Cayenne, but not the pepper.

Our little hotel provides a peaceful nights’ sleep and we feel well rested in the morning. The temperature and humidity generally wipe us out by the end of the day, but our skin has never felt better.

We hit the road so that we can fuel up and get on our way to Cayenne. Our plans are quickly altered when the gas station does not have any gasoline, just Gazoile (Diesel). Great, back to the boat Captains for more fuel as it is 200km to Cayenne with no fuel stations along the way.

Maybe the world's worst Total gas station.

I looked for the same fella from last night but he was nowhere to be found, instead I got his brother or cousin who took me back to Oiapoque, which is where we caught the ferry, to get fuel. I filled the two red jerry cans and one of the blue Copec cans we have been packing since Chile. R$100 worth of fuel and €10 for the boat ride later we have fuel and are ready to hit the road. 

A very nice paved road it is all the way to Cayenne, not much to see except a lot of palm trees and small villages, plus a bunch of naked babies playing in the river. We had no expectations regarding French Guyana other than the people consider themselves as part of France, not as a colony of France. The people we have encountered are friendly and for the most part are patient with us and speak English. We had read that they were language snobs and would reject anything but proper European French, we are glad it is not so.

Cayenne is bustling with last minute Christmas shoppers and just general business of the city. The first impression of the city is that it is relatively clean, with lots of shopping and modern services, and the second gas station we see has a coin operated wand wash. Perfect, this is just what we needed to get the first couple of inches of dirt off the bikes. Now that we can see what color they are we proceed with the usual routine of shelter, food and snooping.

Friendly reminder to drive on the right.

All these one night stays are starting to feel like a treadmill but we knew that we had an aggressive schedule to keep up with. We have noticed a significant increase in the costs while here in “France”. First the currency is the Euro, and second the numbers are not small. For example our hotel was $80Euro, and fuel is $1.45Euro/liter. Although supper was not outrageous at $12Euro for both of us. In any event it is a nice experience. We have to take care of some business while here in Cayenne, we need bike insurance and a visitor card for Suriname and this is the place to get. Actually it works out very well that they are across the street from each other, cool. The bike insurance is $30Euro each and the Visitor card is $22Euro each. So once those were taken care of we were free to leave town and head to the border town of St. Laurent.

Things we don't see in souvenir shops in Canada.

Chien de la Journee.