La Maison du cacao and Habitation sous le vent

At the edge of Pointe-Noire, our town in Guadeloupe is the Maison du cacao.  We immediately listed it on our to do list but as is often the case, we visited the site only at our last day in Pointe-Noire. 

I had learned my lesson after some of our failed visits to plantations and this time I had booked a tour. We left Plage de Malendure for the last time with a bit of reluctance and washed our legs with water to be a bit sand-free before we went. 

After a bit of waiting, we were allowed to walk into the cacao garden as a self-guided tour.  We saw cacoa trees all over but also some gourd trees etc.  Here and there were some interesting info panels.  Despite all that we were done in about 15 minutes in our assigned 30 minutes and then we had to wait until the demonstration room was finished. But that group really went overtime, so we were waiting bored in the baking sun for quite a while. 

Drying of the cacoabeans

But after our waiting time, we could take a seat in the demonstration room, and then we also get a very extensive, but very interesting explanation on the history, growth and processing of cacao beans to chocolate.  My irritation that I had while waiting in the garden, melted away and that for a chocolate hater.  

Phase per phase in the treatment of the cacoa beans we got a taste...starting from the fresh fruit where I absolutely loved the white stuff around the beans which reminded me of lychees.  Too bad that this mucilage is usually not for sale separately. 

Then we got to taste the grinded roasted beans which are very bitter but very tasty. 

By grinding it we could taste some of the original old recipes of the Maya's and local tribes to have a hot chocolate drink. 

And then we got to taste cocao butter and different type of chocolate forms with more or less sugar or herbs. And I've bravely tasted them all. I think I like the purest chocolate most but it's so bitter than you just take a tiny chunck. 



It was well after lunchtime but the bits of tasty chocolates had not quenched our hunger. So we found ourselves a little local bistro nearby and after that we crossed the street to visit Habitation Sous le vent. 

A local monument with the slogan "Vivre libre ou mourir" that we had learned already at Fort Louis Delgrès. This monument commemorated the victims from that freedom / anti-slavery battle

Habitation Sous le Vent

This site is advertised as a touristic parc, a trip through history.  I didn't really know what to expect and I still don't know what to think of it as for me it was a bit of everything but nothing deep enough. 

We could walk through a Creole Plantation house, a Creole homestead farm, an arboretum, information on the plantations and local herbs, information on the wood trade and wood craftmanships and about the "friends of the sea" which covered the sea battles and pirate history of the Carribean Sea. 

A finally the info on what was on the typical dish on each menu "Poulet Colombo"

Woodcraft tools

In the parc were also traces of a treeline bike circuit but that was not operational anymore.  Not much historic about that either so maybe that's better so.