A ferry runs from Suriname to Guyana once a day at 8:00 a.m. or rather, it departs as soon as it’s full. If you miss it, you’re out of luck and have to wait until the next day. We arranged to leave at 4:00 a.m. As I mentally prepared myself for an early departure without […]
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French Guiana – Suriname We stayed in Paramaribo for the night and set off the next morning to spend two days deep within the Central Reserve on Fungo Island in the jungle. We were told to leave most of our belongings in storage at the hotel and to pack only the essentials for one night
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Devil’s Island, French Guiana For that morning, we had a scheduled tour of the Kourou space center from which France and other European nations launch their satellites into orbit. We had submitted our application forms in advance; everyone in the group had passed the security check and received confirmations that the visit was approved. We
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Brazil to French Guiana The entire following day was devoted to a trip to Devil’s Island, home to a notorious maximum-security prison. The prison was built in 1852. France used it to exile to distant Guiana primarily political prisoners. Inmates included conspirators against Napoleon, the famous Alfred Dreyfus who was falsely accused of spying for
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Macapa, Brazil It was going to be a long day, and we were told we would be leaving at 6:30 a.m. I don’t set an alarm; I usually wake up by six anyway. I went to sleep late and woke up with a start, as if jolted. The room was dark because of the heavily
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“I’ve never sailed the Amazon, I’ve never reached Brazil; But the Don and Magdalena, they can go there when they will!” Rudyard Kipling Actually, I already was in Brazil in 2008, though in a different part of the country – the south. Now it was time for northern Brazil. The flight from Colorado involved a
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Cartagena (continued) Our last day in Colombia was on the beach. We wanted to dip into the Caribbean before going home to our landlocked Colorado. It took a while to find the right tour. In the end, out of all available beach trips, we chose to go to Playa Blanca. It was for a day
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Castillo San Felipe de Barajas This post is going to be mostly photos and little text. Cartagena is so colorful that I wanted to take a picture of every street in its arts district Getsemani. These photos got to be posted somewhere. Rest assured that I have a lot more pictures but I have to
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Old town of Cartagena This fortress sits on top of the Hill of San Lázaro outside of the Walled town of Cartagena. The Spanish built it in the 1600s to protect the city after it was occupied and looted by Sir Francis Drake. The Castillo was cleverly designed. Its complex consists of several individual forts
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Cartagena We spent our first full day in Cartagena exploring the old town. The Lonely Planet lists the Palace of inquisition as a top city attraction. So we went to it first. The museum name suggests that its visitors should expect to see torture equipment and other tools that we are used to associate with
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