Clearing customs in a small fishing village

Early morning, Larry headed ashore to clear customs for Guadeloupe.  He was gone almost 4 hours!  I was wondering, at what point do I panic and send out a search party???

His adventure ashore was just that … an adventure.  First off, Guadeloupe is a French nation.  We’ve been to countries that weren’t English speaking nations but up to this point, they have always spoken English as a second language.  Communication was never a problem.  Here in Guadeloupe, he found no one who spoke English.

Guadeloupe is basically two islands.  Grande Terre is low and flat.  Basse Terre is high and mountainous.  In the middle between the two is Rivere Salee, a small river that separates the two islands.  Our goal was to traverse this river to the southern side of Guadeloupe.  Port Louis is a small fishing village on the northern coast, about 5 miles from the river entrance.  This is why we opted on this location.  It might not have been our wisest choice!

Back to Larry’s adventure … he asked several people to try to find out where the customs office was located.  No one understood.  He tried to follow the instructions in the guidebook but it named streets and none of the streets were labeled.  He finally came to a hotel and thought for certain, there must be someone in the hotel who could speak English.  Nope … and it wasn’t even a hotel.  He approached a girl behind a counter and tried desperately to convey his needs.  He held up our passports and said “customs?”  Then tried “immigration”?  Nothing seemed to work.  But something finally clicked and she telephoned for someone. 

Finally, Andy arrived … an English speaking person!  There was no official customs office in Port Louis but Andy was nice enough to help Larry.  He went across the street to the police office and came back with a French form that needed to be filled out.  With Andy’s assistance, Larry was able to complete the form.  Andy faxed it to the main customs office (in some other city).  While Andy took care of this, he set Larry up at the Tourist Office.  Larry was anxious to find out the status of the condo repair.  They couldn’t get the WiFi working on our computer so Larry had to use one of their computers.  It was not a querty keyboard (the ones we’re used to).  The letters were all in different places.  Larry struggled to log into his AOL account and check his email.  He replied to one from Carl but there was no news yet on the repair.

Just as he was in AOL, the power went out.  The entire town lost power.  Andy came back to check on Larry and told him, he ‘thinks’ the fax went through but until the power comes back on, he won’t be able to get a reply.  Damn … it’s just one thing after another!

About 1:45, Larry returned to the boat.  His first comment was, I have good news and I have bad news.  He went on to explain his adventures ashore.  It turns out, the fax went through BUT … the government offices close at 1:30.  If someone did not respond very quickly after receiving the fax, he would have to wait until Monday to clear.  Andy made some phone calls and at exactly 1:30, he received the stamped faxed copy back to show we were cleared into the country.  Cost $0.  That was the good news he brought back to the boat.

Bad news … one of the two bridges in the river we were going to traverse is closed for another 5 weeks for maintenance.  No traversing Rivere Salee on this trip!

With the necessities of the day behind us, we couldn’t delay any longer.  We had a major cleanup project ahead of us.  While Larry was gone, I did as much as I could by myself.  It turned out, there was a second bin (under the v-berth bunk) that was also filled with water.  Water from the anchor locker had seeped into it.  It was where Larry had stored lots of spare plumbing and electrical parts.  They were now all floating in salt water.  I drained the bin and left it open to dry.  I took all the plumbing parts and cleaned them in fresh/bleachy water.  Some of the electrical parts were okay but most were ruined.  When Larry came back, he was ready to move everything back to the v-berth.  Wow, big job!

By about 4pm, we had finished.  Soulmatie was presentable again.  We decided to take a break and head to ‘town’.  Larry took me on his tour and we explored some of the side streets.  Not much to see in Port Louis but it was great to get off the boat and stretch my legs!