We originally had a plan to go straight from Fernando de Noronha to Trinidad/Tobago, and skip the South American mainland for now. However, we figured that even though time spent on the crossing is eating well into our Caribbean season (November – May, which upon we need to leave for hurricane season), we are in an exploratory mode and have heard great things about sailing through this more offbeaten track.
We arrived during daytime at the anchorage of Isles du Salut located seven nm off the coast, and could immediately see that the group of three islands are covered by palm trees. There is truly a tropical rainforest kind of mode here, and we could hear the sounds from the jungle on the boat. There were no other yachts here, just some tourist boats which left back to the mainland in the afternoon. It really feels like we now have left our passage mode to local coastal exploration mode, and that feels great after three months on passage. This is what it’s all about!
Isles du Salut consist of three islands: Isle Royale, Isle St Joseph and the infamous Devil’s Island, covered by the great book and movies of Papillon. This used to be a penal colony, established by Napoleon in the mid 1800s, and was operational up until 1953. The idea was that they would use prisoners for hard labour to develop this French overseas territory. French Guiana is in fact still considered a part of France, they use Euro, and for EU citizens there is no need for a passport to enter or leave the country.
Prisoners, mostly the ones with political convictions unfavorable to the regime, were sent here, and the guillotine was regularly in use. There are still some buildings which are maintained on Ile Royale, which was where the guards lived as well as the prisoners with the lightest sentences. This is also where the holding cells and the executions took place.
At Isle St Joseph, the ruins of the main prison has been totally taken over by nature. It reminded us somewhat of our visit to Angkor Vat in Cambodia, where nature has devoured the buildings in a similar way. It made for so many great photo ops, and we truly enjoyed exploring the ruins.
On Ile de St Joseph, there was also a cemetery located just by the beach and surrounded by palm trees. Probably the most beautiful location for a last resting ground we have ever seen.
The last island, Devil’s Island, is actually forbidden to set foot upon. The access via boat is not favorable, there are no docks, and big swells most days. This was where the prisoners who they gave up on were left on their own. It seems there were no buildings except a small shack. We were able to tour the island from the dinghy, and encountered a lot of fish and turtles on our way.
The animal life on the islands is quite diverse, we have seen monkeys, snakes, turtles, macaw parrots, possums, dolphins toads and a ton of other birds and fish. The big macaw parrot visited us at our favorite table at the bar at the hostal located on Ile Royale, and ate pineapple from Bruse’s hand.
We truly have enjoyed this tropical paradise with the combo of beautiful nature and wildlife together with an exciting historical aspect. The stay became perfect when we hit another milestone we have been looking forward to – a coconut party where we can try all different kinds (from really sweet ripe meat to the more green version with fresh coconut water inside) which we have picked ourselves. The islands delivered, and we tried many versions and have enough coconut milk to make coconut rice for dinner 😋
We have worked hard to get to this point, and even though we have truly enjoyed all the locations we have been at between leaving Cape Town on October 1st and arriving here on January 4th, we are truly excited to start off 2023 with such a great stop – just the kind we have been dreaming about. Now we are off to explore the French Guiana mainland from St Laurent on the Maroni River.