French Guiana, September 8-27 2010

###updates:
#Sept 30th (Sept 8-9)
# Sept 30 late (Sept 10-11)
#Oct 8 (Sept 12, 13, 14, 15)

#I wrote a lot during this trip and at some point, I will have full diary of 20 days here. This will take time, as I have more important things to do, fight with the jetlag and understanding my handwriting is quite challenging.

#At the end I will also add some pictures, when I have went through 4GB or forest! This might happen by Christmas, at least I will try:)


This is a true and full account of my trip to French Guiana rainforest, a notebook full of bad handwriting. Some of the content might be disturbing for some people. If you don't want to know how we met snakes, please stop reading now! Even if you think no frog can be cute, you might prefer not to know that I think Dendrobates tinctorius is the cutest frog:)

People:
J and H - Estonian travellers from Europe
Ka and Ku - local Estonians living in French Guiana.

Wednesday, 8th Sept
8.41, Paris. I have just arrived in Charles de Gaulle airport and it is raining. I found the bus stop to get a shuffle to Orly and initially I was alone on the bus, but then more people came from other terminals.It is dark and I do not speak any French - but I can sing in French! And in Portuguese and Italian. I know 2 songs in German too and have learnt this language, but the sound of German is too difficult for me.

H texted me when I was still in Birmingham, that she is in Paris, in the hotel and that she had to phone the hotel from Orly for a shuttle to be sent. I don't know if they speak English.

I almost forgot my luggage on the bus:) My brain is on vacation. I ran and the bus was still there. In Orly I did not have a clue what to do about the shuttle. I went to the information desk and asked where to get the shuttle from and they phoned the hotel and I did not have to do anything! In the hotel they said I am already checked in (H was there), but they do not know what room, because I am already there. I phoned H, but she did not answer. Finally they said what room I am in! I phoned H from behind the door and she said she was sleeping. After 2 flights, she had set her alarm to 8 when my flight was supposed to land, woke up for a moment and continued sleeping. We decided that we need breakfast and had to agree on the time, but every time conversation went in different direction. Finally we went to the reception to order breakfast and H amused them by her good French, although unable to say our room number 106, had to say one-zero-six instead. Who uses big numbers!

Thursday, 9th September
In the morning we had sweet bread and not so good coffee and went to the airport. My camera has strange shape and I had to show my hand luggage.

Boarding was fine and at the moment it is 1412 miles left. I have watched "Happy Go Lucky" and "Beautiful Mind", played some games and tried watching Simpsons, but it is a bit boring, so did not watch to the end. We also got food and like Estonians, we ate hot food first - it will go cold! And then salad with bread and cheese. I am quite tired of sitting in one place and doing nothing for 9 hours, watching films. From a big screen we can see our location - Cayenne is already visible! Luckily in Paris, the person who checked us in put us to sit together with H, although we bought tickets separately and were supposed to sit in different places. We have travelled 4954km, it is -45, we are 10000 metres high, the speed is 850 km/h and 2192 km of journey left.

Cayenne. We have arrived in the sauna! It is 3pm local time. At the beginning in the terminal it felt like the front room of a sauna, warm and humid. Hands went sweaty after walking 200 metres and we arrived in real sauna! My phone found a network, but cannot access it.

We met Ka, waiting for us in the airport and waving a sign with our names:) She gave us a lecture about checking our room, our beds and shoes for life - scolopendra, scorpions and snakes and advised to walk in the middle of a path, if there is a path. And that we have to look where we are stepping [later, this got a new meaning for us and was not just advice, but a feeling, automatic program of our brain]. After changing our warm European clothes for shorts, we walked in Cayenne and went to the grocery store. One hour drive and we arrived in our temporary home for the next 20 days. Me and H stayed in a small house closer to the forest. We also met another Estonian Ku who lives in the rainforest. During our evening meal we were told that if a Bothrops bites 4 limbs, by probability you can keep one. We saw a gecko in the kitchen, geckos are our friends! On arrival to our house, we checked under the bed, all corners, shelves and bedding. There was a frog on the wall and a big butterfly on the fridge. It is very noisy here, like million phones ringing outside. Finally went to sleep, 3am Paris time, but in Guiana it is not late (10pm).

Friday, 10th Sept
It was not very noisy at night (or I was sleeping). Because there were no glass windows, but wooden shutters that we closed at night, I was trying to guess whether it is already light outside and whether it is morning and I should wake up. My watch still had Paris time and using a torch, I was looking and calculating the local time, only to wake up H, who said it is 7.30. So late! We woke up and went to visit Ka and Ku to have coffee and breakfast, including delicious little bananas. The we went for a walk, along a road and then in the forest. We saw blue morphos and Dendrobates tinctorius. Dendrobates - this became our favourite frog! How lucky we were to see it on our first day! We also saw a dead snake on the road, a green one, a millipede and frog spawn in a puddle (yes, puddles are here even during the dry season!). Along the path there were heliconia and we also saw heliconius:) Lizards were frequently running - their running is quite noisy and fast. Dog also followed us, the whole walk, despite Ka trying to get her to return home as the other dog did.

Back home, siesta - 12.26pm - and we are sitting on the balcony, writing our diaries. We ate bread and eggs from local chicken with a very strong pepper paste (I have to buy this to take home!).

Me, Ku and H went to the light-catching place to build a shelter for the night, termites had eaten the wood of the old one and Ka baked a cake. Building it meant Ku worked and we took pictures and helped removing knots from string and made some more knots. We also got some rain, a rainforest dry season rain, but only a little bit. Later at home Ka showed us her pictures from the year. In the evening it was very cold, 24 degrees, that I had to wear a fleece. Seriously, it was cold! Rain dropping to the roof, we were sitting on the balcony, talking and the dogs also joined us. Only until Ku tied to lift one of the dogs up, after that he would not come back to the balcony [and later, when trying to force dogs return home, "come, doggy, I will hug you" with hands open was scary enough for them not to follow us to the forest]. We returned to our house at 23.30, to wake up in the daylight, why waste it if if goes light at 6am and dark just after 6pm.

Saturday, 11th Sept
Difference between home and rainforest: water does not evaporate during the night if I wash my hair at night.
We woke at 6.30 - H woke and said it is light outside. She also woke up earlier, asking "It is not light outside, is it?" We thought it was still dark, not morning yet. Breakfast and coffee and then to the forest about 8. We went to the Orchetra cave, a cave that is so big that there would be enough space for an orchestra. Ka and O had found it - they went to the forest to look for caves. We saw bats, koopakilk (an arachnid in the cave) and a big frog. On the way we saw another Dendrobates - second day in a row! And larva and spiders. First time in the rainforest with some parts off the road. We went along a river and climbed on stones. Wearing waterproof walking boots, I got my foot to the water three times and now I am sure my shoes are really waterproof, the water went over the top and stayed in! Waterproof means waterproof for England, not rainforest - maybe non-waterproof shoes had been better, water would have flown out quicker, but this is not complaining, just a funny feeling to have water in the shoe, warm water in very warm weather. Water was also flowing along my T-shirt and trousers and in addition to this they were also muddy because I stepped through a tree that was almost compost.

Ku and Ka made some good food - potato, vegetables and fish fingers with onion sauce that tasted like mushroom sauce. In the afternoon we stayed under the roof in hammocks (lebotasime!) and listened hummingbirds flying next to our balcony. They make a really low sound! In the evening me and H walked to the light catching place where Ka and D were setting everything up (lamps, generator, white sheet). Soon the sheet was full of life! 3 scientists from USA were looking for some small insects. They also showed them to us and were very excited when they found them - in 3 hours, 10 species and more later! Ku had gone home to sleep, but was soon back, with a happy-looking face. He had seen a snake and taken pictures of it. D said that this snake is not poisonous, so we all went to see it. The poor snake was in trouble, it had ants!

Back at the light-catching place, there was lots of life and butterflies were flying to my face and hair (good being blond and white, I attract them almost like the white sheet). When we finished at midnight, me and H walked home, searching the ground for snakes. Tea, jam and bread and sleeptime at 1.

12/09/2010
Woke at 6.30, ae and then then went to the office, shop and market, bought fruit and ate ice cream. I bought 12 postcards, 6 stamps - at least I can write the cards (I did not buy more stamps because it was a machine that accepted only coins).

When driving back home, H told us that she has a stomata in her arm and hopes nobody lies there. (Arabidopsis biologists can think that!).

We have just finished eating and very full. Me and H made rice with vegetables and ham. We also ate a real pineapple and guyave jam with bread. While listening to Rahva Oma Kaitse and cooking, H told us that she actually would like somebody to live in her arm, it would be an experience. Ka thought that it might ruin the time here with fever, but maybe the creature will develop for 2 weeks, just on time to lenghten the experience at home. Ka's mum, a doctor had told that an Estonian had gone to the doctor and said thet they have somebody living under their skin adn they were put to mental hospital. H thought to take macro photos of the "stomata" regularly to prove it, but if somebody takes macro photos of their arm for two weeks, they would be put to the mental hospital too!

It is very good to wake up early, 6.30 - it is 4pm now, I am in the hammock and long day is behind us. I want a hammock and so does H! Ka told us that in the tourist shop there are more colourful hammocks, but she does not know where locals buy them. We were also wonderng whether colours have any influene for animals, whether they attract them. If a hammock is black with yellow stripes, does it look like especially dangerous animal and others will leave it alone.

Tonight we are going to catch light too and after that H is going to sleep in the hammock, we have just tried how to fasten the net so no mosquito can get in.

This time light catching happened in a different place, about 30 min walk away. The Chinese scientist was especially happy today because he found an insect to chase others with. There were also a praying mantis and a frog - both ot them chasing a dinner.

DEET works well for mosquitoes and we were wondering what it is and almost thought to put in the "to google list", but then found form one of the bottles that it is diethyl toluamide, meaning that we do not need google, we can even draw the structure!

Insect people wanted to finish early, about 23, but then their insects started arriving. While Ku took them home and arrived back with Ka, me and H were standing on the road. When going to this place at the beginning of the night, I had seen some "eyes", some flashing light in the forest, but never 2 eyes, just one. I asked D whet they are and he said they era insects, who emit light. When turning off the torch, it was so many of them!

Stars in here are strange, it is many of them but I cannot find a familiar constellation, maybe they are behind the trees.

13/09/2010
H spept in the hammock and I was alone in the house by the forest, she was in K&K's balcony. I went to make coffee. When Ka returned (she had left home very early), we went for a walk. We saw a snake who was as small as a branck and moving-swinging like a stick insect. It was crossing the road and we waited until it had crossed it. We also met the Americans, who showed us two cecropias next to each other, one eaten and other not eaten - the one not eaten was living in symbiosis with ants!

Ka made a cake - banana-coconut. Cake with gouda and goyave jam is delicious too!

Again, insect catching. At night I woke when H said she has an insect in her bed. I switched on the light, waiting half-sleep until she finds it. She did not find anything and I was immeidately asleep again.

14/09/2010
We woke up again at 6.30 and after breakfast went to Crique de Garbiel for a canoein trip. We were there before 9. It was high tide and the water was initially flowing the same direction as us - towards a lake. About 11-12 it already started flowing other way, against us, to the sea. We canoed until 1, then had a lunchbreak in the canoe. We saw the flower of a water cocoa. On a small path (waterpath), almost decided to go back we suddenly saw an animal swimming in front of us - it was very huge. I can still remember Ka's face, so amazed. It was a giant otter, Pteronura braziliensis.
When coming back water was towards the sea and we could peacefully float, enjoy the view and take pictures. End was very tiring, especially for the back.

I am like a pink pig, my legs are very burnt. Shoulders have seen sun before, but legs had not this summer - in England there was no sun and in France I had a knee-length skirt all the time and never went canoeing.

After a quick shower, cake, ice-cream and strong coffee at home we walked to the insect place, the far one.

Sitting here, all places aching, but at the moment it is just tiredness - the muscle pain will arrive tomorrow. The whole journey was 28km, 14 there, 14 back, but we also made some rounds on the lake. H got DEET in her mouth and tried to rinse it with water, but then we remembered it does not dissolve in water!

Such tiredness that I cannot even start something, annot start to read a book, although my brain is rested. Walking, trying not to fall asleep and stretching. Finally they want to go home. 00.27 and I am sleeping! Good night!

15/09/2010
UP at 6, we ate breakfast and dragon's heart (pitaya). At 7.30 we started to drive to Kaw swamp, at 8 our boat trip started. This time we dod not do anything, just sitting on the boat and watching many birds, water cows and muco-muco plant. We had a stop at Kaw village, where we paid for our trip. It was a very small village, streets made of sand and locals walking barefeet. While waiting for the boat we spoke in Estonian and one local asked whether this is Russian. He was surprised that Europeans know Guiana even more because 2 of us were locals.

Mu feet are very burnt an painful. I should have used a towel or worn long trousers, because water was constantly washing away the suncream. I have never had suck a burn. In the afternoon we wrote cards and then drove to Matoury office to be there for 4 days. In the evening we had a walk in Cayenne and to sleep 10.30.