We were waiting for the tropical down-pour to finish, under a verandah of a gracious wooden house in Paramaribo when a man joined us. He wasn’t very well dressed and looked a bit the worse for wear. He unfolded a sign and was asking for money (I think). The sign said “Help me , my […]
We’ve hit the country on Independence Day – 35 years since they said goodbye to Dutch rule. It hasn’t been all (Parbo) beer and skittles since then although with a series of military coups having been the style of governance since.This was pretty well forseen by the locals with half the population fleeing to Holland […]
Although its per capita GDP is 10 times that of Guyana and 3 times that of Suriname, we figure it’s not because they are all rich in French Guyana but rather because there is such a large population of French people here running the colony and the space programme, they lift the average. Because when […]
Always been a dream to get to this island to see just what the environment was for the prisoners sent here by the French. Made famous by the book by Henri Charriere but more significantly the location where Alfred Dreyfus was imprisoned after being falsely accused of espionage for the Germans – he later was […]
Well, getting to the top of Brazil felt great. Not many travel this way and I understand why – distance and temperatures are just a couple. We were hassled, as soon as we got to the border town of Oiapoque, by boat guys wanting to put the bikes into little tin boats. Down a steep […]
We set off early for 220 km to the top of Brazil. The road might be impassable is the rumour, a bridge in the Indian reservation area has been burnt. My tummy rumbles as a bread roll with butter and coffee is not quite enough. Sweat rolls into my eyes and drips off my nose. […]
We left Macapa dripping sweat in 30 degrees, humidity must be near 100%. We have a dinner date in Calcoene about 350 km away and pleasantly surprised by the road having seal all the way, with only occasional works throwing us into the red dust. Our host Mickie, seems to be community central in this town […]
Across the mouth of the Amazon, or more accurately the Amazon delta is a mere 333kms as the crow flies. But our river boat can’t be so efficient so instead it weaves its way through the most narrow of channels, crosses wide open rivers and into more channels until finally, some 36 hours and 440 […]
It is a big haul to get across the Amaxon. We managed to find the one room office of our email booking contact and hand over R$1200 “Cash Only” (about $900 NZ) on faith and get a receipt. We will be collected 20 hours before embarkation to bring the bikes […]
Truth is they started off as Pacific ocean dolphins, then the Andes got thrust up blocking their route home. So they had to adapt – which they did to freshwater permanently – and the pink is just some weird consequence of that. Anyway they’re a spectacle. And the origin of the pink? Well it’s more […]
