guadeloupe 2019
We’re both planners when it comes to trips and traveling. And let’s just be real, we plan Costco trips together a week in advance (all 4 the samples!!!) so we honestly shocked ourselves when we decided to book a trip to an island we had never heard of at 11:45pm one Saturday night (15 minutes before the $250 flight sale ended, WHO ARE WE) This trip made me want to be more spontaneous than I ever think I *actually* will be, but the memories we made these six days were something I would never want to miss out on. We somehow established a “routine” in this short week away and so many days were spent waking up early to the most amazingggg view, slow mornings with our coffee + quiet time, exploring beaches and hiking in the afternoons, driving home on the winding beautiful roads of Saint Anne to make a gourmet meal of roasted vegetables and gelato for dinner at our airbnb, and ending every night including quality time with Lucas Scott and our friends of One Tree Hill. And as for the burning question I’m sure you’re wondering… no, Netflix is not available in Guadeloupe. However yes, I did bring my dvd series of One Tree Hill from high school along with a portable dvd player in my backpack. What is “too far”?
11 Things I Never Want To Forget From This Week:
1. When we pulled over after spotting cows on the side of the road. Don’t be above this. I know we have endless cows roaming in Lancaster but there’s something about Guadeloupean cows.
2. What our uniform of the week was: swimsuit, bathrobe, and slippers (generously provided by our Airbnb host). Anytime we were out exploring in jumpsuits and jean shorts we’d be dreaming about the glorious moment of getting back to our Airbnb, greeted by the most ideal apparel.
3. On our first day in Saint Anne, we stopped at a grocery store and caused a scene when we spotted goat cheese in the cooler. Picture two American girls squealing and dropping to their knees in thankfulness for this little piece of home. God knows us.
4. The winding, poorly marked streets of Guadeloupe. We rented a car for the week that had temperamental air conditioning... and air flow is 100% necessary when it feels like you’re on a Six Flags rollercoaster. Prayers were said more than once and I may have had a mini heart attack on one particular occasion when my foot seemed to be pushing on the accelerator as far as it would go and we were in the middle of what felt like Mount Everest and our car wasn't moving. The roads are also not marked properly *in our opinion* and google maps would tell us “you’ve arrived” when in reality, our destination was 2 miles down the road. Shout out to our Airbnb host who also happened to be an angel named Muriel, waiting for us on the side of the road at 10pm the night we arrived because we had no reception and we could not find our place.
5. All the pretzels and Reeses peanut butter cups we somehow stuffed in our backpacks. All credit goes to my pal Liner who, last minute, texted me while I was at Target and said “pick up pretzels and other treats we will want!!!” and my initial thought was “can’t we just buy that there???” but I listened like a good friend would and PTL I did because we didn’t see a single pretzel or chocolate bar in all of Saint Anne. We were better humans because of this.
6. Make-shift meals. Caroline made my faveee gluten free peanut butter cookies and upon getting on the plane we thought *now is the time* so she pulls them out of her backpack, anticipating that we’ll be making fellow passengers envious of our domestic abilities only to find they’re all completely crushed and crumbly. I’m not one to let anything this good go to waste (find me eating the crumbs off your plate) so all week I was pouring these cookie crumbs on my yogurt for breakfast. By the last day, Caroline finally caved to try my make-shift five star meal and… I'm sure she’ll give you her thoughts if you ask.
7. The day we were walking back to our car from the beach when Caroline and I see a large stray dog (take our word for it) following closely behind us and as it picked up it’s pace so did we... I'm telling Caroline (and myself) to stay calm, just ignore it, but it keeps getting closer as caroline keeps turning around and looking at it while i’m now YELLING at her “don’t make eye contact!!! it will think you wanna play!!!” too late... caroline is darting back and forth on the road (said she was trying to “lose” the dog) then next thing I know she’s running up to a car full of people who don’t speak english saying “CAN YOU HELP ME? I’m kind of afraid of dogs!!!” to which they shrug, most likely confused by her panic as i’m now hunched over and losing it. happy to report we’re fine and the dog was most likely harmless but... American girls will be American girls. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
8. Every meal we ate at our Airbnb. I think we ate out for two meals the entire week and after paying $12 for an omelette that was essentially eggs and onions, we agreed on practically every meal at home. After our omelette instance, a white pizza on our last night there was the key factor in redeeming our opinion of Guadeloupe’s food. We asked our french-speaking waitress if she could add goat cheese to our pizza (#typical) and after repeating ourselves and her clearly not understanding what we were asking, we were about to give up when she responds with “baaaa?” as you can imagine our eyes LIT UP as we started “baaaa-ing” back to her, nodding our heads and asking for “lots of that!!!” breaking language barriers and changing our LIVES. Thank you Lord.
9. The day we did the impossible and got a private boat tour in Guadeloupe. About 4 months before our trip, Caroline told me that for my birthday gift we would go on a boat excursion while we were here. We decided on a *sunset cruise* (how bachelorette of us) the only problem was that when we finally picked a night to go down to the marina to set sail, we walked around for 2 hours in the scorching sun while stopping at every business we saw to find that no where did private tours and we were told “no one for sure” did boat tours at this time of day. Sat down to drown our sorrows in sweat and gelato as I tried to stay positive amidst the blisters on my feet, suggesting the pool as a good alternative to a boat cruise (lol) I almost had Caroline convinced as we’re beginning our depressing journey home (thinking... we just wasted 3 hours of our day looking for a boat) before we pass one last business that offers boat tours. as you can predict, we got a “no” once again so in desperation Caroline asks “you don’t even have a friend that could take us on a boat for an hour?” Two minutes later, this guy is on the phone with his friend (a saint) asking if he wants to make our dreams come true. Our eyes practically welled up when the sweetest old man with the best personality who spoke no English at all showed up, took us out on his boat, let us snorkel in the water and although we couldn’t properly communicate to him how thankful we were... pretty sure he got the picture judging by our uncontrollable laughter the entire time.
10. How Caroline and I were always in agreement when it came to what to do, when to eat gelato twice in one day and when to buy more goat cheese, when to go home to wear our bathrobes, when to hike farther and when it’s just not fun anymore. My favorite thing about traveling with Caroline is that even the rushing through airports, trying to communicate with locals that don’t speak English, getting sent to a casino to convert your dollars to euros because no one understands what you’re asking, sweating in the scorching sun with blisters on our feet... all of it is 10x better when you’re traveling with someone who thinks it’s all fun and games (until someone loses their cell phone on the train ride home.) It only seems fitting that we told people we were sisters on this trip and I wouldn’t have it any other way. <3
11. On our flight/train ride home when Find My iPhone saved my life. Just another reason I will remain loyal to Apple until my dying day. On our train ride home from JFK to Lancaster, I left my phone on the seat as the train took off (along with visions of finally sleeping in my own bed after 13 hours of travel) and we found out it would be stopped 45 minutes away, so we frantically and very safely drove to Harrisburg, using the app to see it was stopped at that train station. Picture two girls (one on the verge of tears??) running inside a very quiet train station asking if anyone found a phone. an *angel* officer helps us search the train and no luck. I'm about to break down and accept the defeat, coming to the realization that i’ve probably just lost all my pictures along with my chipotle app login, when I hear him tell me “it’s probably stolen” as Caroline whispers “it is NOT stolen” so I open the app again and see that my phone is ON THE MOVE. We find out it’s on a different train (apparently in a kind-hearted effort to help us, this angel officer had us searching the wrong train) and my phone was “on the train back to Lancaster.” Long story short (oh wait lol) our new friend asked police at the Lancaster station to search the train for my phone in the 60 seconds it was stopped, and you can imagine the uproar and obnoxious scene Caroline and I caused when we heard through the phone “touchdown!!!” and we drove back to Lancaster to find my phone, just where I left it.
We love ya, Guadeloupe.
