Trip: Saint Laurent du Maroni

Hello everybody!

It has been an age and a half since I gave an update -- I know! I know! I'm sorry, I'm totally crap at updating regularly but this is how it is unfolding so this is how we're all just going to have to deal with it... but I have been really busy. My excuse is really quite good as you will see. I have (finally) finished my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Certificate - YAAAY! and I scored a 97% on my final test. (Boom.) So I think it safe to say I have English down. So I'm happy :)

Although, this update is actually about a trip that we took a couple of weeks ago but as I have not had time to update it before, I was planning to do so now. We flew up to Saint Laurent du Maroni, the northernmost town of French Guiana, across the "maroni" (which the dutch call "marowijne") is Surinam. Maroni is the 724km long river that flows into the Atlantic Ocean and seperates these two countries.

We flew to Saint Laurent along a route which at first took us inland and then north, and returned along the coastline. Our flight up was rather cloudy but I did mange to grab some good shots!

This is Kourou by air, with the river Kourou and the bridge crossing heading towards Cayenne.

The lush greenery and these wonderfully windy rivers were the highlight of the flight up to S.L. I liked this one particularly because it looks like an S from where I took the photograph :)

As I was flying over I wondered how many anacondas live in these rivers (and how long it would take me to get eaten by one of them had we needed to crash land). Fun thoughts!

We then came across one of the only landmarks on our flight up, a large dam.

Later on into the flight we climbed quite high and I managed to catch this beauty.

This is Saint Laurent du Maroni from the air and Suriname just across the river.

 

Upon our arrival we were greeted by no one less than the town army commander, a friend of our co-pilot, who very kindly showed us the sights of S. L. The first sight was of course the prison camps where the convict Henri Charrière (or "Papillon", meaning butterfly) spent his incarceration, until his escape, 11 years later, in 1941. Surprisingly, I thought, the camp, although abandoned, was open and free to any visitors. You simply walk in.

So, here we are, posing in front of the gate of the enforced labour camp which housed the century's French condemned criminals - rather morbid actually. But there we are, looking nice.

These were the kitchens. Obviously, at the time of use the buildings were not as flashy. Some of the camp buildings were restored in the early 1980's.


This is the main square where the guillotine was located, now replaced by the magnificent mango tree seen on the left. Ahead are all the cells parallel to each other.

The first set of cells.

Judging by the erosion these buildings have seen quite a bit of life and death.


"Case 1" - Cell 1.




The doors were still intact, including the gigantic locks spanning the length of the door.



A relic, used for transportation of goods or building materials.


Some of the buildings were being completely restored in order for public use. If I remember correctly I think our "guide" mentioned they would be used for schooling purposes or likewise.


Afterwards we headed to the sizable local market, featuring (I will claim!) pretty much every vegetable and fruit that you can grow on the continent. Seriously, I had never seen some of these things! Anthony was vexed to notice that the prices were considerably lower than in Kourou - still, very impressive!


These are all different types of chillies, ranging from mild to you-will-die-if-you-touch-it (unless your taste buds have been weaned to eat this stuff since birth). I know I'm Finnish and blabla.. we can't take this sort of stuff but seriously, just trust me.


We proceeded to a really awesome ship-wrecked themed restaurant that is actually situated on a boat docked by the maroni.


... including pathways with thatched bamboo roofing!


and actual bamboo :)


Wonderful setting! right by the river. (Those who plan to visit us.. we will take you here - BY PLANE if you fancy it :P)

Yes, the menu was printed on rolled up cloth and the food was extremely scrumptious.


Before our departure home we had a spot of trouble with the weather. It started raining and we saw some thunder so we had to wait it out until we flew back. Once it cleared, our flight back to Kourou was trouble-free and the visibility was fantastic! This is the maroni of S. L. with the town just "behind" us.

A panorama inside our four-seater Cessna plane. A-boom :D

These are rice fields right by the sea.

Again, I managed to catch some great shots of the rivers (and fluffy clouds!)

Layering perspective.

Jungle, all the way up to the coastline. See, unless it is sand or marshlands, every inch of earth has something growing on it here.

Anthony piloting our plane above what I have started to refer to as "the broccoli fields" :)

Yay for flying! Woop-woop.

A small town (whose name I have forgotten) in between S. L. and Kourou.

More fantastic winding rivers.

And there we have it, our trip to Saint Laurent du Maroni :)

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for chickens! yes... I said chickens.

Kourou by Air

Hello again!

Because today is friday I decided to celebrate - I think all friday's should be ballyhooed (what a great word). I resolved to do this is with a french twist... in the form of some tasty pastry. Specifically, a 'pain au chocolat' topped with a cup of freshly brewed coffee from our bran-spanking new french press, which happened to taste even better because I was enjoying it from my own hand made cup. Delish.

 

Now that I have set the scene I can proceed to introduce what this post is going to be about. namely, seeing Kourou and the Îles du Salut by air. Flown by no one else but my very own man *read, extremely proud girlfriend*. (I say that now, but wait and see what we did once up there).

The Aeroclub of Kourou is quite small, but with a very welcoming and intimate atmosphere. We went up in one of their newest planes; now, when I say newest, I do not mean it in the sense of it being the most modern, instead I mean it in the sense of it being the most recently signed on plane to the club. In fact the plane itself dates from the same year of my birth, 1989 -  I did not think this was as charming as Anthony did.

 
Inspecting the plane in detail before the flight. (A propeller, two wings and some nuts and bolts - excellent, everything is in order!)

As much as I love flying I am always a bit weary, especially during take-of and landing - boy was I about to be in for a treat this time! Now, I completely trust Anthony and his flying abilities, I really do (despite having heard some rather unsettling stories about leaving windows open during take-off and such). But I must admit I felt a little more secured knowing we were going to have the flying instructor with us on the first flight.  Not that he could save us had the engine failed but... still.

 
Once the plane has been checked it was pushed out of its parking spot and in we hopped.

One aspect I love about the whole flying business, apart from actually being in flight, is the jargon attached to it. Our plane was a Cessna, a four-seater "named" FOGKQ, in other words, Foxtrot-Oskar-Golf-Kilo-Quebec which just sounds super SUPER cool. Also, the cool headgear is just apart of the general awesomeness of flying. Ahh! Now I want to watch Top Gun.

 
Up. And there we are. Easy peasy.


Most of what I saw on land was what looked like a giant salad, with lots of fluffy crunchy broccoli in it. In the distance is the coastline - where we were headed!

There we have it - Kourou by air!


This was just wonderful! You cannot spot it very well in the picture but the shadow of the airplane is surrounded by a rainbow! Our canvas, a cloud.

 
Of course the instructor was French so most of the flight was conducted in French - but I managed to stay afloat.

 

Voila! The Îsles du Salut! We are still going to visit these by boat but it was really fascinating to fly over them like this. Perspective.

We circled the islands and then headed back to the mainland

... for some training. Including emergency landing, in other words... simulating engine-failure. OH GOODY. Now, there are no pictures of this because I was sitting in the backseat reminding myself to breathe... and inadvertently also thinking that if we were to die, I would hope that my family would take care of Melba for me. We landed, and took off. And then we did this again, and then the instructor covered the instruments with little black pads (of death!) and then we landed again. The instructor climbed out of the plane and told me "You come here now" and padded the front seat. I did as I was told, smiling of course (I shall not admit to fear - Hyvä Sisu!) ... and then he closed the door and left. Anthony plugged in my headset and said "He cleared me on the plane, we can go up alone now". Omg, 30 minutes in a new plane aaaand there you go, have your wings. After having held my breath for the last 15 minutes and thanked the stars for letting us live, I had had enough... either I would get up and get out or I would buckle down, smile and enjoy the ride. I opted for the second option - I figured, there must be worse ways to die.

We surrounded the islands once more and  then flew the coastline at low altitude - I saw where I take my dog for a walk every day, the beach and even, our house, by air. It was absolutely fantastic.

We landed, tanked the plane up and filled in the flight log. Not a bad way to spend a sunday afternoon.

I feel wonderfully lucky, so blessed and so so grateful. So remember to buckled down, smile and enjoy the ride - it will be worth it! :)

Peace & Love.