Monday, Day 121 - May 7 - 9 to 5, Tender, Devil’s Island, French Guiana

Devil’s Island is best known for the infamous penal colony to which convicts and undesirables were deported from France. For a long time the small archipelago was known by the name of “Devil’s Island.” The notorious convict settlements were built in 1852 by Emperor Napoleon III’s government and used until 1952. Today, a lush, green landscape, of tropical foliage has grown over the old prison buildings and softened their aspect from forbidding to quaint. One can find colorful bird in the trees and small rodent like animals in the underbrush. There are trails leading around the base of the island and up to the main prison at the top of the hill that makes up the island, There is also a small swimming pool that was carved out of the rocky shore by the prisoners.

The most famous prisoners were Alfred Dreyfus, the French Army officer falsely convicted of treason, and Henri Charrière, who was immortalized in the movie “Papillon” for supposedly being the only convict to escape from “the Green Hell.”

We stopped here in 20011 on our Circle South America cruise and did our own tour. We planned on doing the same thing today.

The ship is approaching the three Lles du Salut 6 miles of the coast of French Guiana when we wake at 7.  There are rain clouds all around and the sea is very rough. In our opinion, there will be no landing today though the Captain has not said anything yet. We spend the next two hours circling around the islands to get in the calmest place on the dock side . The tender is lowered and the platform is set up first on the port side but that proves too rough so they set up the platform on the starboard side. It is better, but the wind starts picking up so the Captain finally announces that it is just to choppy for safe tendering and the wind is only getting stronger. That is really too bad especially for the ones on board who have not been on the Island. We do get a nice view of the rugged shore and the turbulent water surrounding the islands. You can just make out some of the buildings of the prison with the camera telephoto lens.

Jamie and his team get busy and get a new daily schedule out by 10:30. Terry is doing lecture at 11 and Sarah has Quilling so Dick and Carolyn are covered. They put on a Movie at 2:30 and Armstrong does a pre dinner magic show at 5:45 which we go to. He is really good. It is 45 minutes of amazing card tricks...”magic”. You would not want to play cards against him!

We meet some friends in Galileo’s for cocktails at 6:30 then go on to dinner with them at 7. Carolyn had asked Jason to set up a table for four in Vishnu’s section for 7. We were a little late but we did get a table with Vishnu and had an excellent meal with great service. After dinner we all went to Terry’s show “Ain’t Patrick’s Night and Another Load of Blarney!”