23rd to 29th March 2019
One of the best spots we’ve been to so far. The anchorage is long and narrow, all around the bay – and it was busy the whole time we were there.
It’s warm, of course, but the kids still managed very nearly all of a 7km walk up to a waterfall (next to the distillery), including a little exploring of the river up from the waterfall, then back through the sugar cane fields and along the beach. They were somewhat tired afterwards – we should really check distances before setting out rather than just glancing at a map. Ahh well, live and learn.
Another day a mere 4km to the earth sciences museum – which is a MUST if you have kids and want to educate them, and includes a great room full of interactive experiments. Probably more suited to 6-10 year olds (and French speakers), but ours got plenty out of the visit in any case. Along the way we happened upon a school with some astoundingly good paintings about the particularly deadly volcano in 1902 (“lava bombs are killing those humans”, as Theo put it). We spent a while looking at and talking about them as they told the story of what the town was like before the volcano and how they rebuilt. And, walked through the ruins of a theatre, prison, and Church – all well worth visiting if you enjoy stone buildings, volcanoes, destruction, and developing your spatial imagination. On the way home that day we went to a local bakery intending to pick up a baguette for a snack – the kids spent a while looking at the owner’s cat and they wouldn’t take our money for the bread. A little conflicting as they need the money more than we do, but very generous.
Arthur is getting increasingly confident in the water without his body-board. He managed the 100m to shore with only a couple of brief stops to hold onto Charlotte, who was comfortable taking him and Theo (with his swim noodle) to the beach. Charlotte also took them out in the dinghy to look at starfish. We’ve never seen so many of them – there were about 5 or 10 visible from the boat at any one time, and Charlotte had no trouble finding some in shallower waters so she could pick them up and put them in a bucket to show the kiddies. Boat schooling at its best all round here, actually.
