As per our plan we were ready to go hiking and on the dock by the rental stand by 9am. As luck would (not) have it, the rental stand was open. While loitering we learned from the Captainerie that the car gas station at the other end of the marina (2/3 of a mile away) was open. So with hope in our hearts and feeling as though our gas situation was resolved we motored over there only to find it was not open. Now that we had even less gas in the dinghy I got the job of rowing back the 2/3 of a mile
to the car rental stand. It was still closed. We waited until well after 10am but no luck with that. Time for plan B.
We ordered a taxi who took us to the Fed Ex office on the other side of the bay. There we learned the package was stuck in customs at the airport. They gave us some paperwork to go there. At the airport customs we were first informed we had to involve a clearing agent. We said the strike might make this difficult and we needed to leave tomorrow. They then said we had to come back after lunch (2.5 hours later) then go back into town to clear some paperwork then go back to the airport to collect
the Hookah. Given the strike and our leaving constraints we asked them if there would be an easier way still. For customs officials I have to give it to them for working out what they did as they had no requirement to. They did find a way for us to collect the Hookah then drop off the papers in town – on our honour. We agreed to this. Of course, the lunch break was sacrosanct so we had to wait until 2 in the afternoon. Until this point the taxi driver had been waiting without running his meter.
We gave him the news. He had another job he could squeeze in so this worked out.
Things still didn’t go blindingly fast in the afternoon. We did eventually get the Hookah but the problem was the customs office in town decided to shut early. We were told it would be ok to put the paperwork through the mailbox. The taxi driver took us there (while on the way picking up some teeth from a dentist). There was no mailbox. The taxi driver phones customs at the airport and they told us to stuff it under the door. This was not easy either but we found a way. Hope it works.
Back at the marina we found the marina fuel dock to be open but with such long waiting lines and so few people working we decided to wait til Dominica.
To many this may sound like a bad day. However, as things go here in the Caribbean I think we did pretty well. We’ve heard of people having to wait weeks for stuff only find it was here all along. Hats off to the customs officials who were so polite and helpful.
Our plan for tomorrow is now to run for Dominica. We’re not going to get in our hikes in Guadaloupe which is disappointing but we can use the time and money we have saved to do some extra ones in Dominica which is often referred to as the most unspoiled Caribbean island. So things can’t be so bad.
Both of us are looking forward to seeing the back of Point-a-Pitre. If the strike were not on at least we could do our day trips and enjoy the liveliness. As it is we feel we’ve been stuck in a bit of a dump. Time to move on.
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