Xi'an's Og

As in other oversea French territories, Guiana is a mix of reproduction of some metropolitan features (e.g., the postoffice, the gendarmerie, the signage, the large malls with French brands like Carrefour and the same products as here, the many boulangeries) and of local specificities or idiosyncrasies (e.g., very well maintained roadsides, haphazard garbage collection, convenience stores overwhelmingly operated by people of Chinese descent, hardly any regulation on guns, hunting, or bushmeat for non-protected species). Car wrecks are left along the roads, while the driving code there reminded me of the 80’s! Meaning risky overtakes, moppets with no lights and moppet drivers with no helmet. I also drove there possibly the worst ride of my life, over the 50km between Roura and the harbour on Kaw marshes, as the formally (or formerly?) paved D6 road is littered with potholes that are rarely avoidable and often quite deep. The drive back in the night, the rain and the fog was a nightmare!

We visited the launching site of ESA, Kourou, an impressive structure over a huge territory. But missed the James Webb launch by six hours, only catching the exhaust fumes of the rocket when we were approaching Cayenne (after a rather uncomfortable flight between a massive and man-spreading left neighbour and a reclining-to-the-max front neighbour). And missed a jaguar crossing the road by being in the “wrong” ESA bus! (Unless this is a usual line of the tour guide.)

As Amazon France does not truly work in French Amazonia (another idiosyncrasy!), for obvious cost and delay resaons, bookstores in cities like Cayenne and Kourou are terrific and hopefully standing a better chance of surviving. When we spent an hour in La Case à Bulles, the place was crowded! (As I forgot my regular Olympus camera at home, I would have loved to get Amazon delivery. Instead I bought a basic Kodak camera from the local supermarket, which returned most of these blah pictures before the batteries prematurely died.)