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!)