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Another glorious day another gorgeous Caribbean Island to explore... as always on port days we're up and organised nice and early, breakfast was once again in the main dining room. We knocked on Heather and Tims door on the way to breakfast to tell them we'd meet them in the atrium at 8.30 as we were shouting them the tour today. Heather was somewhat seedy and I'm sure if I'd given her a chance would have gone back to bed but we'd already paid for the tour and I wasn't going to have her back out on me now.. I had warned her many times last night to be aware that she'd have to be up and at 'em in the morning!! Didn't take long however for her to come good, once she hit the water and had a beer in her hand she was right as rain. She did tell me that they'd been out dancing and Richard and Patrick had asked where I was and why wasn't I up there dancing the night away with them? I had done a lot of research on all the ports but Guadeloupe was the hardest one to find any information about, the cruise ships have only just started going there so they really aren't geared for tourism and the ships tours seemed a bit pricey and, well, if you've read any of my blogs you'd know we just don't like being on tours with lots of people, we prefer the smaller more personalised tours. I had found Artek Tours through reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor and Cristina has glowing reviews so I went ahead and booked it for the 4 of us. Through chatting on CC two other groups booked the tour as they were having the same problems I'd had finding something and we pleased to have a tour organised. We didn't really talk too much to Mary Lou and her husband but Mary Kathryn, Kyle and their daughter Jenny we seemed to see a lot more throughout the cruise, they're a lovely family from Rochester NY and I'm sure they were enjoying being in the warm sun for a change! The problem (well not problem, the thing) with Guadeloupe is that it's a French speaking nation so if you don't speak French you can find yourself stranded somewhere.. or that was my fear... also they only take Euros which Cristina had told me but I thought we could get some onboard, as it turns out we couldn't! There were a lot of conflicting reports about walking around the port/town area, some said it was dirty and they felt unsafe and others said they didn't have any problems so I wasn't taking any chances!! Cristina met us as promised outside the port gates and we drove about 15-20 mins to a small jetty where we got on a little fishermans boat and were taken over to a small island for a day of swimming and snorkeling. Cristina had an esky full of supplies and gave us all a tub of fresh fruit, lots of drinks and some yummy breadsticks freshly baked that morning. The island is very small and is the spot that all the locals go for the day so we were basically the only tourists around. Heather,Tim and I went for a wander around the island, it only took about 15 minutes... but Rodds' foot was hurting a bit I think so he declined the walk. After a few hours on the island we got the boat back to the mainland and we were taken to a local restaurant at the marina where Cristina translated the totally French menu.. just as well she was with us cos my school girl French wasn't going to translate that menu! We had a lovely lunch all chatting away happily then back to the port and a quick spot of shopping to get the shot glass, magnet and T-shirts for Rodd. This was actually quite an adventure cos even though they did take US $$ in the port shops they didn't speak english so they'd be talking away to me in French telling me how much and I just nodded and thrust some money at them!! We had a fairly quiet night, at 7.30 we went to the Stardust Lounge where we happened to run into Heather and Tim so they sat with us, we had great seats right up the front for the most amazing show.... Soul Duo... this couple are amazing acrobats and athletes. They do a somewhat Cirque Du Soleil routine and I sat absolutely transfixed for the entire performance. Buffet for dinner sitting out on the back deck at the Great Outdoors Cafe then an early night ... well not really early cos it was after 9 but early considering some of the nights we've had! One more glorious Caribbean Island to enjoy, St Thomas here we come!
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Debra OMG indeed Larn.....talk about THE classic photo! Gorgeous....even to a non-beach lover like me!