French Guiana

Yesterday  was a day at sea so Becky and  I  decided  to do our laundry.   We figured everyone  else would have the same idea so we decided  we'd  get up really  early. The clocks went  forward as well  so when  we woke up at 6am it felt like  5am. Despite  our early  arrival  at the  laundrette  on our deck, 2 out of the  3 washing machines  were already  in use. We put our clothes  in  and picked them  up again  on the way back from  breakfast.    

Today we arrived  at Iles du Salut. This is a  group of 3 small islands just off the  coast of mainland  French  Guiana. The islands were the  site of a notorious  French  prison  colony between  1852 and  1952.  The main prison complex  was on Ile Royale (where we landed).  Ile Saint Joseph  is a smaller  island where problem  prisoners were sent for  solitary  confinement.  The 3rd island,  Ile de Diablo  was where political  prisoners  were  kept, and  it is this  island  that gave  the penal colony its common  name  of Devil's  Island. 

The ship anchored off shore and we transferred to the small  dock by tender.  On shore it was very hot and  humid and we had to  walk for 20 - 25 minutes on a trail with an incline  to reach the site of the main  prison  buildings.  Unforunately you couldn't  go inside  any of  the buildings even though some  looked to be  in a  good  state of  repair. There were  some  nice views of the other  side of the  island though.

During our 20 minute  walk on the trail  we saw several  monkeys who were quite  interested in us. 

They checked  us thoroughly  back at the  dock to make sure we weren't escaping prisoners,  but in the  end  we were  allowed out for  good  behavior  (clearly  they don't  know us that  well) and returned  to the ship.