If this title did not catch your attention, then I am unsure how to lure you in. Personally, I feel that the two aforementioned items should be more than enough to grab your attention and keep you reading!
Today's first stop was : Beauport, Pays de la Canne (Beauport, the Country of Sugar Cane). Interesting name, yes? Located north of me in Port Louis, the site allows visitors to wander a former sugar cane plantation and take a train ride. The former plantation aspect interested me the most, but I am not one to turn down a free train ride! When I arrived, the cashier informed me that the early train was full and I would have to wait until the afternoon to ride. Not a problem, as I had planned on being in the area all day. (Apparently this is a common problem-- both times I was there people complained about not being able to ride the train!).
I toured the site, learned about the fabrication of sugar, and bought some gifts for my family:
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| Old windmill used to power sugar cane production |
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| Home for the plantation owner: actually brought piece by piece from Louisiana! |
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| View from the top of the windmill |
All in all a cool site: I feel like I am becoming quite the expert on sugar production thanks to all the rum and sugar sites that I've visited! Nothing too novel here (besides the train ride).
In the interim, I went to nearby Anse Bertrand to see the ruins of a former sugar plantation called la Mahaudiere. Interestingly, it is marketed as a tourist attraction despite being literally just crumbling walls. (Perhaps because of the nearby hike?). Either way, I drove quite a ways to get there, but I am so glad I finally found it!
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| Center of the former plantation |
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| Nearby sugar cane fields |
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| Natural energy! (Needed to make sugar cane, but now used to power Guadeloupe) |
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| Another crumbling wall (and tour bus- assuming they were hiking) |
Afterwards, I made the spontaneous decision to check out
la Porte d'Enfer (Hell's Door-- may have taken a bit of liberty with the translation in the title!). It's one of the city's main tourist atrractions, but I hadn't planned on seeing it since it doesn't relate at all to my project. But it's situated quite close to
la Mahaudiere so I checked it out.
But what is it? Basically big cliffs!:
I think it got its name after a couple of sailors tried to unsuccessfully traverse it. A beautiful site! I may have found a better photo op higher up, but I didn't want to hike alone, so this is the best I could do.
Afterwards, I drove back to Beauport for my train ride.
The scenery along the ride was beautiful, but I didn't take pictures because I ended up standing on the end of the car. The train takes you to a concession stand and then back. (A bit of a let down in my opinion!) But I did get to satiate my curiosity about the train ride, which merited the return trip.
Some other pretty photos from the day:
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| These trees are all around Guadeloupe: very iconic |
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| the (now defunct) sugar processing plant |
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| Trees in tires |
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| Example of scenery from train (taken when we stopped) |
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| More scenery! |
Tomorrow should be exciting: I am visiting another distillery and some hot springs, then have a meeting with an artist in the afternoon.
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