December 23 - Devil's Island, French Guiana

Today we were SUPPOSED to visit Devil’s Island off the coast of Kourou, French Guiana. Officially if was called the Penal Colony of Cayenne, however it is more commonly known as Devil's Island. It was a French prison system that operated for 100 years, from 1852 to 1952, situated in the Salvations Islands.

It was notorious both for the staff's harsh treatment of detainees and the tropical climate and diseases that contributed to high mortality. The prison system had a death rate of 75 percent at its worst and was finally closed down in 1953.

I said ‘supposed’ because around 7:00am I looked out and saw the three islands. I knew we weren't allowed to go to shore until 8:30, so I started to review what I was going to do and when I looked up the islands were moving away. I quickly ran to my balcony to take some pictures.

 

The Captain then came on the intercom system and said due to bad sea conditions (7+ foot swells) and weather (possible lightning) they would not be able to tender us onto the island. So, he was turning the ship around and was going to head off to our next destination. I quickly put on something decent and headed to the 12th floor to at least get pictures as we left Devil’s Island in our wake. I zoomed in as far as I could and saw a structure on the island and a small fishing boat. 



No Snide comments about the hair! Remember I had just jumped out of bed!

See, I do clean up.

Well at least they showed Papillion, with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, in the theater. We may not have gotten on the island; however, we got an idea of what it was all about. And no, they don’t have a large cliff (that Steve McQueen jumped off) on the island.


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