French Guiana

If you are going to do this place you need French. Seriously, English won’t get you far. If you are going to stay on the West Coast, on the Suriname boarder you might get away with Sranan Tongo, Taki Taki locally, but English or Dutch won’t cut it.

Fr. Guiana is the most developed of the Guianas, but it is very expencive. However it is well worth seeing if you speak French or can find an English speaker to show you around. A friend took me through a good portion of the coastal plane and I found it to be beautiful and relaxing.

It just one of those oddball little places that people hope they can say there are lucky enough to see.

Mulattos (People of mixed black and white ancestry) are the largest ethnic group, though estimates vary as to the exact percentage, depending upon whether the large Haitian community is included as well. Generally the Creole population is judged at about 60% to 70% of the total population with Haitians (comprising roughly one-third of Creoles) and 30% to 50% without. Roughly 14% are Europeans, the vast majority of whom are French.       

French Guiana, as part of France, is part of the European Union, the largest part in area outside Europe, with one of the longest E.U. external boundaries and a part of the Union outside Europe that is not an island along with the Spanish enclaves in Africa, Ceuta and Melilla. The Head of State is the President of France, who appoints a Préfet (resident at the Prefecture building in Cayenne) as his/her representative. There are two legislative bodies: the 19-member General Council and the 34-member Regional Council, both elected. French Guiana has two seats at the National Assembly in Paris. French Guiana has traditionally been conservative, thougah the socialist party has been increasingly successful in recent years. Though many would like to see more autonomy for the region, support for complete independence is very low.       

It’s defenitily worth visiting, cause it still has it’s charm of the late French empire. More over one can make up some research papers about those times and compare it’s legasy.

I don’t recall much about this trip. I do remember not being impressed with the food.
Life style seemed laid back and relaxed. The open air market was an adventure.

Expedition Tumuc-Humac, by a french author, Francis Maziere I believe.

Great book. Read it in high school years ago. Have wanted to visit ever since.

It was a completely unepectable experience. My father was working at Kourou and we went on vacations there for a month. It´s a small but very good city, very close to a beautiful island called The Devil Island. It´s worth because it is not the first choice for travelling and is very cheap so you can always find a good place to stay and it´s not crowded.