Devil's Island, French Guiana

Friday we spent the first part of the day at sea sailing toward Devil's Island.  We were up early and headed to the pool for our hour swim.  The water had quite a lot of movement and we were not sure they would leave it open but they did.  Then a light breakfast and I went to the lecture on Devil's Island.

Devil's Island is one of three small islands lying 6 miles off the coast of French Guiana.  The other two islands are Ile Royale and Ile Sanit Joseph and the gourd is collectively known as Salvation Islands.  All together they formed part of the infamous penal colony that functioned in French Guiana from 1852 to 1946.  Ile Royale served as the main administrative center for the prison and this is where the majority of the surviving buildings have been preserved and maintained.  Each of the islands served a different purpose.  Ile Royale was the administrative center, Ile Joseph held the most troublesome convicts and Devil's Island held political prisoners in isolation.  The most famous political prisoner was Alfred Dreyfus.

The penitentiary was first opened by Emperor Napoleon III's government in 1852 and became one of the most infamous prisons in history.  On May 30, 1854, a new law provided that convicts would be forced to stay in French Guiana following their release for an equal time to their forced labor time, or for sentences exceeding eight year, for the remainder of their lives.

The movie, Papillon, is from the book by Henri Charriere's autobiography.  It tells of the numerous alleged escape attempts.  Devil's Island is off limits to visitors.  The only island you can visit is Ile Royale.

We arrived at around 2 pm and they anchored and lowered the tenders to take those who wanted to visit the island ashore.  Bob and I had decided not to go in as we have been here twice in the past and there isn't anything new to see.  As it turned out, the swells of the ocean were so high they could not tender.  They tried both side of the ship, but could not do it safely.  So the visit was cancelled.

This is from 2012 when we stopped here.  That is Devil's Island in the back ground.  Today my hair is quite long compared to 2012.

The interesting thing about this picture is that Bob is wearing the same outfit.   His travel shirt and pants and his red bag.  But again, this is from 2012.

Now parts of the prison are not available for the people to visit.  But we were able to go inside in 2012. It was too bad the folks could not go ashore.  It is an experience.

So we then all gathered for tea and trivia.  The questions were hard and we thought we did poorly but it turns out, everyone did poorly and we managed to come in third.

Dinner with cocktails with Terry Breen.  She is the storyteller on board and we have sailed with her several times.  A real nice lady with an interesting past.  She does all the South America lectures and also all the Alaska lectures.

After dinner, we returned to the suite and I started watching "Joy".  Did not finish so will continue today.