Wednesday 31 January - Iles du Salut & Devil's Island

So yesterday was a sea day and Peter had his art classes.  The film Papillon was shown at the same time as the class yesterday, which was disappointing. Even though we've seen it so many times before, we wanted to see it again.  We've been recommending it to the passengers up until now, and then the Captain did the same thing during the noonday announcement.  Needless to say, Peter's class numbers were down. Apparently there was also an added bit of entertainment during the showing of the film.  Two passengers wanted to sit in the same place, and neither was going to give way.  They where pushing and elbowing, trying to force each other out of the seat.  The ship's Assistant Cruise Director stepped in to try and resolve the problem, but they were having none of it. Both passengers sat and watched the whole film more or less on each other's laps.  Still pushing and elbowing each other throughout the showing.

Peter has also caught a raging cold, and although he managed to get through his lessons, he was absolutely knackered at the end.  We hoped he would be better today, but he is still suffering.  He's determined to get ashore and enjoy the day, so he's doing his best to ignore the symptoms.
And this is because we've arrived at our favourite island, with all day to enjoy it.  Knowing that most of the passengers will be dead keen to get ashore early, we weren't in too much of a rush even though we wanted plenty of time ashore.  But we did get across a little after 10.

Devil's Island from Royal Island

As usual, we set off right, and as usual, we took the low path to walk completely around the outside of the island, taking in views of St Joseph's and Royal island as we went.  As usual, there was a good strong breeze bustling through the palm trees, and as usual waves crashed against the shore.  We looked for turtles in the water, and wildlife along the path as walked.  Definitely one of our favourite places in the world.

We met on the passengers who'd been ashore for an an hour or so, someone we knew from Peter's classes. He'd already been around the island and was now heading back to the pier and the ship, apparently not that impressed with the place.  "Have you not seen the monkeys and agouti's?" I asked, "Macaws?  Hummingbirds?  What about the old penal colony buildings?"  Nothing seemed to have affected him.  "Well, you must have been impressed with the flowers?", I mean, the place was like a botanical garden, full of so many different beautiful flowers, plants and trees.  Nope, he'd not seen those either.

Agouti or Palm Rat

I've heard it so many times in the past.  Voices complaining that the Amazon was disappointing, because you don't see anything.  To many of those voices I would say "Stand still, open your eyes, shut your mouth and listen", because these are people who spend all their time looking out for faults, listening for gossip and thinking about petty issues.  They can't see the wonderful things around them because it takes a little bit of time and concentration.  But not everyone is like that, including the man in front of us.  He isn't ignorant or stupid, he just didn't see the same things that Peter and I did. Is that because we are used to looking for them and he isn't, or is it because we have different interests?  I don't know.  It's weird though.  I wanted him to find the same pleasure in the place that we did, probably because we all want people to like the same things that we do, it confirms that we are correct in our enjoyment.  Thinking about it a little more, it's a shame that he didn't see with the same eyes, I would have liked to see him to enjoy the place more.

We carried on walking around the island, noticing that there was something different from our previous visits.  The noise of the cicadas.  I say noise.  I mean racket!  Normally there is a loud whirring sawing noise that fills the air as soon as you step of the pier on to the island, and that noise was missing.  We walked two thirds of the way around, and all we heard was the wind rustling and bustling throught the leaves of the palms.

We did see other stuff though.  Agouti's, ghecko's and these evil looking wasps.

Then the noise started, as if someone had started a chainsaw, then another chainsaw kicked in, then another.  The cicada's were back and the place felt normal again.  They've not let us down yet.

As we walked on around, we got to see the turtles again.  They must feed in the area and you only see them when they come up for a few moments for air.  This makes it very difficult to get a photograph.

Now nearly back at the pier, we turned inland and walked uphill to the centre of the island where all the buildings are.  There's a restaurant and cafe there, and places to stay if you want to.  On the way, we came across the monkeys.  There are two types on the island, this is a Brown Cappuchin.

On our way to the buildings at the centre of the island, we passed the children's cemetary, the large number of graves a very sad reminder that this place could be nearly as miserable for the prison staff as it was for the prisoners.  Malaria and Yellow Fever make no distinctions.

This is a Soursop.  Apparently it's really nice and sweet when it's ripe. 

At the cafe, which is housed in a building that used to be the prison warders mess, we enjoyed a sandwich, a cold drink and the view of Devil's Island.  The monkeys kept everyone entertained, squabbling with each other and stealing food while peacocks and hens pecked at any crumbs that had been missed.

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Then it was time to have a wander around the old buildings of the penal colony, but not before checking out the gardens and the old pond near to the restaurant, the flowers are beautifu and the trees bear fruit that we would never see in the UK. Iguana's live there too.

As for the penal colony buildings.  They are a cold reminder of the horrific history hidden beneath the beauty of the island.  I've taken loads of pictures in the past and they can be seen on previous blog posts.


Isle De Salut 2012
Isle De Salut 2013 - 1st Post
Isle De Salut 2014


It started to rain as we started back the tenders, which only served to make sure we got back quickly, but it's been a brilliant day and we were more than happy.  Tomorrow is a sea day and then we reach the Caribbean.  Our first port will be Scarborough, on the island of Tobago, and we'll probably be escorting.  I wonder where that will take us?

Saturday 28th January - Devils Island and Iles du Salut - French Guiana

Iles du Salut means Salvation Islands - they got that name when several monks and nuns used them to  escape from disease on the main land.  There are three islands, Ile Royale (Royal Island), Ile Diablo (Devils Island) and Ile Saint Joseph (St Joseph's Island).  Devil's Island was made famous by the book and film Papillon, written by former prisoner Henri Charriere and telling of various attempts to escape.  We watched the film last night, something I recommended to every passenger I discussed the islands with.  There are elements in the film which make a visit much more meaningful.

The ship anchored off shore and we were tendered across to Royal Island, which was the administrative centre of the colony.  The isolation cells, warden's accommodation, hospital, church etc were all on Royal Island, and the good news was that we had an all day stay scheduled.  The even better news was that Peter and I got an early tender and were across by about 10.30.

We love this place.  The Penal Colony was abolished in 1948 and since then the island has recovered - and now can only be described as a little bit of paradise.  We started with an anti-clockwise walk right around the outside of the island. Here are the pictures.

When in use as a penal colony, all the trees on the island were cut down to prevent the prisoners using them to build boats.  Now they've grown back.

Tumbledown and overgrown buildings everywhere.  Slightly eerie.

This is an Agouti or Palm Rat.  They look like leggy guinea pigs, abundant and easily seen during our walk.

Overgrown and jungle like. Noisy with the sounds of insects.  Just awesome. 

We saw turtles, loads of birds, and these brown cappuchin monkeys.  

After our walk around the island we made our way to the centre  where most of the what's left of the penal colony buildings are.  There's a restaurant and bar there were you can sit for a cool drink, which is what we did.

And iguanas

From there, we took a look at the old prison cells.  Because we'd seen the film last night, we understood how these buildings were used, and how terrible the lives of the inmates could be. 

Entrance to the isolation cells

The cell door.  It must have instilled dread

And inside

This would have been a sleeping area.  There would have been a long wooden platform at the height of the bars you can see here.  Prisoners slept together on the platform, manacles on their wrists were chained to the bars on the walls.    

This is Devils Island. Prisoners and or guards could be transported across via a basket on a cable pulley over the water.  Sharks circled in the sea below.  Not a place you want to get stuck.  No-one is allowed across.  I wonder about the building we can see, and whether prisoners ever lived there.

Another very satisfying day on the island. This is my fifth visit.  Every time there is never enough time to see everything, and I want to go back.  Just awesome.

Tomorrow is sea day before we hit the Caribbean.   More adventures then.  

Day 26 - Thursday 30th January - Iles Du Salut - a windy paradise

Devils Island from Royal Island

We watched the film Papillion again last night, mostly I was keen to see the buildings in the movie, and relate them to what we would see on the ground when we visited today. Apparently, the buildings built for the film were an exact copy of the real thing. Having seen the real thing, I was engrossed in which buildings were where, and what they were used for. I watched all the way through the credits to get as much info as possible from the film.

We were very excited about getting to Isle Du Salut.  "The Salvation Islands", or Devil's Island is actually three islands, Royal Island, St Josephs Island and Devils Island.  We get to visit Royal Island, which is where the main buildings of the penal colony were built.  Devil's Island and St Joseph's Island are tantalisingly close, but not easily accessible, so we aren't able to set foot on them, but it doesn't matter. Royal Island more than makes up for not seeing the other tow. 

The only worry was the weather. Every time we’ve been here, there’s always been a bit of a swell, and it’s always made it difficult for the crew to get the passengers off and on the tenders. We wanted to get one of the first tenders, and tender tickets were due to be released at 8.30. Thing is, everyone had been queing from 8 o’clock and by the time we got there, the tickets were being issued for tender D - i.e the fourth one to leave the ship, so we were going to have to wait a little while.

Actually, we were going to have to wait a long while, because as before, there was a bit of a swell making it difficult for the crew to tie the tenders up and make it safe for passengers to get on to them. I say “bit of a swell”, there was a LOT of a swell. The wind was gusting, the tenders were smacking against steps leading out of the ship and the whole operation was looking decidedly dodgy. I was worried that they would have to stop.

And they did stop. After the first two lifeboats had gone ashore, they had to stop to adjust the position of the ship, using it to shelter the tender operation. Time ticked on and I was worried that we wouldn’t have very long on the island. The tender loading started again and eventually it was our turn. Finallly! It took about 10 mins to get from the ship to the little pier on Royal Island, and at last, by 11.15, we were there. The wind was blowing a gale, but who cares, we were back on paradise. 

St Joseph's Island from Royal Island.  As I said, it was a bit windy!

We love these island and were keen to see as much as we could in the time that we had, but we knew that the last tender would be 1pm, so we didn’t have much time. We decided to walk anti-clockwise around the outside of the island, to see as much of the wildlife as we might, before heading upwards to the centre of the island where all the prison building were. I had Peter’s good camera as well as my own in hand, in the hope that, if we did get to see some of the wildlife, I might be able to get a few good pictures.

As we set off, the wind began to die down, and the sun came out. There were aguti, or palm rats everywhere, and we got loads of pictures of those.

Aguti, or palm rat - they live mostly on coconuts

Sadly, we didn’t get to see any turtles this time, although the leaf ants were very busy and entertaining. The heat was beginning to get to us, so as we got to the centre of the island we headed for the cafe for a cool drink. We’d managed to collect a whole load of scrap euro change, i.e. 10 and 20 cent pieces, and I’d given it to Peter in the hope that we could get rid of some of it when we were on the island. (Isle de Salut is part of French Guiana, and as such takes the suro). In the cafe, Peter ordered two large bottles of still water and a couple of cans of lemonade. And then, in his own inimitable way, he threw the bag of change on the counter and let the assistant sort it out for himself. Nearly 12 euros in copper! That was one way of getting rid of it.

We didn’t have a lot time and never got to walk around all the old penal colony buildings, but, as we left the cafe, Peter spotted a humming bird right outside. He stopped to start taking pictures, and then, magically, the bird decided to start feeding on the bush right in front of us. It was amazing, this exotic creature flicking from flower to flower not three feet away. Our camera’s were going nuts. Absolutely brilliant.

How lucky were we that this hummingbird decided to dance among the flowers of the bush in front of us.

Black throated mango.  Beautiful

And then it was time to start making our way back. We know there are monkeys on the island that, although not quite tame, are happy to be fed by the tourists, so off we went looking for them. Unfortunately we only came across two little squirrel monkeys which , and never got to see the Brown Capuchins, who were obviously off somewhere hiding, but there are photo’s off them in previous years blog posts.

Squirrel monkey

Finally we were back at the bay, waiting for the tenders. The swell had continued to cause delays, and we sat in the sun until it was our turn. Whilst we were waiting, I managed to see spot royal terns, a spotted sandpiper without his spots, and another blue grey tanager. All this life and colour is so brilliant.

So that was Isle de Salut for another year. We now have a sea day before we get to our first Caribean island, Grenada. I’m looking forward to the beaches and the chance for a swim. Awesome.

Isle De Salut 2012
Isle De Salut 2013 - 1st Post
Isle De Salut 2013 - 2nd Post

Monday 28th January - Devils Island Prison Cells

I've created this post out of order, because I couldn't add the photographs I wanted to on the original Isle De Salut write up.  The prison buildings and cells were so interesting, I felt I had to show them on the blog

There are three Islands that make up the Salvation Islands, or Isle De Salut. Royal Island, St Joseph's Island and Devil's Island.  Due to the infamous penal French penal colony and books such as Papillon,  they are now collectively known as Devil's Island

Most of the prison cells were built on the biggest of the three, Royal Island.  Devils Island and St Joseph's Island were saved for those prisoners the wardens felt deserved special treatment.  On those islands, They could have been kept in isolation for years, or cages, sent out to work naked during the day, and only being given their clothes when they returned at night.

This is the entrance to a cell block.  In the film Papillon, it was shown as the isolation block.  The cells within only had a small hole in the ceiling for light.

The door to a cell. I'm not sure about the grill above, as the light from the grill does not get into the cell.

Inside a cell.  I used the camera flash to show how big the inside was. You can see the bed frame on the left. The prisoners would have only had the hole in the ceiling for light.

The row of isolation cells inside the block.

















The last photograph below is the prison courtyard also shown in the film.  I've marked with a black arrow the point where the guillotine would have stood. The supporting wooden base beams are still there.

As well as the church, the hospital, children's cemetary and all the other buildings associated with the penal colony, there is a museum full of information regarding the prisoners, their crimes and how their lives went.  This whole place draws people in with morbid curiosity and horror. Combining this with the beauty of the rest of the island makes Isle De Salut a highlight of this cruise, and well worth a visit.

Isle De Salut 2012
Isle De Salut 2013 - 1st Post
Isle De Salut 2014

Monday 28th January – Isle De Salut.

It is so hard to believe these beautiful islands could be the scene of so much horror.  When you read about what happened here, it makes you wonder how the guards could come to treat their own countrymen so badly.  But it happened, as did the holocacaust.  Scary what we are capable of really.

The islands are now a paradise of wildlife, sun and surf.  Not many places to go for a swim round here, and if you do, watch out, if the current doesn’t take you away, the sharks probably will.   But all the passengers agreed, they would happily spend a week or two on the island.  It’s just wonderful.

There are three islands, Royal Island, St Joseph’s Island and Devil’s Island.  The three together are known as Devil’s Island, infamous for the penal colony described in the book and film Papillion.   Due to the fact that Devil’s Island and St Joseph’s Island are very difficult to get to, (and escape from), we could only visit Royal Island, which was where the majority of prisoners were held.   






We also saw the administrative and domestic buildings needed by the guards and their families, including the church, the hospital and the children’s cemetery.  It’s a fascinating place.  We know how horrifically the prisoners were treated, sometimes for minor or non-existent crimes (one ex soldier got 15 years for setting fire to his mattress when he was in the army), and we saw where these awful things happened.

Perversely, it is alsl overgrown with beautiful flowers and gardens, humming birds, monkeys, mccaws and iguanas.  Agouti and turtles, frigates and peacocks.  Amazing!

We spent all morning photographing the beautiful and the shocking.  Herewith some pictures. 

Devil's Island from Royal Island

Little Monkey

Egrets

Big Monkey

I was going to upload a load of photographs of the cells, unfortunately, at the moment, the system wants to present them to you sideways, so I'm gonna save you a  neck for now, and maybe add them later.

Isle De Salut 2012
Isle De Salut 2013 - 2nd Post
Isle De Salut 2014

Iles Du Salut – “Salvation Islands”, also known as Devils Island

Devils Island from /Royal Island

Salvation Islands were so named because a load of missionaries fled a yellow fever outbreak on the mainland and were subsequently saved.  However they came to be used for the most notorious penal colony of French Guiana, used for a century until 1948

The three individual island names trnslate to Royal Island, St Joseph Island and Devils Island.  The book and film Papillon tell of one inmate’s experiences and escape here.  Royal Island was used by e main island community, prison wardens accommodation, asylum, hospital, church, etc were all here, as well as cells for the common law prisoners.  St Joseph Island was were the most troublesome convicts were sent for hard labour, solitary confinement and inprisonment in cages.  The smallest island is Devils island, which is virtually inaccessible by boat.  A cable and pulley were used to transport wardens and supplies the 200 metres between Devils island and Royal Island.  The sea surrounding the islands was full of sharks, enticed there by blood and gore from the slaughter house running straight into the water and the fact that convicts that died there were “buried at sea”.  According to my calculations that would be about 1200-1300 a year. 

This morning, we looked out of the porthole to see the idyllic scene of the islands surrounding by beautiful blue green water.  On the right, St Joseph’s island, Royal Island, where we were to be taken by tender, right in front of us.

When we got there and climbed out onto the pier, we looked around, amazed.  Royal Island is a paradise.  We had a quick look at someone else’s map and worked out we could walk all the way around the island (ship’s blurb said it would take about an hour), and then move into the centre of the island to see the buildings and remains later.

It is hard to believe this beautiful place could have been used for such a brutal, cruel system.  Now the islands are covered in palm trees.  (These had been removed in penal colony days, so that the convicts couldn’t use the wood to make boats). There are gorgeous flowers everywhere and we saw monkeys, palm rats (large guinea pigs) and birds.  The coastline was as expected, very rocky, with loads of crashing waves and surf, which sounded fantastic. In some of the calmer areas we were able to stand and watch turtles surface for air.   We often heard a curious high pitched, loud sawing noise, which would develop into a crescendo of sound before tailing off.  We’re told it’s the local beetles, rubbing their wings together.  Noisy creatures!  As we walked around the shoreline, we could see across the lovely green water to Devils and St Joseph islands.  It was all just stunning. (And no sharks in sight)

Then we got to the centre of the island, and the buildings of the penal colony.  There was so much to see, and so little time.  We did manage to get a look at the convicts quarters, and if the cells we saw were for the common prisoners, I would hate to see what they put the guys on St Joseph’s Island in.  Everything we’d seen in the film Papillon, was there before us. We could see the rails and the metal rings used to chain the convicts at night. 

The cells, five paces long, with only a hole in the ceiling for light. I think I even worked out where the guillotine was.  Horrific!  We wanted to see more, such as the church, the children’s cemetery, the asylum and the hospital, but we had run out of time and had to make our way back to the tender.

We really wished we’d had more time there, (and a map).  The place was so beautifully idyllic, you could spend hours just looking out to sea, or turtle watching, or feeding the monkeys.  And then there was all that history in the penal colony buildings.  So much to see and just not enough time.

If we get the chance, we would definitely, definitely come back again.  And so would every other passenger on this ship it seems, judging by what we’ve overheard.

Tomorrow is another sea day, and then we get to the Caribbean.  Sun, sand, sea and Bob Marley.  Class!


Isle De Salut 2013 - 1st Post
Isle De Salut 2013 - 2nd Post
Isle De Salut 2014