Back to Cayenne to our little apartment. It was actually great if we only could have moved it to a different location.
*click on photos to enlarge
French Guiana has a strong Creole culture. They speak French and Creole – very few speak English. It’s part of France, henceforth the E.U. and uses the Euro. The locals feel like France’s ugly stepchild and are quite bitter about France taking the gold and oil profit from the region and sending it back to France.
Per Wikipedia – The first French establishment was recorded in 1503, but they did not establish a durable presence until colonists founded Cayenne in 1643, were forced to leave by Amerindian attacks and then finally established a permanent settlement in 1664. They lost it again to the Dutch, English and Anglo-Portuguese until 1814 when it returned to French control.
After France ceded Louisiana to the United States in 1804, it developed Guiana as a penal colony, establishing a network of camps and penitentiaries along the coast where prisoners from Metropolitan France were sentenced to forced labour…. Approximately 56,000 prisoners were sent to Devil’s Island.
Per Britannica: In 1852 Napolean III decreed that convicts with sentences of more than seven years were to be sent to French Guiana, and Cayenne became known as the city of the condemned. The prisons were closed in 1945.
Cayenne is hilly and charming as heck with old French colonial wooden houses and swaying palm trees resting between the Cayenne and Mabury rivers.
Worse than the large wide river in Oiapoque the narrow rivers near Cayenne completely stop navigation at low tide. The boats look like shipwrecks from a storm. I can feel the hurl rising in my throat when our cabbie talks about the local fresh fish sold in the streets of Cayenne.
The ruins of the hilltop Fort Cépérou allow for beautiful long views of the city, river and beyond.
An hour west of Cayenne and heading back towards Suriname is the town of Kourou. Our next stop for a couple days.
Kourou is home to the home of the Guiana Space Center. The main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency.
According to space.com: The French government began launching satellites there in 1964, and offered to share it with the European Space Agency when the latter was created in 1975. ESA contributes two-thirds of the spaceport’s annual budget every year. The spaceport has also been used for launches for the United States, Japan, Canada, India and Brazil, among other countries.
Like many launch sites worldwide, Kourou is located near the equator. Its latitude is 5 degrees 3 minutes north, ESA says, which makes it a good location to launch missions that will operate at or near the equator. That’s because the Earth’s rotation acts as an extra source of propulsion for the rocket as it brings the satellite into space, saving fuel and money. It also allows for satellites to be heavier since less fuel is required.
Off the coast of Kourou is the famous Devils’ Island part of the three Îles du Salut, or the Salvation Islands known from 1852 to 1953 as “the Green Hell”. A penal colony housed more than 80,000 men (only 30,000 survived). The movie starring Steve McQueen tells the story of Henri Charrière, the author of Papillon, and his efforts to get away.
L’ile St. Joseph and Ile Royal are open to the public. An hour and a half boat ride from Kourou. Devil’s Island is permanently closed.
The coconut population – in the palms and on the ground was innumerable. At a quick glance the faded piles of coconuts looked like skulls. The islands were stunning, a stark contrast to the horrors of the past.
It reminded me of Alcatraz in San Francisco, California and Robben Island in South Africa.
It was hot and humid!
After French Guiana we headed back to Suriname to spend a bit more time. I’m not a big fan of backtracking but flying out of French Guiana is insane – flights are only to Paris and Martinique.
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