Devil’s Islands, French Guiana

This is a group of three islands, which formed the French penal colony featured in the film ‘Papillon’. Confusingly, one of the islands is known as Devil's Island and this is the one on which the famous political prisoner Dreyfus was imprisoned in the late nineteenth century. All of the islands are covered with ruins because all penal facilities in French Guiana were finally shut down in the 1940s. The inmates were often left without guards, since strong currents and sharks made a getaway virtually impossible. Certainly there was quite a swell as Silver Whisper passengers got in and out of the tenders for the visit was to Ile Royale, the largest island

As well as the ruins of the prison, the islands are covered with dense vegetation, in which a variety wild animals lurk. At one point, many monkeys assembled in the trees around a group of tourists and Diva feared an organised attack. Fortunately this did not happen and the reputed shark infested waters showed no sign of any sharks today.

During the visit, there was a warm rain shower but overall it was very hot and very humid. One guest must have had a really bad day as a stretcher party was required to meet one of the tenders to deal with a case of heat stroke. TSH and Diva were quite well but on return to Silver Whisper needed immediate showers and TSH drank two cold beers in quick succession.

Diva’s shellac nail varnish has chipped a bit and she vaguely remembers that Deet insect repellent is not recommended with this product. Its OK (ish) if it doesn’t get worse but it can’t be removed on the ship as the spa charge for removal is more than her local nail salon charged to apply it.

Only 5 degrees north of the equator now!!

Animals spotted during the walking safari: Large pig , peacocks, hens, monkeys including  small common squirrel monkeys and the larger woolly monkeys, several agouti, small bright blue birds, leaf cutter ants. Terrifying in spite of the lack of tigers.