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FRENCH GUIANA

DECEMBER 2005


Cayenne: Place des Palmistes

French Guiana is a small region in South America that is officially under control of the French government. When you arrive, you are actually in territory of the European Union. You won’t meet too many people who groan about independence here. Why should they? They have it far better than in Guyana and Suriname because of those generous French subsidies. Not only that, they get to have French license plates and celebrate Bastille Day.

The currency used here is the Euro. Prices here are very high, even by French standards, so if you are traveling on the weaker US$ (as I am), be prepared for a good, solid, financial ass-kicking. How, you ask?

  • 3-hour bus ride from the border to Cayenne (the capital): US$40
  • McDonald’s super-sized combo: US$10
  • Short taxi ride: easily US$18 or more
  • The cheapest, most disgusting hotel room available: US$47
  • Decent dinner at a very good Chinese restaurant: US$20
  • Four English-language newspapers and magazines: $US30
  • Telling people you've been to French Guiana: NOT worth the price

    The list above fully explains why French Guiana will never be an international tourist destination. If you are a budget traveler or backpacker, you are never going to invest the money to get here and stay here. Even if money isn’t an issue, you’d simply be better off going directly to Paris.

    I don’t mean to slam the place. Actually, I kind of liked it. Cayenne is very small (population approx. 50,000), but it’s nice enough and perfectly safe, although there’s not much going on here. On Sundays, what a friggin' ghost town! In the words on one guide book, “Cayenne quickly loses its luster.”

    Some observations:

  • The European Space agency launches its rockets from French Guiana. There also used to be an infamous penal colony here
  • The food here is very good. At an Italian restaurant, I (a native English speaker) ordered my meal in Spanish from the French waitress
  • Not many people speak English, but a handful do. Oddly enough, an emaciated, homeless man was the best English speaker I came across. He told me he had been to Tampa, Florida and became homeless after his wife and cousin died. I’m thinking he neglected to tell me about his crack addiction, but I gave him some money anyway
  • I met a Chinese woman who was in French Guiana trying to convert the local Chinese population to Christianity. She said there was one Chinese Christian church in Cayenne
  • Even though conditions here are pretty tough, The people of French Guiana avoided all the rioting that recently took place in mainland France. Well, maybe someone kicked a palm tree. Still researching that one.

    Getting accurate information proved to be quite a challenge. While trying to find the tourist information office, all the printed information I had was incorrect. One local man swore to me there never was a tourist office. A taxi driver said there had been one, but it closed a while ago. Then he thought about it for a moment and concluded there was a new tourist office a few blocks away – but it might not be open.

    When I finally found it, there wasn’t much printed information available. I was unable to communicate with the French woman who worked there. I tried to recruit the German tourist who was looking around, but he couldn’t speak French either. All I really wanted was a plane ticket out of this country. Having lost three days due to illness, I was way behind schedule, and the three-day overland trek to Brazil seemed like an awful idea. I won’t even discuss the price of this plane ticket, but I probably would have paid twice as much to avoid that land trip.

    While moping on some steps mulling the US$20 taxi fare to the airline ticket office, a chubby, hairy woman saw me looking at a map and asked me where I was going. She was kind enough to give me a ride. I walked back the two-or-so miles back to town and patiently waited for that flight. And, no, I did not pay the US$50 taxi fare for the fifteen minute ride to the airport. With some creative moves, I managed to get there for about US$20.


    Cayenne: Cemetery


    Cayenne: Statue at the roundabout next to McDonald's


    Central Cayenne: Rooster Statue


    Central Cayenne: Notice the French licence plate on the car


    Central Cayenne


    Central Cayenne


    Advertising south of the city center