Bastille Day in Cayenne

France's national holiday is celebrated on July 14th and is commonly called Bastille Day in English. Like in the United States, it's a day for military parades and fireworks. Jack and I decided to attend the festivities, held early in the evening, in Cayenne. Firstly, we went to Cayenne's main square called "la place des Palmistes"where groups of military people were assembling.

We saw a group of solidiers from the Foreign Legion too.

Unfortunately, Jack and I were so impressed with the foreign legioneers that we didn't notice we were standing ON a nest of red ants. Within seconds, the red ants had declared war on us and were biting and stinging us savagely. We left the foreing legioneers standing in formation and ran for our lives! Some military vehicles were lining up in formation.

We wanted to see the parade, but some military commanders were making such long speeches that we finally grew tired of waiting. We did enjoy seeing the sunset on Palm Square (place des palmistes) though.

Before going home, we decided to have dinner in Cayenne and walked into one of the many inexpensive Vietnamese restaurants which you find pretty much everywhere in Guiana. We enjoyed a fantastic Pho soup.

On the way home, we stopped at Montabo beach. The sea turtles love going there every year to lay their eggs. Eureka! I saw my first leatherback turtles digging holes in the sand to lay eggs. We also saw some hatchlings emerging from the sand and scattering to the ocean. What a spectacle! As it was night, however, I couldn't take any photos. Sorry...