Surfing in Port Luis

After spending so much time in Tikazalou, I felt it was time for a change, and I had heard that surfing would be good in a small town on the other side of Guadeloupe called Port Luis. So I went. And I wasn't disappointed.

But before I could go to Port Luis I had to leave Tikazalou–saying goodbye to all the nice people from there felt so terrible, yet I was excited to go surfing.

Fortunately, Lou had to go to Point-a-Pitre that day and so I didn't have to hitchhike the first part of my journey. Instead we listened to good music while driving to Point-a-Pitre, spending the time showing each other different titles from different artists that we liked. Time flew by with a good mix of house, reggae, hip-hop and drum n'base.

Eventually it came time to say goodbye, and there I was: on the road again, thumb out, waiting for somebody to stop and take me to Port Luis.

Some time later, and I found a hitch and I was lucky because the man who stopped took me all the way to Port Luis. His name was Jack and he even invited me for lunch and then gave me some good tips for going surfing in Port Luis. When we reached he showed me around and pointed out the best spots to go surfing and then dropped me right in front of my hostel. Sometimes the universe is nice like that when traveling and I cherish these little moments of connection with people.

Port Luis is a small village at the West Coast of Grande Terre. The only thing you can really do there is surfing. There are a few good breaks near the harbour, another one at the main beach called "La Souffleur", and then a few more excellent ones, a bit outside of the city going by names like "Antigua Cape" and "La Cemetiere".

The next few days I spent in a small hostel at the edge of town. Compared to Tikazalou there were many people there but it was nice. I quickly settled into a routine of surfing, reading, sleeping, surfing, and then playing ping pong, foosball, and talking to the people in the evenings.

They also had a beautiful little puppy dog named Lara. She was always running around, playing with people. I miss that dog.

But the best part of the time in Port Luis was spent in the water. Sitting, waiting for waves, while the sun sets in the background and the colors of the clouds and the sea merge into one another.

On the first day after arriving I found a small shop directly near the beach, where they rented out boards and I rented one for a couple of days while there were still good waves. And so I went surfing, every day, in the morning and the evening, until the waves started to flatten out. Coming back home to the little hostel during sunset some days was magnificent.

Unfortunately the season for surfing in Port Luis was over and I was lucky that I caught a last bit of swell and had a few days of good surfing conditions with solid waves.

When I closed my eyes at night my brain was still out there in the water, imagining sets of waves rolling in.

There is something hypnotic about sitting out there at sea, watching the waves, waiting for big ones. The excitement and sheer joy of catching a wave once a set does come in is something purely addictive to me. Even when completely tired and exhausted from the last two waves my brain went like, "ok, just one last one, just one more"... over and over again.

One of the days in Port Luis I went to the Antigua Cape beach. Port Luis has a mangrove forest nearby with a little path walking through it and exploring that part of the nature was fun.

At some point the way splits and the path goes out of the mangroves and in towards the land. The vegetation there looks different, lots of epiphytic plants, sitting on top of small trees, grey and brown colors with specks of green in between.

Back on the way towards the beach we found a few coconuts and took one along to crack it open. We also found a few little hermit crabs that we were playing with. Hermit crabs are just adorable little critters.

After some more time we moved on to the Cape de Antigua, a small bit of land sticking out from the coast into the ocean, where the waves are breaking. On the way there was a beautiful turquoise beach with water that looked surreal, even though it wasn't even sunny. Watching the water move in and out of the little rocks at the Cape de Antigua was mesmerizing. Little swirls of white dancing on the water.

The rest of the days I spent resting. Reading lots of books, enjoying my free time, cooking nice dishes, playing board games, a little bit of chess, all in the atmosphere of this beautiful cozy little hostel. The red couches were so soft and comfy, it would feel like somebody hugging you, pulling you closer into cushions.

I waited around for the swell to come back like this, living a relaxed life for a couple of days, but in the end, there were no more good waves to be surfed and so I made my way back to Tikazalou, because I missed the little group of people from there and the idea of it felt like coming back home.