On the way back we talked about how Colin must have gotten on the flight since he hadn’t called to be picked up. Of course, within a couple minutes of setting foot on Kosmos, Colin called and said he didn’t get on the flight. He had quite the horror story about the lack of organization at the local airline. The abbreviated version, sans the painful details, is there had been about a dozen people total trying to get a “stand by” seat on the flight. The airline strung everyone along until the flight left (and it left way behind schedule), but in the end not one of the “stand bys” was allowed on the flight. Let’s just say that after hearing the details, when we saw him we were surprised he hadn’t pulled all his hair out.

This time we made it to and from the airport without getting lost, always staying on the main busy highway, and wary of making a wrong turn into a bad neighborhood. Despite the fact that we had gotten lots of sleep last night, Eric and Christi were exhausted and went to bed at 1930, leaving Colin to fend for himself for dinner and evening entertainment. He got a nice steak dinner and a bottle of wine to help him relax, then spent the rest of his evening in the internet café trying to book a full fare ticket (as opposed to the airline employees discount ticket he already had) with a guaranteed seat. He realized he would never, ever get off the island with his standby ticket, and he was most delighted when he succeeded!