Devil's Island (FEB 13)

We could see the mainland of French Guiana at a distance of about seven nautical miles as we approached “Devil’s Island.”

The quotations marks denote the common misconception that it is a solitary island.  There are actually three islands – Ile Saint Joseph, Ile Royale and Ile du Diable - that collectively constitute Iles du Salut.  All three at various times have been, but no longer are, part of the penal colony known as Devil’s Island. 

The islands being part of French Guiana and French Guiana in turn being an autonomous region of France, we were in French territorial waters. 

After anchoring in shallow enough water to raise clouds of mud...

…the ship had to clear French immigration and customs quarantine before anyone could go ashore. 

We landed on Ile Royale, the island that was the hub of the penal colony and where the majority of the prisoners were kept.

We walked a trail that was a slow ascent toward the top of the island.  Along the way we came across monkeys, a few buildings and a graveyard.  The graveyard was not for prisoners who were unceremoniously thrown into the sea.  And it was a lot of prisoners.  Of the approximately 80,000 men sent there, few departed the penal colony vertically.

Although not a strenuous climb, the temperature and humidity made it a challenging one, especially since we were ‘over-dressed’, so we were glad to reach the top. 

Due to concerns about Zika, we were admonished to wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts as well as lather ourselves in bug repellant.  It quickly became apparent that this was unnecessary as we saw and heard no bugs. 

We got a closer look at the lighthouse we had seen as the ship approached the island.  There was also some sort of signal equipment on the island and a small garrison of French soldiers to attend to it. 

The prison itself was in considerable disrepair, having been shut down in 1952, but there was still plenty of evidence of what a hell-hole it must have been. 

We continued to wander the grounds, seeing where the community that guarded and administered the prison lived. 

There was a small hotel on the island.  While not exactly a happening place to go for a vacation, I suppose there was a certain novelty factor…

…presuming one of these guys did not crawl into your room.  (Note the length of the tail.)

On the way back down to the pier, we came across a capybara.

Standing out the pier, we could see several sea turtles nibbling things off the underwater stones of the pier.

One of the ship’s tenders had a mechanical problem that necessitated a small delay in our departure. 

Once that anchor was up, the ship retraced its arrival approach until we were back in deep water.  VEENDAM then shaped up on a course for Belem. 

We will be at sea tomorrow, crossing the equator some time in the afternoon or evening. 

For more information about Devil’s Island, click here.