Guadalupe by Gisele Catroux

In 1969, when I was born, I lived in Guadalupe for three years. It’s a very nice island located in the eastern Caribbean Sea at 16° 15' latitude north (the same as Thailand and Honduras) and longitude the same as Labrador and Malouines Islands. Guadalupe Island is composed of two distinct islands separated by an arm of the sea named “Salt River” but connected between them by two bridges.

Basse-Terre is the bigger (848 square kilometers), composed by the active volcano “The Soufriere” (1467 meters) (last eruption: 1976), located about ten kilometers north of Basse-Terre and on the west of Carbet Falls. Her surname is “Old Woman”. Her activity is special: sulfur vapors and hot water springs. It’s the only active volcano since ten thousand years.

Grande-Terre (588 square kilometers) is composed of an irregular succession of the ocean depths in the center and in the north, an arid shelf with rocky and wild coasts. On south littoral is located the largest tourist area, named “The Riviera”.

Four hundred twenty-two thousand people live in Guadalupe. The national language is Guadalupe Creole but every one talks in French. It’s an overseas department of France and also one of twenty-six regions of France.

It’s a very nice country with beautiful beaches and good drinking (ti’punch = rum with green lemon and cane sugar, lot of cocktails with tropical fruits), meals (curried lamb) and desserts (bananas flambé = bananas flambé with rum and cane sugar). The people are very friendly.

This country is my second country of birth.