Cayenne

Cayenne will not stand as one of our best stops. I would even venture
to say that in many respects, it will stand as one of our worse. The
only exception would be the local customs officer. He is a yachtie
himself and understands the needs of a small sailboat. In one hour, I
did the clearance in and the clearance out, all on proper documentation
and all that with a very friendly atmosphere. A big change from Reunion
where we had so much trouble getting a clearance.
The marina at Degrad des Cannes could be voted as one of the worse in
the world. It is located in the wrong place (on the outside of a river
bend with strong current), next to a cement plant, next to the
commercial harbor and with no services at all. All it has are two
pontoons with water and electricity, which is almost a miracle, but
there is no office, no access to toilets or showers, and it is located 8
miles from the city with no public transport available. The swell comes
in all the way to the marina and the boats are tossed around quite a
bit, with a lot of stress on the moorings.
Also, since the marina is hardly managed, there are quite many boats, in
terrible shape, owned by squatters who come here to work and don't care
if their boat goes to hell and looks like a piece of sh......t.
We arrived at the beginning of the rainy season, which means that
everything is hot and almost dry, or hot and totally wet. The atmosphere
is very damp and you get esxhausted very easily.

When you go to the city, you never feel that you are in a city by the
sea side. In fact, it seems to have its back to the sea and is only
looking inshore to the rivers and the rain forest. I managed to rent a
car, but failed to get a mobile broadband connection with a USB modem.
We drove to Kuru in an attempt to visit the space facility. Although we
had been told to be there before 8 a.m. and have our passports ready. So
we did. On arrival, we were told that they were training the guides, so
there would be no visit, but we could visit the Space Museum. Which we
did. To find out that most of the exhibits did not work, either being
out of order, or just not connected. So we left, under the impression
that visitors were not all that welcome.

After a last evening at the home of a friend of Olivier, during which we
learned quite a bit about Guyana, we got back to the boat, happy to be
about to leave.
Having no access to Internet, I can't post any pictures, but I will do
so once in either Martinique or Guadeloupe.
We should arrive in Martinique by the 13th at the latest.