French Guiana People & Culture

to get to cayenne or Kourou, you might consider hitch-hiking. It is not 100% safe (gold-diggers, illegal immigrants are around, the majority of them peaceful people) but a lot safer than in the countries around. streets are good, but be prepared for some funny looking French policemen checking cars and passports.

to get to cayenne or Kourou, you might consider hitch-hiking. It is not 100% safe (gold-diggers, illegal immigrants are around, the majority of them peaceful people) but a lot safer than in the countries around. streets are good, but be prepared for some funny looking French policemen checking cars and passports.

Cayenne is a beautiful city, but very expensive. (A budget room is still 50 Euros a night!) Have Pho and Smoothies down at the market. If you are trying to get to Brazil, unless you speak French fluently, and maybe even still if you do, the colectif drivers know you have no other choice. you'd be lucky to pay less than 40 Euros a person for a 2 hour drive! Then there is an overnight bus to the nothing is happening town of Macapa, and a miserable ferry trip to Belem (miserable due to the tidal phenomenon.) Anyhow, work out the aproximate costs because it may work out cheaper or at least not much more to fly from Cayenne to Belem. Unless you need to draw that little we did it overland line, it is well worth looking into.

Don't forget to check the prison itself!

to get to cayenne or Kourou, you might consider hitch-hiking. It is not 100% safe (gold-diggers, illegal immigrants are around, the majority of them peaceful people) but a lot safer than in the countries around. streets are good, but be prepared for some funny looking French policemen checking cars and passports.

While in Suriname, Saint-Laurent is a good place to visit from Galibi for the fun river trip and to see how very different two places so close by can be: from middle-of-nowhere to organised caribbean France, including well-swept streets and baguette with french cheese. What a weird place!

The police station is quite difficult to find (to get your exit/entrance stamp) so try if possible, to have a map before you go, or know how to ask for and understand directions in French. We have terrible French, and while we were wandering around looking for it, a police car drove by so we got a ride with them. I am sure that isn't normal but they were very nice. Anyways, one more thing, if you are going further into French Guiana from here, the mini bus drivers can charge whatever they want and they know it. They have quite a little monopoly going, so be prepared for the heart attack any budget traveller would feel. I think that is it. It was quite a cute little town on the river, we continued on to Brazil there, Oiapoque to Macapa to Belem, and then upriver to Peru.