Recommend October 2013 - (Page 48)

This photo: Tendacayou EcoLodge Boutique Hotel & Spa on Basse-Terre. Below (both photos): Beachside and at a ﬁsherman’s village on Les Saintes. Opposite page: Guadeloupe produces rum distilled directly from the sugarcane. LES SAINTES Wind was a power source in the old days— remember, it’s free, sustainable, and not subject to price gouging—so at one point, there were hundreds of stone windmills on the ﬂat, breezy grande galette. The countryside is still dotted with these sturdy structures, and the one to stop at is Bezard, a rarity that was ﬁtted out with some iron parts in the late1800s and is still working. (With all this agriculturerelated history, you might not expect the island to have a major music fest, but it does, and it’s a dandy: Terre de Blues, in May.) These days, wind power is mostly used to propel the sailboats that moor in the harbors of Grand-Bourg and Saint Louis, while on the Marie-Galante’s east coast, it gives a lift to kitesurfers. The swimmable beaches are back on the island’s sheltered west coast; just for starters, Anse Canot and Plage de la Feuillière will bring a smile to anyone who craves expanses of white sand, soft surf, and the shade of palm trees rather than condo towers. These tiny, hilly, semi-arid isles south of Basse-Terre were never conducive to growing cane, so the people you see on Terre-de-Haut and Terre-de-Bas, the only two that are inhabited, are mostly descendants of Breton and Norman seafarers and ﬁshermen who never imported slaves. Terre-de-Haut is the island visitors are more likely to visit, what with its frequent ferry connections to Grande-Terre. But that’s not all it has. The harbor at the village of Terre-de-Haut is a beauty: a calm, C-shaped body of clear, clean water. Like the bay at Rio de Janeiro, it’s presided over by a statue of Christ on a hill, and although neither the hill nor the statue are as large as Rio’s, they’re in perfect proportion to everything else. The village is the ideal size, too, just large enough to have sprouted a few shops and galleries, cafes and restaurants. Some day-trippers rent mopeds or just hoof it up the hills to see the statue up close; admire the locals’ neat, tiled-roofed houses fronted by pots of ﬂowers; or get themselves to Pain de Sucre or Pompiere Beach. Some arrange to go diving in waters where the coral hasn’t been strangled by a million rubber ﬂippers. Still others visit Fort Napoleon, and once there, they may spend more time at the site than they’d planned. VISIT EDU.RECOMMEND.COM/GUADELOUPE & TAKE THE BRAND-NEW GUADELOUPE ISLANDS SPECIALIST PROGRAM 12 edu.recommend.com/guadeloupe 6-13 Diff Strokes.indd 12 9/20/13 11:10 AM http://EDU.RECOMMEND.COM/GUADELOUPE http://edu.recommend.com/guadeloupe

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recommend October 2013

Editor's Notes
Hotel Desk: COMO Hotels and Resorts
Tour Talk: Emirates Vacations
Hail Caesars!
Wine Country + San Francisco: A Perfect Pairing
A Vintage Stay in Mexico
Lais-Back Luxury at La Casa Que Canta, Zihuatanejo
Asia Raises the Bar on Luxury
Guadeloupe islands Travel Planner
Royal Princess
Cunard's Queen Elizabeth
Seaside Swells: Brazil + Uruguay
Moroccan Splendor
Regent Palms Turks & Caicos
It Takes A Villa

Recommend October 2013