Guadeloupe's volcanic half — La Soufrière, Carbet waterfalls, and the Caribbean's finest rainforest hiking
Basse-Terre is the administrative capital of Guadeloupe and the main town on the western wing of the butterfly-shaped island — a lush, volcanic, heavily forested half in deliberate contrast to the flat, beachier Grande-Terre across the narrow Rivière Salée channel. The town is a small, atmospheric French Caribbean port with a functioning colonial fort (Fort Delgrès, named after the Guadeloupean commander who died resisting Napoleon's 1802 re-enslavement decree), tree-lined squares, and Creole architecture. The Parc National de la Guadeloupe occupies most of the volcanic interior — La Soufrièr…
Guadeloupe's history encodes one of the Caribbean's most significant acts of resistance — when Napoleon Bonaparte sent General Richepance to re-impose slavery in 1802 (overturning the 1794 abolition by the French Revolution), the Guadeloupean commander Louis Delgrès led a multi-racial force in armed resistance. Defeated at Matouba by overwhelming French forces, Delgrès chose to blow up the fort rather than surrender — an act the French Caribbean still memorializes. The 1976 eruption of La Soufrière caused the evacuation of 72,000 people from the southern half of the island.