Guadeloupe Local Customs

 
by shohman
 
  •   Local Customs
    by shohman
  • sugarbirds
      sugarbirds
    by dustmon
  • Dancing the zouk
      Dancing the zouk
    by Pieter11
  • A hindu-temple at Pointe des Chateaux
      A hindu-temple at Pointe des Chateaux
    by Pieter11
  • A hindu-temple on Grande-Terre
      A hindu-temple on Grande-Terre
    by Pieter11
 
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Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Very, very French

by Pieter11

As a Dutchman I have a good view of the Netherlands Antilles. These islands officially belong to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, but when you visit them they don't look like Holland at all, often the language is not even spoken, a different currency is used, the culture is different and also very important: the people call themselves "Antillians", "Arubans" or "Sabans", but you'll hardly here them saying that they're Dutchmen. I didn't visit a British island in the Caribbean, but from my visits to former colonies I couldn't tell that those used to be British either. Well: that's completely different on Guadeloupe. It is France, the people are proud to be French, and it even looks like "the Motherland".On Guadeloupe they use to Euro, it is a part of the European Union, they speak French, French bread is everywhere, all products sold are produced in France. The people are proud to be...

Créole

by Pieter11

OK, Guadeloupe is officially French-speaking, but still a large percentage of the people use Créole in every day life. Créole is a mixture of languages turned into a completely different language. There are influences of Spanish, Portuguese, French, English and some African influences as well. It is very important to know that not every "Créole" in the world is the same: people from Haiti speak differently then those from Gwada, and on Martinique it is different again.Some basic rules about Créole are mentioned belong. On the website in the below mentioned link you can find some basic words, phrases:- The Créole alphabet does not include: C H J Q X- The letter C is replaced by K- The letter H or the sound does not exist in the language- The letter J is replaced by letters dy: Joke becomes Dyok- The letter R is written but is hardly pronounced: sounds more like "W": Kweyol- The letter Q...

No girls in the nightscene

by Pieter11

One very special thing about the nightlife on Guadeloupe is the fact that there are hardly any girls going out. In an average bar or club about 90% of the customers are men and the 10% that are women generally are accompanied by their boyfriends. Why is that? I don't know: on neighbouring islands you don't see things like this, but on Gwada it is very normal.There are places where girls do go to. Normally this are dancings that open their doors around 21:00 already and then the first group of customers are women. When around midnight the guys start coming in, the girls go home again. The only exception on this rule that I found is Le Cheyenne in Gosier, where there was a really mixed public. Apart from this, they're all the same...

Dance the Zouk!

by Pieter11

By far the most popular music style on Guadeloupe is Zouk. This music is typical to the French Antilles Martinique and Guadeloupe and is also spreaded around French and Portuguese speaking parts of Africa, Brazil and Haiti. Everywhere on Gwada you hear this music: there is one radio station called Zouk FM that only plays this music, but basically all the other stations play the same style...Almost all lyrics in Zouk-music are sung in Creole, sometimes French is used as well. The dance is very popular, the only problem is that often there is a lack of women to dance with in the clubs. As soon as Zouk-music is started you see the men rushing to the few women available.In my video's on my Guadeloupe-page you can see a lesson of Zouk-dance and listen to some Zouk-songs. The most popular style is the slow "Zouk Love", where is dancing is more sensual and the lyrics are so sweet that it hurts...

Tip Photo
Hinduism on Guadeloupe

by Pieter11

As every island in the West Indies, Guadeloupe has a long history of slavery. Black slaves have been brought in from Africa by thousands and it are their descendants who now form the great majority of people on the islands. But what most people don’t know is the fact that there is also quite a large number (60.000) of Indian immigrants on the island, especially on Grande-Terre,The Indians were brought here as “contract-workers” although their conditions didn’t really differ a lot from the conditions from before the abolition of the slavery. After their contracts most of them settled for good on the islands, bringing with them the Indian way of cooking (the famous Colombo de Poulet is mainly of Indian origins) and their own religion: hindouism.All over the island you’ll see red flags in the middle of the green landscape, indicating the presence of another hindu-temple. Bright colours,...

Tip Photo
Drinks

by MickeH

Coming from Sweden, where every drink ordered is mesured with ml precision to have exactly the amount of alcohol that you paid for, to Guadeloupe was a bit of a clash of cultures. But in a good way, without a doubt.The first evidence of this was when we ordered a beer and a Cuba Libre at the hotel bar upon arrival. (Something we ended up doing every evening we came back to the hotel, the bartender didn't even ask what we wanted but simply put two drinks and two beers on the bar as soon as he saw us)He gave us two glasses half full of pure rum, and wondered if we wanted one or two 25cl bottles of coke to mix it up with...Another example was when we were having dinner at a restaurant and I ordered a Ti-Punch. I got served an empty glass with some sugar and a slice of lime on the bottom. And a full bottle of rum. 20 minutes later he came back and asked if I was done with the bottle, not...

Tip Photo
Dual Customs in Guadeloupe:chicken w/hands o fork

by sh_rey_rey

It's really interesting the Dual Customs in Guadeloupe since there are both Creole locals and French locals as well. My friend Jennifer and I were hanging out with our Creole friend Laure, and we starting eating some chicken together. She noticed and mentioned how strange it was that we picked our chicken up and ate it with our hands. She on the other hand used her fork and knife to cut off and eat pieces of chicken. She says that it was much more proper to eat it with a fork and knife. On the other hand however, later on in the trip when we were with a group of local french people, we started eating our chicken with our fork and knife and they told us it's much faster and easier if we ate it with our hands. So the dual customs in Guadeloupe is interesting, yet fun to learn the differences.

Exchange rate stinks

by sh_rey_rey

The exchange rate for US dollars is our $1.00 to their 75 cents. So for every 100 dollars that you exchange you only get 75 euros to spend. Different banks have different exchange rates as well. However, no matter how much or how little amount you exchange at the banks there is a 5.09 euro tax (about $6.82 US dollars) every time you exchange so I would suggest that if you have to exchange at a bank know about how much money your going to be spending on your trip so you don't have to continue to waste 5.09 euros every time you exchange currency. BNP Paribas banks are the ones that we went to to exchange our money.

No need to tip

by sh_rey_rey

My friend and I continuously tipped during the greater part of our stay. One of our friends that we met on the island told us though that tipping is not required and usually isn't given by the locals. She mentioned that only tourists tip. She also said that to some people it can be considered almost rude to leave a tip because the people of the island already include everything in their prices and don't desire anything more from you. Our friend told us this but we never ran into anyone that was upset because we tipped, we usually got very sincere thank yous (because the extra tip was unexpected, not like the US).

try the local food

by sylvie-uk

here is few of the local dishes , drinks, and vegetables:*poulet colombo: chicken cooked in a curry sauce*accras: fritters usually eaten as an appetizer, sometimes made with morue( codfish)*chatrou: small octopus*ouassous: fresh crayfish*sauce chien ( if you translate it, in french it means dog sauce, do not worry, it s not a dog sauce...haha) :spicy sauce for fish*christophine: potato like vegetable( try the "gratin of christophine, it s lovely)*giraumon: local pumpkin*planteur: rum with tropical juices*ti-punch: rum with can sirup or brown sugar and lime.and much more, i ll add some more another day.

Local traditions and culture in Guadeloupe

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Questions and Answers

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Q:  Hi: I'll be in Guadeloupe for 1 week from Aug 23rd. Can you let me know: (1) Is tap water safe to drink, esp in hotels (2) Is... 

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A: The below links will answer you some questions about water and electrical power supplying in... 

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