Waterfalls

Wednesday 7th July

Location: Port De Plaisance, Marina Bas Du Fort, Guadeloupe

We were all very keen to continue our exploration of the island today, and couldn’t wait to get going. At 11am after laundry, and other essential boat chores, we headed back out to the rainforest again, in our trusty little Aveo. The roads here in Guadeloupe really are so good, they’re better than most American roads, although in my opinion, the attention paid to the homes and gardens is sadly lacking.
There are street vendors everywhere, and much to Edi’s annoyance people simply stop randomly in the middle of the road to make purchases, while everyone behind just has to sit and wait, this practice causes long traffic jams, and made Edi quite angry.
We turned off the main highway and headed inland, up into the rainforest towards Carbet falls, one of the most popular tourist attractions on Guadeloupe. Carbet Falls are a series of three spectacular waterfalls that attract over 400,000 visitors a year. The drive through the rainforest was quite steep, however our little Aveo handled it all very well. The vegetation in the forest was absolutely amazing, there were massive bamboo canopies over the road about 100 feet + high. Occasionally we caught a glimpse through the trees to the views beyond which were breathtaking. We saw Mongoose running along the side of the road, and heard lots of frog and bird song, but we didn’t manage to catch sight of any. The jungle appeared like we were driving through a scene from Jurassic Park, fortunately we didn’t come across any prehistoric monsters!
Eventually we reached the parking area and made our way to the start of the waterfall trails. There are guides and attendants available to help you, it cost 1 euro per person. The first walk is only about 30 minutes, along a very well laid out path, which brings you to the base of a spectacular waterfall. There are other trails that will take you to the higher waterfalls, but they are at least 90 minutes and longer, and we needed to pick up more water and a few other provisions and get the car back by 4pm so unfortunately we didn’t have the time. Maybe another trip.