Boat Cove

All round view - Vieux-Habitants

Anse à la Barque is a strategic cove that had to be protected from colonization’s earliest beginnings. In the absence of overland routes, this natural port provided excellent mooring for trade ships carrying commodities back to the Old World. The battery constructed at Pointe Dibuque featured a reinforced wall and second rampart. Nearby there are vestiges of an old powder magazine. A historic site (battles, shipwrecks), Anse à la Barque has managed to preserve both its historic and ecological significance, with thickets of xerophilious plants, firecracker cactuses, mangrove remnants, crabs such as the “cé ma fot“ (“it’s my fault”) crab, the Pic de Guadeloupe—Guadeloupe Woodpecker—and many warblers. Behind the coconut palm grove, note the old basins from the indigo plant. At the initiative of Guadeloupe National Park, and with the cooperation of local municipalities and various organizations, this historic site and tourist attraction has been cleaned up and replanted with “seagrape,” almond, and coconut palm trees, among other plants.