Marie-Galante: Beautiful Things

Bethany had visited the island of Marie-Galante with friends last year and she fell in love with the beauty and slower pace of life there.  So she really wanted to show me her special getaway spot.  We took the boat over and spent a couple days there.  We rented a little villa, a studio apartment set on the hillside overlooking the sea.

The really crazy thing is that this gorgeous villa with this breathtaking view costs as much as the Ankeny Ramada where I stayed three weeks ago.  Of course, getting here is a bit more expensive.

We ate some wonderful meals here, nearly all of them in restaurants on the beach and most of them included fresh fish.

We also bought some street food prepared by local women.  The pastries we bought from them were some of the best I've ever tasted.  Bethany encouraged me to try the local delicacy - caca boeuf  (cow poop).  You can see how it got that name.  But it's actually a sweet molasses bread filled with a coconut or pineapple filling.

We had a little bird friend who tried to join us for breakfast because he also loved caca boeuf.


Marie-Galante has a history of rum and sugar production (which I posted about yesterday) but it is still a large sugar producer and has three well-known distillires.  We toured two of them, including Pere Labat - considered by many to be the best rum.  What was interesting to me is how rustic rum production is here.  The sugar cane is grown on the island so it's harvested and brought over by truck or even ox-drawn cart!  It's pulverized and the juice is extracted.  Then it's boiled in big open vats.  Nothing about the production of the rum looks modern and shiny, but I can't complain about the finished product.  They offer free tastings and they make some very fine rum here.

Lastly, two random beautiful photos.  One is of a natural cave on the north side of the island.

And this last one is of me swimming in the Caribbean sea.  In my younger years, I would have searched for a cute swimsuit and laid out in the sun - baby oil on my skin and lemon juice in my hair.  I would have been horrified to appear in public looking like an old lady or - gasp! - a tourist.  What is beautiful to me about this photo is that I am out in public - factor 45 sunscreen slathered on, a rashguard swim shirt to fully protect me from the sun, an oversized hat to fully cover my face and neck and even clip-on sunglasses to protect my eyes.  I am the living stereotype of a tourist.  And even though I undoubtedly embarrassed my daughter, she was kind enough to not say anything and she let me swim and play in the ocean, enjoying all the beauty around me without sacrificing anything to vanity.  And that is truly a beautiful thing.