A Pirogue Trip to Albina

The local mode of transportation here on the muddy brown River Maroni is the pirogue. From the Spanish word piragua (by water), we've seen several different types of pirogues in our tavels. They're basically dugout canoes, but they come in many different varieties. Here they're particularly long and narrow and have humongous outboard engines on them to ply them back and forth across the river. Some of the tourist pirogues for taking daytrips up the river are brightly colored, but the regular ones for heading back and forth are workhorses.

We've been looking across the river at Albina, Suriname since we arrived in Saint-Laurent. It's only about 1.5nm across the river, but none of our friends has ventured over there. We were told it wasn't much, although locals go there to shop because the prices are considerably cheaper. There seems to be little issue with Immigration or Customs going back and forth from Suriname to French Guiana as long as you stay within the river towns. So, why not go? A ride in a pirogue plus a peek at Albina.

We walked to the busy pirogue dock and negotiated a price for a one way ride. One was just getting ready to leave and he agreed that €3/pp was fair. I'd say that we “hopped” aboard, but it wasn't quite that easy. The pirogues are long and narrow and thus, quite tippy and unstable. Watching the locals get aboard made it look easy, but we “tourists” were a bit more cautious.

Because it's narrow and low to the water, the inside is quite cramped and close.

Soon the colorful foreshore of Albina came clearly into view. The ride across lasted only 10-15 minutes.

Other pirogues zipped behind us, in front of us, beside us. The drivers are quite adept at maneuvering these long, awkward crafts and we managed to get to the other side unscathed. Unloading was less tricky now that we had the hang of it.

Well, the folks who said Albina wasn't much were absolutely right. The town is pretty much only the riverfront wide. There are some houses scattered behind and along the riverfront. There are taxis and a once-a-day bus to Paramaribo, Suriname's capital city, but that's about it. Fuel is considerably cheaper here, so the fuel dock does a brisk business.

We found no open restaurants other than a few street food vendors. We wandered along the narrow foreshore walk and found a couple of shops in which to poke around.

The shops offered grocery items and a myriad of Chinese-imported goods … like Black & Docker (yes, Docker) tools and Galvin Klain jeans and underwear. We did find a local beer, Parbo … cold and refreshing, despite the fact it was only 10:30 AM!

Finding a ride back was a little trickier, since we wanted to be dropped off at the beach near the dinghy dock. After some negotiation, we agreed upon €15 for all of us. We boarded the pirogue, Pasensi Lobi (Translation: Hot Love), and took off in a flash with the driver's brother at the bow providing slight hand movements to the helmsman to negotiate our path. He evidently needed to make a quick stop at another dock. We sped at full throttle under a low bridge which we thought might have knocked his brother's block off, but our bowman gracefully ducked just in time and was no shorter on the other side of the bridge.

While we waited at the other dock, we got the chance to view life on the foreshore from a slightly different perspective. People came and went with their purchases … just another day in Albina.

We finally got under way again and sped across the river. As we landed at the beach, new fare negotiations began. It seems that the driver had mistakenly quoted us the wrong price. It should have been €20. In all fairness, we had been told the fare was €5/pp to our beach. We smiled, gave him his €20, shook hands and said adieu. After all, the best parts of the trip were the pirogue rides!

Check out a short video on our pirogue trip across the muddy Maroni to Albina.

Guiana Space Center, Kourou

We visited Kourou briefly on our way to Cayenne, but decided it deserved a bit more exploration on our return trip. It's only about 60 km (36 miles) from Cayenne and lies at the mouth of the Kourou River. Some of our cruiser friends anchored in the river, but admit that Saint-Laurent is a bit easier and more convenient. Driving to Kourou was definitely easier than anchoring in the river and walking.

Kourou, too, was originally part of the French penal colony. There's not much left of the prison, mostly ruins. The Dreyfuss Tower remains, a solemn, but dilapidated reminder of years past when semaphore communication was used to communicate with the offshore prison islands. Iles du Salut (Devil's Island) is only 14 km (8 miles) away.

Kourou isn't known for its prisons, though. It's known nowadays for the Centre Spatial Guayanais, the Guiana Space Center. It's the launch facility for the European Space Agency (ESA), comprised of 10 cooperating European countries. It's also the home of Arianespace SA, a European multinational company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider It's a very active site with a schedule of six launches in 2015. The last was 30 September and the next will be 10 November. If we were staying around, we'd likely attend. They offer a free bus from Saint-Laurent to Kourou to view the launches. It would be great, but as always, there are compromises for sailors. If we delay our departure from French Guiana, we miss visiting Suriname and/or Guyana.

Free tours are available, but pre-planning is required. We signed up for one, but found it was a three-hour tour and only given in French. Three hours of understanding 50% or less of what was going on added to the broken toe situation didn't make sense. We opted instead to drive around the facility and see what we could see.

CSG (Centre Spatial Guayanais or the Guiana Space Centre) has been in existence since 1968. According to Wiki and the Space Center site, “it is particularly suitable as a location for a spaceport as it fulfills the two major geographical requirements of such a site:

• it is quite close to the equator, so that the spinning earth can impart some extra velocity to the rockets for free when launched eastward, and
• it has uninhabited territory (in this case, open sea) to the east, so that lower stages of rockets and debris from launch failures cannot fall on human habitations.”

The CSG site continued ...

“Kourou is located approximately 500 kilometres (310 mi) north of the equator, at a latitude of 5°10'. The near-equatorial launch location provides an advantage for launches to low-inclination (or geostationary) Earth orbits compared to launches from space ports at higher latitude. For example, the eastward boost provided by the Earth's rotation is about 463 m/s (1,035 miles per hour) at the Guiana Space Centre versus about 406 m/s (908 miles per hour) at Cape Canaveral/Kennedy Space Center space ports in Florida which are at 28°27′N latitude.The proximity to the equator also makes maneuvering satellites for geosynchronous orbits simpler and less costly.”

There was plenty to see from the car actually. There's an impressive Ariane rocket replica on display next to the CSG headquarters.

We were surprised at how far we could drive without being stopped. Beyond the CSG headquarters building, we took a perimeter road and drove for several kilometers. We passed the Satellite Prep site and the Meteorological station.

A turn-off and parking area invited us to take a closer look at a recovered booster rocket engine.

When we approached the actual launch site area, however, we weren't surprised when we were very politely denied access. All in all though, a pretty impressive site and no French translation was involved.

French Guiana's Cayenne and Cacao

I'd read about the Hmong Sunday market in Cacao on several websites and in Lonely Planet. Cacao is a small Hmong village about 70 km (40 miles) south of Cayenne.

The Hmong people are originally from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. During the Vietnam War, France and the USA recruited thousands of Hmong people to fight against the North Vietnamese. After the war, Hmong refugees fled and sought political asylum elsewhere. France repatriated several thousand people to French Guiana where their industrious natures and talents have thrived. Not much goes on in French Guiana on Sundays and it seemed a worthwhile trip... so we were off.

We took the N2 highway, also known at Route de l'Est, heading south and east out of Cayenne. There aren't many major highways in French Guiana... the N1 and the N2. If we followed the N2 to the end, we'd be on the Brazil border. Though we weren't heading all that far, it was still a chance to get into the interior a bit. Several of the roundabouts provided a venue for public statuary which centered more on the AmerIndian tribes, the Wayana and the Wayampi.

Once we left the city limits, the road narrowed significantly and followed the contour of the land up and down (15% grades!) and around hairpin turns. We encountered single lane, wooden plank bridges that clop-clop-clopped as we took our turn to drive across.

We reached the turn-off for Cacao, an even narrower road, and were surprised to see several cars making the same turn. When we arrived in Cacao, we were gobsmacked by the amount of cars and people and the gendarmerie (police) directing traffic. There was no room to park closer and we were instructed to park in a gravel lot and walk the 1.5 km (1 mile) into town. Usually this would not have posed a problem, but it seemed I'd broken my toe before we left the boat (while hanging out clothes, no less … don't ask!). David explained the situation to an understanding, English-speaking cop. I showed him my swollen, black and blue toe and he let us pass the barricade into town. We continued wending our way through tiny streets, clogged with haphazardly parked cars and throngs of people. The gods were with us … we found a place to park within a few hundred feet of the main marketplace. Who could have known how popular this place would be?

We headed directly to the market hall for some Soupe Pho. This variation included some coconut milk in the broth and it was even better than the last we'd tried. Slurping, however, seems to be an occupational hazard for eating this soup and it ain't pretty. (Note to self: Never let David hold camera while I'm eating!)

Beyond the fruits and veggies, the Hmongs are known for their fine needlework tapestries. Some were large works of art … perhaps recalling scenes from home.

Some were beautifully intricate geometric patterns in bright colors that boasted hours and hours of concentrated labor.

Other needlework was reverse appliqué, reminiscent of the molas created by the Kuna people in Panama. We looked and pondered whether to buy and in the end, purchased nothing. We have so much aboard already that may never be put to use, we hesitate to purchase more. Photos are the best mementos for sailors, I guess.

There were also a few pieces of art that we didn't regret leaving behind.

We would have enjoyed exploring the town a bit more, but the crowds kept wandering to a minimum. We returned to Cayenne in mid-afternoon. The city was sleepy...nothing going on at all. All the shops, even the big supermarkets, were closed. All the restaurants were closed, save our hotel restaurant. It was a day of rest for all. Nothing happens on Sundays. We decided it was a good time for a walk. We headed first to the Cathedrale Saint-Sauveur. We were surprised to find it closed and locked up tight.

We wandered through the Place des Palmistes. There were very few people around. The park was in a sad state. Old, ornate cement planters which lined the paths within the park were empty, chipped and faded. The grass was parched. Park benches needed paint and repair. A monument erected in 1889 commemorated the French Revolution of 1789, but it was hard to read the plaque.

A statue of Felix Eboue erected in 1959, honored the first French Guianan-born black to be appointed to a high position in the French government.

Beyond the park, we passed the ruins of an old military installation, now all fenced off. The fencing, however, provided a great canvas for some lively street art which we appreciated.

From the shore, we could see the muddy water mixing with the Atlantic blue and the grassy peninsula of Pointe des Amandiers not far away.

Once again, hot and tired, we retreated to the cool respite of our room. All too soon, we'll be sweating and sweltering aboard Nine of Cups, taking advantage of the cool provides as much a pleasure as exploring. We'll head back to Saint-Laurent tomorrow via Kourou and the European Space Center. In the meantime, a cool shower, a cool room and a picnic for dinner. Vacations end all too quickly.