Trip to Îles du Salut, the "Salvation Islands"

Bonjour tout le monde!

This post will cover our day-trip to the three islands located about 14km off the coast of Kourou in the Atlantic Ocean. Collectively they are known as the Îles du Salut (the "Salvation Islands") because the few missionaries who managed to get to these islands survived the outbreak of the plague which hit the mainland. However, the history of these islands are more commonly known for something far less pleasant. Specifically, it was a French penal colony with a reputation for harsh living-conditions as well as draconian brutality.

Originally, our trip was claimed as a fishing tour, but we caught no fish. So really, in my opinion we cannot call it a fishing tour since we didn't actually catch any fish to speak of. Not even one small one. Zero. Well, we had bait on the boat in the form of dead fish, but we bought that, so really it wasn't much of a success on the whole catching fish -front.

When your alarm clock rings at 6AM on a saturday morning, one is generally not pleased. When it rings at 6AM intentionally and it is pouring down cats and dogs outside and you're supposed to spend the entire day on a boat with four other (presumably fish-smelling men), you are definitely not a riot of excitement.

Having said that, when you are greeted with this sight when the whole river is just waking up and the rain has just subsided, you cannot help but feel a sense of peace come over you.


And I even got the chance to get creative with my camera. So really, I was over the moon.

Anthony (sporting his free tourist gift) and I, having stolen his jacket that kept me nice and warm. Thank you dear.


Here you see the very fancy fishing gear being employed when we were still feeling young and eager. There will be no more fish-gear related photography featured in this post because, as I said, we caught bugger all. But within no time the weather had cleared and we were greeted by the open-armed rays of sunshine.

and this glorious-looking island: Île Royale. Shortly upon arrival our designated sea-captain started feeling rather ill, and as we were not catching any fish anyway we decided to jump off and discover the island a bit - And good thing we did too!

This is the harbor on Île Royale. Naturally, it comes lined with palm trees and a fantastic quaint little feel to it.

Anybody fancy a dip in the blue? :)

Anthony ventured up some of the steps and found this fantastic looking building which we late found out belongs to some "premier resident" of the island.

A green explosion.



A spiked tree. Yes, I said SPIKED TREE.

The vegetation on these islands is mainly covered by palm trees. The ground was simply covered in coconuts in various forms of degradation. The coastal areas, all the way down to the very edge is covered by palm trees.

Remains from the islands rich historical significance. We didn't actually go see any of the cell remnants as we didn't have enough time so we left that for next time.

Any my favourite encounter of the whole day: MONKEYS! To be precise, these are Capuchin monkeys and they sure were a friendly bunch. We ran right into a big family which was very busy tricking tourists into giving them food, just for being a monkey.

Some very nice (and prepared) tourists had brought some baguette with them. The monkeys are on French soil, which makes them French, which by default means they love baguette as all French blooded things do. Obvious really :D Anyway, they gave us some of their bread so we could feed the monkeys too. Thanks guys, awfully cordial of you :)

This monkey is clearly lost in thought. It's funny, because Anthony gets the same face when he eats sometimes. Relatives.

Look at this little cute guy!

namnamnamnam....


Anthony also tried to feed some but he was not given any bread so he was trying to cheat them into coming close with only a dried leaf to offer. Needless to say, they learned quickly that he really wasn't bringing anything tasty to the situation.

A beautifully back-lit acrobat.

We also saw these little guys, called an Agouti, which is some kind of native large-sized rodent. Anthony called them local pigs.. but really they look more a jumbo-sized sporty version of a  hamster/ guinea pig. Whatever they are, I thought they were ridiculously cute and thought we should casually steal one and have it with our chickens. Anthony was not as keen.

The color of their shiny fur was a gorgeous fox-red in the sun.

We then stumbled upon some of the older buildings riddled with decay, but absolutely gorgeous nonetheless. Situated right by the modern-day hotel which sits on the top of the island overlooking the Atlantic.

And here is the view from the top of the hotel grounds. Not a bad view to get up to I say.

This is for my mum, who loves flowers. (Dom var helt ljuvliga mamma - Hit skall vi absolut fara när du och pappa kommer och hälsar på!)

The vacated buildings had something fantastic about them just because they were so grand somehow, yet completely empty. It kind of felt like walking through a beautiful historical ghost-town of sorts.

Equipped with a bright red lighthouse.

Anthony peeking from behind the vacated grounds.

A modern-day convenience, the helicopter pad.

So picture postcard perfect that it almost looks a if we have been photoshopped in - but I swear! It's completely authentic. I don't have those kinds of skills.

If you look closely you will find a brightly colored hammock with a leg sticking out of it (which would be mine). We even had time for the midday nap - which I have to say, I am the biggest fan of. I swear people would be generally happier and more effective if they got a chance to take a nap every day. If given the chance to have it in a hammock amongst the palm trees whilst listening to the hush of the sea, all the better. Probably the best nap I have ever taken, hands down.


I had to take a picture of this when I saw it whilst glancing at the ground. I am not sure if it is a set of roots or an odd rock formation, but to me it was clearest shape of a heart and since I absolutely loved my day, I had to capture it as a memento (along with my oh-so-comfortable trusted tourist-shoes).

A sensational day in this exotic paradise!

Thank you world :) 

Riding at Ferme Équestre de la Césarée

Bonjour tout le monde !

We've been riding ! Last weekend Anthony and I took a little wee car trip down to Macouria where we had booked a two-hour "ballad" with Ferme Césarée (which is also where I have been riding every wednesday).

Simply put, it is heaven on earth ... for both horse and rider, I assure you. It is (mainly) an equestrian breeding center as well as a cattle farm (the second largest of its kind in Guyane!). It has about 200 horses and 300 head of cattle, spanning 400 hectares in size. And here is the wonderful part, the horses as well as the cattle are all "kept" free on the land. Only the sick and the old are kept in horse boxes. The geldings, the mares and younglings and the stallions have their own fenced land to roam in. As horses are pack animals they are happiest when in a group, here they live freely on the land roaming as they please within their respective packs. This forms part of the reason why I absolutely adore this riding center; the horses are both healthy (in body and mind!) as well as happy. Pure pleasure!

This fantastic wall-mount greets you upon your arrival - I knew I had come to the right place the first time I set my foot on Césarée soil.

This is Rodrigo, a 7 year-old spanish half-breed gelding. He is an absolute star of a gentleman. For the past month I have been working on foot with him and riding him bareback (which I absolutely love!) and he is progressing very well.



Rodrigo and I :)

I fill his quota of hugs every time I see him - just in case he isn't getting enough love from elsewhere.

After leaving the farm and entering the area with the mares and younglings we came across this little man - who had apparently been born just the night/day before. Mum was not very happy about us being so close to her little man but he was standing upright and looked healthy so all was well.

We kept going and entered into the cattle area. Opening and closing the gates on horseback was a bit more technical than you'd expect - but we did well.

Once we'd reached our halfway mark we started looking for a place to jump off for a bit and have a bit of a break. Unfortunately the yard which we were headed to had a set of young stallions in it so we headed out of there pretty quickly once we noticed we had company - stallions of course can be rather dangerous, especially the young vigorous ones. Anyway, we all made it out alive and settled for a pack of moo'ing cows instead.

Here we are! Anthony & Naches and Sarah & Rodrigo looking very snazzy!

The Moo's.

Lots of happy Moo's :) This is how cows all over the world should be living.

And so our trek continues among the cows. Riding on horseback amongst freely grazing cattle makes you realize what freedom is all about.

My favourite picture of the day! Seriously, once we entered the yard with the young cattle in it, every single pair of eyes followed our every move. It was actually rather daunting at first, but once you realized they were simply just curious and always kept their fair distance, it was just wonderfully amusing being the highlight of their day.

We had some fantastic gallops across the open land and gave our horses a good scrub and rub when we came back to the stable - Naches seems to be enjoying his shower here :P

Thanks so much for reading and get ready for monkeys and our sunny boat trip to the Isles du Salut in the next post. Featuring some seriously amazing pictures, I promise.

Happiness and love to all!