by Joe Lalaina

rom verdant rain forests and volcanic mountains to palm tree-lined white sand beaches, Guadeloupe has everything you’d want in a tropical island — this territory of France in the sun-soaked Caribbean is a paradise for nature lovers and food connoisseurs alike. Shaped like a butterfly, the island’s eastern wing, Grande-Terre, is mostly flat and filled with beaches; the western wing, Basse-Terre, is a lush, mountainous wonderland abounding with waterfalls, scenic drives, and opportunities for adventure. A bridge connects the two wings over the seawater channel La Rivière Salée (Salt River).

"Tainos Cottages is for those who want to hear the sounds of the sea and the birds, and to become one with nature."
                                      Charles-Henry Bichara

Tainos Cottages is located on Basse-Terre, overlooking the crescent-shaped beach of Grande Anse, widely regarded as the most beautiful beach on the island, and rightfully so. Owner Charles-Henry Bichara designed these seven cottages, which were built in Java from old Indonesian teak wood and shipped in containers to Guadeloupe in 2001. The hotel opened in 2004 with strong support from the island’s environmental and regulatory agency because it did not impede on the island’s natural beauty.

“I’m the only one who has a hotel in front of this beach,” notes Bichara, relaxing on a teak chair overlooking the sea. “The director of the government’s environmental agency visited here in 2003 and told me Tainos Cottages is such a beautiful place he decided to keep me here. They could have prohibited me from building a hotel, but they didn’t.”

Once you unpack your luggage and settle in, you probably won’t want to stray very far, except to venture to nearby restaurants, which range from casual beachside shacks to haute cuisine in the neighboring town of Deshaies. “We attract two types of guests,” says Bichara. “The ones we don’t see who rent a car and drive around the island and the people who stay close to the property and go out only to eat.”

I fell somewhere in between. During my stay I drove around both wings of the island, stopping to tour the Maison du Cacao (House of Cacao) and snorkel in the coral reefs of Jacques Cousteau’s Underwater Reserve, which is located less than an hour’s drive from the hotel and just a five-minute boat ride offshore. Mostly, I spent my days close to the hotel, swimming at Grande Anse beach.

The Tainos Indians were the indigenous people of the Caribbean, and each of the cottages is named after an animal from the Taino period. I stayed in cottage #4, Guanajo, named after a wild duck. Straw huts and hammocks, characteristic of early Taino communities, are scattered throughout the hotel’s serene grounds. The natural breeze is supplied by the trade winds (there is no air conditioning — and no television — in the cottages) and hot water is supplied by solar panels.

Because of the strength of the Euro versus the weakness of the U.S. dollar, the majority of tourists come from Europe. There are no direct flights from the U.S. mainland; stateside travelers to Guadeloupe connect via San Juan, Puerto Rico. “The people who live here imitate French life too much,” states Bichara. “They forget the Caribbean life. For me, Guadeloupe is a part of the Caribbean, not France.”

Though the culture of Guadeloupe is more French than Caribbean, Tainos Cottages remains far removed from the stresses of the everyday world. “Tainos is for people who savor peace and quiet,” adds Bichara. “It’s for those who want to hear the sounds of the sea and the birds, and to become one with nature. You can’t put a price on that. I worked hard in business most of my life as an international importer-exporter. Now I want to relax.”

Tainos Cottages is just the right place to do it.

Tainos Cottages: www.tainoscottages.com.

Joe Lalaina is a New York-based journalist.

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