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30
islands to explore
Tips
for daytrips to some of the Caribbean's most beautiful mini-islets
A
tiny little island with a palm studded beach, surrounded by nothing but
the turquoise blue sea - you won’t find jumbo-jets landing in the
Caribbean’s most beautiful locations. Normally, the only way to get to
the islet paradises shown in the holiday brochures is by yacht. The
exception: Martinique and Guadeloupe. There, over 30 small islets await
holidaying Robinson' s to beach themselves.
By Bernhard Grdseloff (C) 2005 |
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The
only thing an island explorer needs is a rental car – to drive to the
coastal towns and villages. All sorts of boats and ships set sail from
there each day en route to the nearby islets in the sea: out in the
morning, back in the afternoon. Most of the mini islands lie only a few
miles off the coasts of Guadeloupe and Martinique. But they are a world
away nonetheless.
On
the smaller uninhabited islets, nature has been preserved in her
original beauty. The islets are home to populations of rare birds, and
sea turtles breed on their beaches. However, the most spectacular of the
islets’ inhabitants are the giant iguanas. These primordial creatures
are seen most often at Ilet Chancel in the bay of Le Robert in
Martinique. A good 400 saurians live there, on a surface barely 2 km
long and 850 metres wide.
The
islets inhabited by human beings are also preservation areas: for old
customs and traditions. In Marie Galante, for example, ox-drawn carts
and ploughs are still as common today as they were centuries ago. And
the wives of the fishermen in Les Saintes still bake their traditional
cakes of love when their men set out to sea.
The
most convenient way for holidaying Robinsons to reach the islets is by
taking an express ferry or one of the large catamaran sailboats.
Individualists and explorers with a taste for adventure may well find
the excursions on fishing boats, canoes or rubber boats more in their
line. If visiting one of the larger islets, it makes sense to take a
hotel room for a night or two. For, as Gisèle Maisonneuve, the wife of
a fisherman in Les Saintes, is convinced: "One can only get a sense
of what our life and our islands are really like once the boats with the
day-trippers have left for the afternoon!" |
Ilet
Caret, Guadeloupe: day trip to ... |
