The universe is clearly saying no to sunbathing and swimming

The plan for today was that Victoria, Jossan and I were going to enjoy one of the beaches on Les Saintes, the little island beside Guadeloupe, and sunbathe and swim. The day did however not turn out exactly the way we pictured it.

On the other side of the island from where Gunilla is, there is a gigantic beach. It is probably the biggest on the island and the local airstrip goes right over the beach. We went there with high hopes and walked by all the little shops, colourful houses and a beautiful cemetery. When we got to the beach however, we realized pretty quickly that this was not the place to swim and sleep on the beach. I swear the wind could have blown my towel all the way back to Gunilla and the waves were huge. We did absolutely did not feel like risking our lives at that beach, so we did not even try and went to the next beach.

The next beach is situated in the middle of the village. We were looking for shade, because at that time it was starting to get really hot. The first spot we found had calm water and it was not windy, but it was also 20 meters from the local food store and right beside the local get-together-spot. There were some old women and men drinking and laughing and a gang of 8-9 smoking teenager guys, so we decided to not stay there and wandered down the beach. On the next spot, on the same beach, we were invaded by hens, chickens and a rooster. When we had jumped up several times because they came to close, we said no to their violation of our privacy and picked up our stuff. We continued down the beach which became shorter and shorter.

We were lucky(or so we thought) to find a shady spot at the end on the beach. We were happy with our newly found space, but the universe had other plans. We had barley been there for two minutes when we saw two gangs of 60+ French men start a fight. It started when one gang of four of the old men, on the left of us, out of nowhere started arguing angrily in french with another gang, to the right of us, and rushing over to them. The other gang of course screamed back at them. Then one
of the men from gang number 1 slapped his hand on a surfboard. That surfboard belonged to a man in gang number 2 and the angry argument erupted to a screaming contest and the two “leaders” started to push each other until the other gang members broke in and dragged them from
each other. The leader from gang 2 started to ignore the other gang like a twelve year old, which ended when the leader of gang 1 picked up the other leaders surfboard and threw it in a puddle of water. Judging by the reaction from gang 2 I were almost a 100% sure that they would start
a physical fight, but at that point we had already picked up our stuff and hurried away since we were only 10 meters from the hot spot.

We went to another part of the island and found a big lagoon. The water was calm enough, and is was free from old angry french men. About 5 minutes after we had got there we had all given up trying not to get sand everywhere. The wind were, in periods, very strong and we were showered in sand. We could almost have made our own beach on Gunilla’s deck with the sand we dragged on to the boat later, but at that point we cared so little that we were not even bothered by the hens and roosters
that came looking for food(they are everywhere). We also tried the islands specialty, some kind of pastries, and decided to never buy them again.

After a while we went back to the town Jossan and I took a swim at the other side of the town’s beach where we had not been. It went without any disturbances or happenings and it was very relaxing, and lasted about 10 minutes before we had to go. But what do they say, 6th timesthe charm, right?

Starboard
Tindra Dahlström