Continued from yesterday”¦When we were done eating, we continued north up to the town of Deshaies, which is close to the north tip of the island. Here is a scenic spot not too far from the restaurant.

Our cruising guide had said that Deshaies was a SCUBA mecca, so we expected there to be lots of dive shops. When we got to town, we drove around in search of dive shops, which took a total of 5 minutes. Deshaies is a bigger town than some others we passed on Basse Terre, but it is still quite small, with downtown consisting of about 3 blocks total. We saw 2 dive shops. One was closed at the moment and had several ads in the window for snorkel trips, but no dive trips. Hmmm. The other was open. It was the only dive shop listed in Lonely Planet for the town, and under comments Lonely Planet said that they did trips to the Cousteau Marine Park, which is exactly where we wanted to go.

We went inside and found out they only go to the marine reserve once a week. The next trip was several days out and we wouldn’t have the car anymore. We were really bummed, but went ahead and booked a trip for around Deshaies the day after tomorrow. It may not be as good as the Cousteau park, but we were sure it would still be good diving.

Back in the car, we continued north towards the tip of the island. Beyond Deshaies, it becomes quite rural, with lots of fields of crops, particularly sugar, and lots of pastures with cows. It is actually quite scenic to see the ocean in the background behind the farmland. It also isn’t quite as lush up here. We followed the road around to the west side and stopped at the rum museum in the small town of Saint Rose on the northwest side of the island. The museum is in an old distillery. Like the coffee museum, the architecture reflects what is common on the island. Also, like the coffee museum, the grounds are beautifully landscaped and there is old equipment dotting the grounds.

Sadly, no photos were allowed in the museum. The biggest room on the ground floor reminds us again of the coffee museum in that there were rows upon rows of informative signs posted giving the history of sugar cane and rum in Guadeloupe, with few actual items on exhibit. And, the signs were in both English and French! Score! A smaller room held a quite a few pieces of large equipment with signs explaining what they were and how they were used. The third room was a small movie theater, showing a film made by the distillery owners that basically reiterated what the signs said. Here is a summary of some of the things we learned:

Sugar originally comes from India, and westerners were amazed that this plant could really be as sweet as honey. Needless to say, it became popular with westerners and now is grown virtually everywhere in the world with warm weather. Sugar cane was introduced in the Caribbean by Columbus. It is a vegetable, and is a member of the bamboo family. Sugar cane was originally grown in Guadeloupe for sugar, but in the 19th century the bottom fell out of the sugar industry, so many local companies switched to rum production. Up until then, rum had really been made for local consumption, not for export.

To plant sugar cane, farmers take cane cuttings and insert them cut side into the ground. The stalks grow new roots. After only 10 months, the cane can be harvested, which means cutting the stalks off as close to the ground as possible. Interestingly enough, the sugar plants will grow right back, and can be harvested for 6 years. We’re not sure why six is the magic number, but after 6 years, the fields need to be replanted. We also didn’t know that sugar cane does indeed flower. After the cane is harvested, the farmers cut off the white tops and all the leaves. Only the green portion of the stalk is sweet. Then they bundle up the stalks and take them to the processing plant. In the old days, mules and carts were used to haul the cane to the processing plants.

The stalks are cut up into small bits by a machine. They are then put into a second machine that squeezes the juice out of the stalk. The remaining stalk is wet down and put through the squeezer a second time to get the last of the juice out. The sugar juice is strained. To make sugar, they boil the juice until it is 90% dry. The remaining 10% of liquid is molasses and separated out. The 90% of solid dries into big crystals, which are then ground to be the form we are familiar with.

At some point in time, well after sugar cane was brought to the Caribbean, people started to ferment the molasses to make what is now termed “industrial rum”. Apparently it is not all that tasty. From that industrial rum, over time they figured out how to make a better tasting beverage that we all know as rum. Rather than boil the cane juice, they take the cane juice and put it in vats, adding some bread yeast to supplement the natural yeast in the cane juice (it helps kick start the fermenting process). They carefully monitor the temperature to ensure proper fermentation. Once fully fermented, the vat is now a sugar wine that is essentially undrinkable. They separate out the “grappa” (undrinkable stuff) from the “rum” (drinkable stuff) and put the rum in containers to age. It is aging in oak barrels that cause the rum to go from clear to dark (food coloring helps, too). The grappa is used as fuel to power the machines that make the rum. It is also used as fertilizer in the cane fields. The rum distillation factory is quite proud of the fact that has a self sustaining ecosystem. If only all industries could be so environmentally friendly.

We moved on to the exhibits upstairs. The upstairs is also divided into three rooms. The biggest room is an insect museum with 5,000 insects on display. There are lots of pretty butterflies in all sizes, from tiny to big. There are moths. There are crickets. There are insects that look like sticks. There is an insect that looks kind of like a hairy spider. There are insects that look like lobsters. There is an insect that could be mistaken for a tiny bird. Those were all neat to look at. But the majority of the exhibit was beetles, ranging from tiny to bigger than Christi’s foot. Many were iridescently colored. Many had vicious looking fangs that looked like a nutcracker. Some of these beetles on display make the beetles from The Mummy look tame, the kind of bugs you have nightmares about. We have to stop going to insect museums. We never like them.

The next room had a collection of 40 model ships, which is definitely more our speed than bugs. Most were old time sailing ships. They had a couple rafts, some canoe type things, a steamship, the Titanic, and Noah’s Arc, as well. The last room was an exhibit on life for women in the colonial era. There were several mannequins dressed up in the traditional attire colorful attire. Each mannequin was doing things like hand churning butter, hand washing clothes, and other things we would never dream of doing in today’s day and age. There was also a whole display on the different ways they wore head scarves. We never knew so many elaborate head dresses could be made from simple scarves.

Last, but not least, was the rum tasting. There were three varieties of straight rum, all much too potent for Christi. There were also several varieties of mixed rums. Christi liked the rum and fruit juice mixes best. Eric liked the rum with coconut milk, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg best. As a side note, the rum museum was same admission price as the coffee museum, but was much better value for the money. If you have to choose only one, pick the rum museum.

Once we had loaded up on booze, we got back in the car. Really, we didn’t drink much. Beyond the rum museum, it wasn’t rural for much longer. Within a few minutes it started to look progressively more suburban, then urban. In the outskirts of Point a Pitre we hit bumper to bumper traffic. At the same time we hit the traffic, the scenery changed to be noticeably industrial. A beautiful rainbow appeared overhead, which was a nice distraction from the maddening traffic. We made a beeline back to Kosmos.

As an FYI, the roads are first rate and well maintained, which we have come to expect from the French. The drivers here are especially courteous. We are wishing we had a smaller car, though, as some of the roads are a bit narrow and we’d be more comfortable navigating them in a smaller vehicle. This is particularly true on the road into and out of the marina parking lot, which is barely as wide as this jeep. Parking can also be more challenging with the wider vehicle, too.

We heard from Colin about the same time we arrived back aboard Kosmos. Apparently, the airline had seriously overbooked the flight. Most airlines deliberately oversell a certain percentage of seats, but this percentage of oversell was astronomical. Many people who had full fare tickets were turned away from the flight and Colin was lucky he got on. Unfortunately, the airline was once again disorganized and once again the flight left late, so he missed his connecting flight to England. The poor guy is trapped in Antigua, an island paradise, for the night. While it is hard to be sympathetic about being trapped in the tropics, we know he misses his wife and is eager to get home to her.

On another subject, within a few hours of arriving to land, Eric was stung by a bee on his arm. We didn’t mention it because it didn’t seem to be a big deal. Yesterday it swelled up a little, which is normal. This morning his whole lower arm was completely swollen, to the point where we considered going to a doctor. We decided to give it one more day to heal up on its own, and if the swelling hasn’t gotten better by tomorrow, then he’ll go. The swelling has made his arm sore and tender.