Caribbean Without a Passport? - Travel Diary
Have you ever been in a situation where you lost your passport and you are planning a trip at the same time? Days off are booked, hopes are high yet your options are limited. Lucky for me, as European national I had a whole variety of destinations available based on my national ID. Greece or Spain sounded beautiful but as someone attached to beach holidays and as a wimp for cold water, as we are taking about mid-April in Europe, the idea of enjoying sunny beaches and not having a dip in the sea seemed heartbreaking. That is when Tim, the boyfriend of mine, pulled his magical thinking hat out and carefully selected Caribbean.
‘Caribbean?’ I asked. ‘I don’t have a passport, remember?’
‘I don’t think you need it for some islands.’ he responded.
Remember the dark colonial times of strongest European forces, where they discovered a bunch of islands of West Indies, did many bad things and kept the rule until today? That is how today, 400 years later, we (the Europeans) have a privilege of visiting some of the islands based solely on our ID.
To be more specific - the island we are talking about is under French rule. French border control seems most laxed about traveling to Caribbean under their territory. The island we are talking about is - Guadeloupe. The Caribbean jewel appearing as a butterfly in the Caribbean Sea. Rich in its natural diversity it seems like a perfect spot to explore when you hit that state of seeking for escape of already intense year. We are talking sandy beaches: white beaches, yellow beaches, black beaches, pink beaches, scuba diving beaches, a whole lot of beaches as you might have noticed. We are also talking about a volcano island, an active one as a matter of fact. We are talking lush hiking spots on the hills surrounding that volcano that can within seconds transform you from a busy road to being in the intrigue of the jungle life. And in a sense, we might be talking about my worst nightmare. Huh?
Well… ‘tis the year of 2005 and Google Earth just came into the public sphere. ‘Tis the time of my carefree exploration of this new software and ‘tis the time of a fatal mistake. Remember how a double click on the globe made it zoom in to a specific spot in this crazy enormous high-speed? I happened to accidentally click in the middle of the ocean. Within milliseconds I faced a new fear called “Double Clicking on Google Earth”, or at least that’s what I called it. What happed on my screen spooked me so much on so many different subtle levels. The blackness. The blackness in the middle of this planet we live on. The black open ocean and not a piece of a safe land around. It was probably the first experience of human insignificance that my 12 year old self encountered in that short life.
In a sense, yes, it did spook me a little bit to land on an island in the middle of the ocean without a safe continental land around, but what is life in not challenging your fears, right? Armed with a bunch of summer picks filling up the suitcase, a camera, positive attitude and my ID as a travel document we headed off to Guadeloupe - my first Caribbean experience. But first stop - Paris. (Pro tip: Flights from Paris are way cheaper. We flew XL Airways from Paris to Guadeloupe, and flew low cost from London to Paris.)
Arriving to Guadeloupe was not that scary after all. After the initial shock of 90s style advertising decorating the airport, we stepped out in the open air. Breath in… breath out… - yep, that’s it. That is how summer smells like. Those are the biggest palm trees I’ve seen in my life, and yes! There they are - the stars! Good to see you again.
Welcome to Guadeloupe!
Now let’s try to rent a car late at night without prior booking.
