FRENCH GUYANA > LATIN AMERICA > INDEX


Department of Guiana, an overseas department of France

Dégrad des Cannes, Saint-Georges, Saint-Laurel du Maroni, Saul

French Guyana is located in the north of South America at the Atlantic Ocean between Brazil and Suriname. It's also a part of the European Union.

Capital City of French Guyana:: Cayenne


car hire, hotels, travel agency, travel guides, transportation / traveling to french guyana

links


Car Rental Guyana

 Avis
World's second largest general-use car rental business, providing business and leisure customers with a wide range of services.
 Hertz

Hotels in French Guyana

 All-hotels.com 
 Expedia.com

National Parks

 Nourages Nature Reserve
This nature reserve is around 60 miles from the Atlantic coast, stretching over the towns of Roura and Régina . The reserve is centered around a 400-m² inselberg and is renowned for the diversity of the scenery and for its luxuriant flora. The wildlife here includes macaws, large rodents, monkeys, iguanas and a few rare species such as the orange-breasted falcon and the cock of the rock.

Tour Operators / Travel Agents



   Inbound

 Couleurs Amazone based at 2, bis avenue Pasteur - 97300 Cayenne
 GuyanEspace Voyages based at Kourou
Des forfaits touristiques, spécialement conçus par des pionniers de l'aventure spatiale européenne et des spécialistes de la Guyane française. Le tourisme mêlant la haute technologie et la découverte des facettes multiples de l'écologie, de l'ethnologie. L'aventure et l'exploration dans les conditions optimales de confort, de qualité et de sécurité.
 Takari Tour - Aventure et découvertes en Guyane

Travel Guides French Guyana / Related Books

Guyana: The Lost Eldorado, My Fifty Years in the Guyanese Wilds 

Legion of the Lost: The True Experience of An American in the French Foreign Legion 
Since 1831, the French Foreign Legion has been a renowned fighting force. It gives men a new lease on life -and a chance to test their physical and mental limits. In 1999, that's just what American Jaime Salazar was looking for.
The son of underpaid Mexican immigrants, Jaime earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Purdue. But at twenty-three, he was disillusioned with the corporate fast track. So he became an outcast American in a hard-bitten group of recruits-men on the run from their pasts, men without hope: He joined the French Foreign Legion.
From the Legion's notoriously brutal training to Salazar's fierce competitiveness, ultimate disillusionment and dramatic desertion, Legion of the Lost is a compelling, firsthand account of today's French Foreign Legion that will dispel myths while adding to the legend of the finest trained army of warriors the world has ever known.
Paperback: 256 pages; Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (August 1, 2006); Language: English; ISBN-13: 978-0425210154

Space in the Tropics: From Convicts to Rockets in French Guiana - Peter Redfield
Rockets roar into space - bearing roughly half the world's commercial satellites - from the same South American coastal rainforest where convicts once did time on infamous Devil's Island. What makes this book enthralling is anthropologists Peter Redfield's ability to draw from these two disparate European projects in French Guyana a gleaming web of ideas about the intersections of nature and culture. In comparing the Franco-European Ariane rocket program with the earlier penal experiment, Redfield connects the myth of Robinson Crusoe, 19th century prison reform, the Dreyfus Affair, tropical medicine, post-war exploration of outer space, satellite technology, development and ecotourism with a focus on place, and the incorporation of this particular place into greater extended systems. Examining the wider context of the Ariane program, he argues that technology and nature must be understood within a greater ecology of displacement and makes a case for the importance of margins in understanding the trajectories of modern life.
Hardcover 368 pages (January 16, 2001); Publisher: University of California Press; Language: English; ISBN: 0520219848

Transportation / How do I travel to French Guyana

 Cayenne Rochambeau Airport [ CAY ]
 Maripasoula Airport [ SO63 ]
 St Georges de L'Oyapock [ SOOG ]

 Trans Guyana Airways - regional airline

 Airline Tickets / Bargain Flights - Flights to French Guyana

 Online maps of French Guyana [ Uni Texas - Perry-Castañeda Library - Map Collection ]
Surinam and the Guianas Map 
International Travel Maps
Unbound (January 1, 2003); Publisher: ITMB Publishing; ISBN: 1553414152


Links 

 Travel Insurance

 Tourist Board of French Guyana

 Guyana Chamber of Commerce

 Cayenne - Capital City French Guyana

 Dégrad des Cannes [ border Suriname ]
 Iracoubo
The town of Iracoubo, created at the beginning of the 19th century, became famous thanks to the arrival of Father Prosper Raffray. He was to be the man behind the church, which was painted entirely by hand by a convict whose name has gone down in history, Huguet. An absolute must to see or do: The Church of Saint-Joseph - The Amerindian village of Bellevue - Bathing in Morpio Creek
 Iracoubo
The town of Iracoubo, created at the beginning of the 19th century, became famous thanks to the arrival of Father Prosper Raffray. He was to be the man behind the church, which was painted entirely by hand by a convict whose name has gone down in history, Huguet. An absolute must to see or do: The Church of Saint-Joseph - The Amerindian village of Bellevue - Bathing in Morpio Creek
 Kourou
 Saint-Georges
 Saint-Laurel du Maroni
 Saul

 Devil's Island - Isles du Salut
Ten miles off the coast of Kourou, lies a small archipelago consisting of Ile Royale, Ile Saint Joseph and Ile du Diable, or Devil's Island, where the Penal Colony was set up in 1852.
Over time, this prison, set on islands of lush vegetation, surrounded by an emerald sea, came to be one of the most famous in the world, with famous convicts such as the Captain Dreyfus, Seznec or Papillon. It has now been transformed into an enchanting area for walking among the vestiges of the prison or swimming in the crystal clear water. The îles du Salut are also a favorite among game fishing lovers.
 Hattes Beach
The Beaches of les Hattes and Montjoly are undoubtedly the ideal spots to watch the Leatherback Turtle. From April to July, these huge sea creatures, that can reach up to 6 feet in length and can weigh up to 1,500 lbs., can be seen laying eggs. From August to October, the beaches are the scene for the moving sight of the birth of these thousands of turtles that one day will come back to lay their own eggs on one of these beaches....
 Maroni River
This river, which separates Surinam from French Guiana, runs through some magnificent scenery on its 330 -mile journey, via a series of rapids. The river runs through a number of picturesque villages, such as Apatou, Grand Santi and Papaichton, where the ancestral peoples, such as the Noirs Marrons and the Maroni Amerindians still live.
 Mount Favard
This wonderful setting, 40 m south-east of Cayenne, near the Kaw Swamps, has kept the traces of French Guiana's first inhabitants, the Arawak and Carib Indians. This footpath is the ideal way of exploring and discovering the mysteries of this pre-Columbian period.
The ruins of the Favard House, with its mill and its sugar cane boiler, are a reminder of the colonial past of this region, where sugar cane, cocoa beans and coffee were grown. An exact copy of this rock carving made out of synthetic resin can be admired on the ground floor of the French Guiana Tourist Board in Cayenne.
 Oyapock basin
As you travel the river that separates French Guiana from Brazil, you will discover a fascinating region. This magnificent river has some of the most beautiful waterfalls in the whole territory.
Ten miles from the town of Saint Georges, which marks the border with Brazil, the Maripa Falls form one of the most beautiful natural sites in French Guiana.
It can be reached by a track or by canoe and you can spend the night there before beginning a trip up the Oyapock to discover the Amerindian villages that line the river.
Who knows, maybe you will stumble across the mythical city of Eldorado, that one legend says marks the source of the Oyapock

 Académie de la Guyane [ Education ]
 Eldorado
 Spacecenter - French Guiana Space Center - Launches, events, expositions etc.
The Space Port of Europe in Kourou offers free 4-hour long guided tours that include: a film that tells the history of the Space Center, a visit to the Jupiter control center, the whole of a launch of Ariane 4 and the even more powerful Ariane 5.
Watching Ariane from launch pad to orbit is an unforgettable experience. Come to one of the observation points set at a distance of 3 and 4.5 miles and play a part in man's conquest of space

Cuisine - Cooking Recipes

French Guyanese gastronomy is a fabulous and audacious blend of the traditions of several continents. Its eloquent richness will delight any palate in search of exotic delights.
The generous sea and the territory's many rivers mean that you will not leave French Guiana without having tasted, in a court-bouillon, blaffed or grilled, a wide variety of fish such as red snapper, weakfish, machoiran, grouper or shark, not forgetting seafood, giant prawns or crabs.
The forest also provides Guyanese cuisine with riches, and there are many dishes with game such as collared peccary, white-lipped peccary, paca, tapir or agouti, eaten as a fricassee and accompanied by rice, couac, roasted manioc and kidney beans.
The huge variety and abundance of fruit, pineapples, mangoes, papayas, rambutans and bananas, also contribute to the specificity of the Guyanese relaxed rhythm of life.

 Antilles Resto -  le guide des restaurants et des recettes de cuisine creole
La gastronomie de Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin.
French Caribbean Cuisine - Stephanie Ovide
This marvellous cookbook contains over 150 authentic recipes from the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Favourites such as Avocado Charlotte, Fish Crepes Saintoise, and Fish Court Bouillon will beckon everyone to the table. Also included are a chapter on local drinks, a glossary on Caribbean food products and a list of sources where speciality ingredients can be purchased.
Hardcover 226 pages (July 2002); Publisher: Hippocrene Books, Inc.; Language: English; ISBN: 0781809258

History of French Guyana

In January 1500, two years after Christopher Columbus' famous journey, Vincent Pinson became the first person to explore French Guiana. Around 1643, in their search for Eldorado, companies such as France Equinoxiale and Cap Nord began the colonization of French Guiana.

Colonization: in 1644, Governor Poncet de Brétigny set up a fort on the highest hill in Cayenne, which he named Cépérou, after a Galibi Indian chief.

Gold and the penal colony: in the 17th century, what is now French Guiana saw influxes of French, Spanish, English and Dutch, all eager to search for the mythical Eldorado.

In 1852, in order to be able to close down the prisons in Toulon, Brest and Rochefort, France decided to make Guiana a penal administration. Over 80,000 prisoners arrived in French Guiana over the years, from the Transportation Camp to the Iles du Salut. Among them were Dreyfus, Papillon and Seznec.

The archaeology of the Guianas 
A focus on Life and culture of the pre-Columbian Indians of the Guianas [ internet site of Aad H. Versteeg ].

 Franconie Museum
The Franconie Museum, the cultural heart of French Guiana, is located in Cayenne in a beautiful Creole house that is now a listed building. Everything that Guyanese heritage has to offer is on display here, be it cultural, artistic or natural. It is an essential visit for anybody wishing to understand the charm of French Guiana.
 Museum of Guyanese Cultures
The Museum of Guyanese Cultures, set in a pretty traditional house in Cayenne, is the centerpiece of Guyanese heritage. The exhibits and the resource center retrace the history and culture of Guyanese society.

Music, Art & Culture, Events & Entertainment

 Amerindians of French Guiana
 Info about the Hmong in French Guyana

 Carnival Guyana - Carnaval de Guyane - Fédération des Festivals et Carnavals de Guyane

Web Portal / Search Engine / Directory

 Directory of Cities, Towns, and Regions in French Guiana
 Dom Dom Guyane - Le Web Guyanais
 Infoantilles.com 
 Trip in French Guyana


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