A Manicured Jungle
Le Jardin Botanique de Deshaies. Basse Terre
The Botanical Garden in Deshaies is the most manicured jungle ever. Upon entering, you find a carp pond complete with fish food machines and if you're a city kid like me, you will find the fish swarming all over each other in a feeding frenzy to be quite amusing. I believe that I even trained a white one with an orange spot on its side to follow me along the side of the pond, but I could be mistaken since they all kind of look the same.
There are also parakeets in a walk-in enclosure. Their
keeper will pass you a cup of sugar water and the
birds will climb all over you like junkies looking for
their next fix. The fish were more fun-I really don't
like birds.
By the way, a word of caution, from a bird hater: while you walk through the gardens, you will reach a gang of giant parrots blocking your path. Maybe they are dealers for the little ones with sugar fixations, I just know they looked fierce and bad. My fears were confirmed by a sign declaring that one should not walk close to these birds, for safety's sake. I was too nervous to even take a picture.
Nevertheless, if you make it past all the animals and avoid mobster parrots you can walk through the "jungle" to discover all sorts of tropical plants, along with their latin and common names neatly written on plaques. Many of the plants and trees you see on the island are here, and you can finally find out what they are. Two that I had always wondered about were ginger (the spiky fuschia one) and hibiscus (yellow in this picture, but comes in many other colors).
