French Guiana

French Guiana is, course, still French. It is the second largest region of France but has less than 300'000 inhabitants. It is mostly jungle.

It is known for its European Space Agency launch pad in Kourou and, of course, for the movie 'Papillon' with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffmann. The movie is based on Henri "Papillon" Charriere who was wrongly imprisoned in the penal colony on Devil's Island. Anyone reading this who has not seen the film, needs to reconsider. I too think I have to see it again.

The second flag above is the unofficial flag of French Guiana (which is widely used).

Our side-trip to French Guiana was a road trip we undertook, about 2 1/2 hours to the border. Just 4 tourists in a van, a very manageable group where I turned out to be the least travelled of the bunch. Here were people who had been many places I could not even imagine like Eritrea, Djibouti, Somaliland, all 9 -stans (I had not even realized there were so many) and more. It made for some interesting conversations.

to Cayenne

We first took a 3h drive to the border with French Guiana, where a boat took across the Maroni River into France.

Along the way to the capital Cayenne, we stopped to look at this pretty church in Iracoubo-

and a beautiful ceiling painting. Quite unexpected in a village that seemed just a few houses along the road.

Cayenne has some pretty houses.

Cayenne from above

which was quite pretty

There was also quite a sad memorial, which remembers these two individuals and 47 other persons of the Arawak and the Kali'na ethnic group. They were taken to France where they were exhibited in the Jardin d’Acclimatation in Paris, often called the "human zoo".

Got a plaintain burger in Cayenne, which, sadly, was not spicy at all.The "Jeune Gueule" turned out to be a light beer, which did not go down well with Dave the Australian in our group.

the local mairie

government building

and some street art. On the whole, Cayenne is a pretty quiet place where the clothing shops seem to be mainly Lebanese and the shops that are open during the day are invariably Chinese. Everyone else seems to hold back until the day has cooled somewhat.

Devil's Island

Having a vulture waiting for you as you go to prison islands, is somewhat disconcerting.

We boarded this catamaran and crossed over to the 3 islands which are cumulatively called Devil's Island.

In those days, the prisoners boarded boats from here, what is now Roche Hotel.

our guide John lying down, with the Devil's Islands in the back.

An agouti was waiting for us when we arrived on Royal Island.

It was a good group of only four persons.

View of Devil's Island , which cannot be visited. Very few convicts, mainly political ones, were sent there.

The monkeys kept us entertained during lunch.

The church.

Francis Lagrange painted the inside of the church and supposedly advised Henri Charriere (Papillon) on how to escape.

Our guide John on the steps leading to the upper cells. The prison slang for those was "guillotine seche", highlighting the improbability of ever getting out alive.

another type of cell.

The guards would patrol and observe the prisoners from above, Silence was enforced.

Such a terrible place, but such a nice beach.

The red ibis very quickly lifted our spirits, though.

Dave from Australia. He was quite a character and put me to shame with the 135 countries he had already visited, among which were all the -stans (he built roads and bridges in Afghanistan , which the Taliban blew up and he built them again) but also visited places like Pitcairn and St. Helena which are devilishly difficult to reach.

our captain. Made a good impression, but the seas were rough enough that quite a few travellers were issued pails.

Suzanne from the US while she was still feeling optimistic about the ride. She later lost a bit of color.

She travels to Antarctica every year. There she acts as doctor on the expeditions. For this, she goes for free and can take along another person. She plans to go until she runs out of people who want to join her.

Paull (yes, spelled with two l's) is also from the US. He may be the wildest of all of us, having been in places like Eritrea, Somaliland, Djibouti. The list goes on and on. He was one of two people I met who had recently been in Syria. The other was a Taiwanese New Yorker who said it had been the best tour she ever took.

The house on the right is a slaughterhouse, where they let they blood flow into the sea to attract sharks, making an escape even more likely than it already was.

The building to left was one end of a cable car that connected to Devil's Island.

The commander's home.

A peacock struts around.

Every now and then, showing off for the females of the species.

Guard's home.

more monkeys

and a macaw looking to see if he can get some scraps.

rows and rows of cells, here solitary confinement.

Centre spatial guyanais

Unfortunately, there were no launches planned during our visit. The rockets come to French Guiana by boat in various stages and boosters, satellites, etc. They are put together horizontally and only made upright towards the end.

Switzerland contributes EUR 770 mio. to the European Space program, which makes the Swiss flag one of twelve flags painted on the Ariane 5 above.

We were shown the control centers, just like what you expect, rows of screens.

The relatively uninteresting-looking building is where the rocket is finally stored. Before launch, the whole building is moved back and away. The tower on the left is for water which is sprayed and reduces dust and noise at launch.

St. Laurent

On our way back to Suriname, our last stop before crossing the river was St. Laurent, hosting another depressing prison.

This statue pretty much sums it up.

A large number of convicts came through here.

Many individual cells also.

Church in the middle of the road, apparently the town's grid was built around it.

This is where convicts were registered and processed, before being sent on to one of the islands.

They were shackled in groups here.

Our guide let us shackle him so we could better understand what the convicts went through.

travel on