Guadeloupe – Cruising in the French Territorial Waters

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Caribbean Island Guadeloupe

Guadeloupe is a wonderful place for sailing

The island which is an overseas department of France and has an area of 1,500 square kilometres has the shape of a butterfly if you have a bird's eye view on it. The bigger part of its 330,000 inhabitants lives in the capital city Basse-Terre which is situated in the south-west of the mountainous and volcanic region of the same name. The north-east of the island has a flat relief consisting of limestone plateaus and is referred to as Grande-Terre. The inhabitants also call this part of the island a roller coaster (Montagnes Russes) because of its rolling hills. Many international airlines offer scheduled flights from Basle, Brussels or Paris to Guadeloupe (international airport Raizet). Cruise liners from Miami are landing in Pointe à – Pitre. The exceptionally impressing landscape elements, that charter tourists can see here, are certainly the spectacular white sandy beaches and the wonderful turquoise bays. Some of them are protected by coral reefs. In the interior, there are broad sugar cane plantations. A dividing line between the both wings of the island is the Rivière Salée, a narrow water channel flanked by  mangrove swamps. It connects the northern bay Grand Cul-de-Sac Marin, which is interspersed with numerous coral reefs and rich in fish, with the southern bay Petit Cul-de-Sac Marin, on whose north east end Pointe-à-Pitre, the economic centre and capital of Guadeloupe,  is situated.

In the pre-Columbian period, approximately 2,000 years ago, the island was supposedly populated by Venezuelan indians (Arawak). In the memorable year 1493, Guadeloupe was discovered by Columbus. Since 1674,  the island is a part of French territory.
 

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