Our tropical garden

It's true that French Guiana is hot and humid pretty much all year around. However, this is a great advantage for plants and my backyard has become as fun as a playground. I work out there almost every day and have put a lot of effort into collecting some nice plant varieties. Let's take a look at how things are coming... (Click on photos to enlarge.)

 Try to guess what this is... it is the flower of a tropical fruit...

...that looks like this when it's almost ready to pick.

Did you say passion fruit?! I've never had the chance to be able to eat passion fruit grown in my own back yard, so it's a real treat! The next plant is an all time tropical classic. No explanations needed...

Jack found me pruning amongst the leaves and took a photo.

This is my favorite flower in my garden, a real firework. It's a variety of heliconia (the same family as the bird of paradise.)

I don't know the name of these curious red flowers but the hummingbirds love them. They attract lots of hummingbirds every day.

We've got many different varieties of hibiscus here, but this is one of my favorites.

These pompoms belong to my Calliendra. It will eventually grow into a tree.

These are orange ixora. They're very popular and extremely easy to grow here in French Guiana.

The last photo is a flamboyant tree. I've cheated, though, because I don't have one in my backyard. Jack took this photo on the parking lot of a hardware store.

Next week, Jack and I are leaving for the Martinique (Caribbean island) for vacation. The next post won't be until the end of February...

Christmas 2015 on the Salvation Islands

After visiting Oiapoque in Brazil, Jack and I spent six days in my favorite spot in all of French Guiana: the Salvation Islands. These islands (Royal Island, Devil's Island, and St. Joseph Island) are three small land masses seperated from each other by only a short swim. They're located 14 kilometers off the coast of French Guiana, and it takes an hour by ferry to get there. Royal Island is the only island with a hotel and that's where we celebrated Christmas Eve and Day, in 30°C weather, and a refreshing dip in the Caribbean Sea.

I had a lot of papers to correct during my stay, however. My hotel room had a nice balcony with a view of the sea and Devil's Island. The sound of the waves pounding actually made correcting a very pleasant experience... for once! (Click on photos to enlarge)

Another much needed activity was relaxing. There are a few spots on the island where we like to go to look out at the sea and enjoy the calm.

Since it was the holidays, I decided to grow a mustache! 

Many palm trees grow in awkward places...

Here's a better view of Devil's Island from the hotel restaurant's balcony. In the 19th century, Alfred Dreyfus was imprisoned on Devil's Island which was supposed to unescapable.

Lots of monkeys inhabit the islands. Here are two fellows who were as much curious about us as we were of them. They liked the look of our backpacks, probably thinking we had a snack to give.

Who's greener? Jack or this wall of plants?

One of my favorite times of the day was sunset which we never missed. The clouds and the colors changed every few minutes and it was a spectacle worth watching. I already miss the islands and can't wait for our next trip back...

Visiting Oiapoque (Brazil)

Our Christmas vacation gave us some much needed rest and relaxation from our stressful jobs. One of the activities we did was travel. We drove down to the river Oiapoque, the natural border between French Guiana and Brazil. We crossed by boat and spent the night in a really nice hotel on the Brazilian side.

Strangely, all the boats seemed to have prayers printed within them asking for a safe passage... (Click on photos to enlarge).

As we were crossing, we caught a glimpse of the famous Oiapoque bridge, financed by France to commemorate Brazilian-French relations. Although the construction was completed in 2011, it still hasn't opened because the Brazilian government hasn't even built a road on their side of the bridge-- it just connects into rainforest! Now it's just aging uselessly, awaiting some unknown future date and has cost French taxpayers over 10 million euros. I guess relations are not as good as politicians claim...

After getting our passports stamped, Jack and I walked to our hotel. It has a lovely bridge and is nestled in a lovely garden setting.

There's nothing much to do in Oiapoque except go for walks or do a little shopping. Jack and I strolled downtown and took some photos near the river.

Here's the local church...

Everywhere we saw messages about God and Jesus, even on store signs like at this fruit stand.

Poverty and unsanitary living conditions are much more visible here than in French Guiana. Most of the streets are unpaved and dust and garbage are everywhere.

After returning to French Guiana, Jack and I made another little trip during the holidays. In fact, we spent five days in my most favorite place in all of French Guiana which is... (to be continued!)