There are many islands in the Caribbean, large and small. Some are tourist hotspots with resort after resort lining the beaches. These are the types of places we would go when our children were small and we were seeking security and entertainment for them and relaxation without care for us. Those were wonderful times, but they were long ago.
Years go by, children grow, and parents are left to rediscover each other. In our case, we discovered that we really didn't have the same interests, the same hopes and dreams, or the same love that had brought us together in the first place. We amicably divorced and are both happier for it.
I remember so fondly the first trip we took to the Caribbean, cruising the Leeward Islands. I fell in love with island life. We cruised on a tall ship, fourteen sailsβthe Fantome. It is now years after that voyage yet I still remember fondly as though it were yesterday, standing at the bow of the ship, as the sails went up and we cruised out of port, with the haunting melody of Amazing Grace played by bagpipes over speakers. The romance of it will never be forgotten.
In 1998 Hurricane Mitch threatened the Fantome. The Captain dropped the passengers and non-essential crew safely, then moved on to try to out sail Mitch. The vicious hurricane caught the ship and it went down taking its crew of 31 to the bottom of the sea. The Fantome is truly a phantom now. I will never hear Amazing Grace again without thinking of the Fantome and its crew.
Of all the islands I have visited, there was one small place the Fantome had taken us that truly grabbed my heart.
Guadeloupe, known as the Butterfly Islands, is made up of two large islands and six smaller ones. The islands are French, a Department of France since 1946. One of these small islands is called "Isles des Saintes" or "Les Saintes" This one in particular is my favorite. Just two miles wide and three miles long with its small port town of Terre-de-Haute, it is a quiet and intimate place.
You can roam through town and visit the street vendors and the outdoor cafes, or you can venture off down the roads and discover people and places of another place and time. This was as filled with French charm as it was the charm of the fishermen's houses or the retirement cottages of seniors from Point-a-Pitre.
Oh, and the iguanas. I must not forget to mention them. The island was populated by iguanas, large and lumbering, roaming freely as wildlife. When walking the island one is sure to meet up with a few of these great creatures.
The terrain was rolling and the life was charming.
Steel drums in the night sing a beautiful song.
____________________________________________
Last year, I visited Terre-de-Haute for two months, staying at a little bed and breakfast style inn near the town center. I strolled the island from end to end, getting to know of little shops and restaurants along the way. I also found a quiet beach, more of a resident's beach than a tourist beach. Every day I would sneak my way through the yard of one of the little houses that fronted on the sandy shore, and lay out with my towel on a beach chair to absorb the sun, and then to float in the ocean when my skin needed cooling.
I had been trespassing my way through this private yard to the beach for several days without being stopped.
Although there were no signs posted, it was a French island, and nudity on the beach was acceptable and normal. The beach was never very populated, generally ten or twelve people at any given time. Mostly it was retired people who sunbathed freely on the beach and local children who ran naturally naked in and out of the water chasing waves and splashing.
My nudity did not come in the first day of visiting the beach. I was still too new to the idea of being naked in public. On the second day, after observing the others who were so comfortable with their nudity, I took the daring step of baring my breasts on the beach. Contrary to my fears of being ogled, no one seemed to take particular notice of me and I fell into the routine of semi nude sunbathing. (I was still too shy to bare myself completely. Some things are just ingrained in your character.) ____________________________________________
I would arrive at the beach just after breakfast, to take in the sun and the sea before the heat of the day reached its peak. My afternoons and evenings were taken up by handy-work. I was creating samples of beaded jewelry, which I hoped to sell to Maoganie, the most interesting boutique on the island.
Every morning, I was one of the first to arrive at the beach. And, every morning at the same time, an old Indian woman would come out onto the tiny beach with a rake and clean up the debris, which had washed ashore over night.
How lovely she looked. In direct contrast to the nakedness of the sunbathers, she was covered, from her neck to her knees in a sari. She had tucked the back of her sari up and between her legs, leaving her calves exposed. Her feet were bare. Her hair was salt and pepper streaks of gray and black, braided and hanging down her back to her bottom.
One morning, as I headed through the private pathway beside the little cottage at the close end of the beach, I was stopped.
It was the rake lady. She looked at me with dismay and asked "Why do you come through my yard every day to this beach? You are not staying here with us. This beach is for the cottagers along the shore. They pay me good money for privacy, and yet you stay in town and come use our beach for nothing."
I was chastised.
Smiling patiently at her and with a shamed face I asked her to please forgive me for sneaking through her yard, and using the private beach. I was certain I could charm her into overlooking my presence as a trespasser. She was neither charmed nor lenient, sending me back the way I came.
As I apologized again and turned to depart she stopped me.
"You listen. I have one cottage available to sublet. Where are you staying now?"
"I am staying with Marie Foucault in town." I told her.
"Foucault! That old witch. What are you paying her for just a room and no beach?"
I told her the rate I was paying to Madame Foucault, and she cried, "Foucault is a thief! I will match that. You go tell Madame Foucault that you are leaving and come live on this beach you have been enjoying so freely."
This woman was as bossy an old mother as they come. She was giving me orders, and although my first reaction was indignation at her tone, her offer did entice me. I had no particular loyalty or commitment to Madame Foucault. ____________________________________________
I left to move into the cottage on the beach that evening. Madame Foucault was incensed that I should leave her accommodation to go stay with the Indian on the beach and gave me an earful. I was calmly respectful and listened to her noise, but did not change my plans to move on.
Saturday evening, with my bags in my hand, I knocked on the door of the cottage the Indian woman lived in. This time, upon seeing me, she smiled a huge smile and invited me in.
"I've come back to take you up on your offer." I told her.
"Of course" she said rather smugly. "Here, sit down at the table and I will take your information. What is your name?"
I extended my hand to her and introduced myself. "I'm Roberta. Roberta Metcalf. And you are?"
She took my hand, and instead of shaking it, turned it over and looked at my palm. "I am Arshiya Sahel." After inspecting my palm for some unknown purpose, she put my hand on the table, without shaking it.
We settled our business affairs, and then Arshiya showed me to my cottage, only five doors down from her own.
____________________________________________
The next morning I was the first to arrive on the beach. It was a lovely quiet Sunday. I removed my wrap and lay almost naked but for my barely there black bikini bottoms.
Shortly after my arrival, out came Arshiya. This time though, instead of her rake, she had two mugs in her hand. She came over, handed me a mug (an aromatic tea) and pulled up a chair to join me. Arshiya talked on and on, filling me with an equivalent mix of island gossip and history. This she topped with the bragging of a mother about her children and theirs.
When we had finished our tea, Arshiya took the mugs back to her home and returned with her rake to clean the beach.
It became a routine. Every morning, Arshiya in her sari, and I in a tiny slip of a bottom would chat comfortably until our tea was done and it was time for her to move on to her chores.
On Wednesday morning of my second week, Arshiya told me that she would be leaving on Monday to travel to India to visit relatives. She explained that her son Rehman would be taking a leave from his position as head of the Guadeloupe Department of Agriculture in order to look after things for his mother.