Guadeloupe

photography — Guadeloupe, France. Public Domain.

Guadeloupe is a group of six inhabited islands, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galante, La Désirade, and two Îles des Saintes and numerous uninhabited islands. They are located in the Lesser Antilles, a chain of islands which makes a huge bow from the Dominican Republic to Venezuela. The Lesser Antilles are at the outer edge of the Caribbean Plate, the Lesser Antilles Volcanic Arc, so most of the islands are of volcanic origin. The subduction of oceanic crust of the Atlantic Plate under the Caribbean Plate is responsible for volcanism and earthquakes. Several islands which are older have a thick cover of limestones from the Pliocene to Quaternary periods, an overlying carbonate platform is up to 120 metres thick. So there are actually caves which are the home of numerous troglobiont and troglophile animals, but especially well known in the public are the protected bats. The caves are actually not well known, we are not sure if this is to protect the caves and or bats, or if the caves are simply not big enough to be of touristic interest. We found several scientific papers on caves on the islands, but no touristic reference. What we listed are spectacular sea caves which are more or less visited from outside.

It is an overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. The local language is Guadeloupean Creole, but the official language is of course French. They actually have their own first level domain, which is .gp but the use the Euro as currency.

And if you like crime series, you may already know the islands. They are the filming location of Death in Paradise, where the island is called Saint Marie.