Blown About in Guadeloupe

Tonight finds us all in Guadeloupe -- an island in the French West Indies -- where we are completing a home exchange -- the first half of which started last summer when a family from Guadeloupe came to stay at our house on Clifton (while we went to Anna Maria). We arrived in Guadeloupe on Saturday after quite a long trip that included an emergency landing in Tampa due to a heart attack on board (I don't think he survived, sadly) followed by an overnight in Miami (which should have been in Puerto Rico, but we missed our connection). On Saturday we made it to Puerto Rico and finally Pointe a Pitre (on Guadeloupe) where we were greeted by our home-exchange host who kindly came to pick us up -- a good thing as Guadeloupe is VERY French, and while both Roc and myself speak a little, we would have been hard-pressed to find our way to their home from the Point a Pitre airport.

Guadeloupe is an island of contradictions. On the one hand, there are stunning beaches and vistas that rival any I've seen in the world, while on the other, the towns -- even the bigger ones -- are marred by graffiti and many run-down homes and businesses. Largely a dark-skinned population (I think the light-skinned population is 9%), we are very much in the minority -- a welcome change for us and something we can all learn from. Also, we've been here 4 days so far and have come across exactly 0 English-speaking tourists -- basically everyone here is French, as far as we can tell.

Tonight the island is under Purple Alert as there is a Tropical Storm named Isaac (likely to become Hurricane Isaac by tomorrow) blowing through (perhaps with winds up to 60 mph). We spent most of the day lounging by the pool here at the house under stormy skies -- swimming in the warm rains, and wondering when the winds would begin. Under the Purple Alert, cars have been banned from the streets since 6PM, so now we wait....wondering what a Tropical Storm will sound and look like. The house boards up rather quickly and nicely, so we will likely be soon locking ourselves in and hoping for a peaceful night (although we've been told it will get quite loud!) Everyone is very calm, which has helped to calm the girls as well -- so really, it is just business as usual.

We've seen many beautiful things here -- one side of the island is largely national park, which is gorgeous and which I'm anxious to get back to as soon as all the rain passes through (maybe in a day or two -- we hope). We went there two days ago and had a memorable day swimming at the base of a waterfall and climbing on rocks up a river in the rain forest! Wow -- none of us had ever seen anything like it, and although a sign at the beginning of the trail said that there were all sorts of reptiles and crustaceans in the river, the water was so clear and cool that the girls plunged right in and were splashing up and down it in no time. Amazing. I would never have guessed that might happen.

Yesterday Roc bought nice snorkel set-ups for the girls as well, so we are also anxious to get to some good snorkeling spots. With Isaac mucking things up we may need to wait a few days for things to settle down, but with any luck by Saturday we'll be able to boat out to Petit Terre ("Little Earth") and commune with the iguanas who inhabit the island there, as well as do some spectacular snorkeling (we've been told it's fantastic off the coast of Petit Terre).

Until then....

Andersonville is Cool

In May we decided to move to Andersonville. Andersonville is cool (I actually have a button that somebody handed me at the Midsummer Fest that declares it, so it must be true) -- wide, tree-lined streets and pretty houses with big yards. In many ways it feels suburban (sprinklers and lemonade stands up and down the avenue) while in other ways it's more urban than homes we've had much closer to downtown (wide diversity of people, more street noise from the main vein about a half block away). If we go East toward the lake we first pass through Uptown which is a socioeconomic mix of people, shops and restaurants with the backdrop of a crusty el stop and a lot of old, delapidated buildings scattered about a Starbucks and a few upscale cafes. Feels more like New York than any other area of the city, as far as I can tell. There's the Green Mill where I went in my early 20s alongside the Victory Theatre -- long since deserted -- a relic from the early 1920s but still standing and, hopefully, soon to be refurbished into something grand once again. Slightly to the North in Andersonville proper, there are many great restaurants and bars, but the best part is the sense of an authetic neighborhood. While some of the neighborhoods on this side of Chicago feel like they are trying to be Lincoln Park North, Andersonville feels true to itself. Gay couples walk hand in hand pushing baby strollers, couples make out on corners, and children stop to watch the nightly corner puppet show at Berwyn and Clark.One evening last summer I drove by that puppet show after dropping Stella at a friend's house and there were about 20 kids jumping up and down screaming at the puppets, their parents looking on behind them. Last weekend it was my own kids jumping up and down -- stashing dollars into the puppets little hands. Another night after a great dinner at Ombre, we noticed 3 dancers in the window above Hamburger Mary's -- three men in gold lame speedos doing a little swagger and sway to music that we couldn't hear. Roc looked at me and I looked him. "We're not in Lincolbn Park anymore."  Nope, no we're not.