The Guianas - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 667

roads are paved and well signed. Keep
your passport with you, as there are
occasional gendarme checkpoints.
Travel into and within the interior
involves taking tiny planes and
motorized pirogues (dugout canoes). Your
pirogue travel will usually be part of an
organized tour.

Fish dishes are plentiful, one of the
more typical being blaff: : a stock heavily
seasoned with onion, garlic, celery, basil
and spices. Another popular stock, used
mostly at Easter and the Pentecost, is
bouillon d'awara , made from the awara
palm tree fruit and cooked with chicken,
shrimp, crab and vegetables. Fricassée and
colombo are typical Creole stews, the
latter a meat- and vegetable-based curry
stew. Wild meat like capybara, peccary
and paca can also be found on the menu.

ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation in French Guiana is
rather limited, with the budget end
geared towards independent, adventurous
travellers with their own transport. In
large towns, you're likely to be confined
to unremarkable business-oriented hotels
(from €50/double). On the outskirts of
towns and in rural areas you'll find gîtes
(family-run lodgings), which range from
simple to fairly luxurious (from €30/
double). Adventurous and particularly
budget-conscious travellers may choose
to opt for carbets - wooden shelters for
hammocks, which are found throughout
the country. Many are unmanned and
free of charge, located by the sides of
roads or on beaches, and have no facilities
attached; for these you'll need your own
hammock (easily purchased in Cayenne).
Others are found in villages and even in
some towns; some come with an attached
shower/toilet block and provide own
hammocks at extra cost (€10-15/night).

DRINK
The authentic drink here is the sweet
French aperitif Ti' punch: lime, sugar-cane
syrup and rum - without ice, downed in
one - and there's an excellent selection of
French wines also. Fresh fruit juices are
popular and found at the Cayenne market,
in Cacao and in some restaurants.

7

CULTURE AND ETIQUETTE
Amerindian tribes and Maroons largely
maintain their own cultural traditions, as
does the immigrant population of Hmong
from Laos in villages such as Cacao and
Javouhey. The majority of the population
is Creole , and mixed-Creole culture is
dominant in the metropolitan areas;
there is also an increasing number of
immigrants from Brazil and other South
American countries, whose presence is
evident in Cayenne and St Laurent.
All teachers, police and gendarmes are
recruited in mainland France, hence the
sizeable French population. Note that
the French generally don't tip .

FOOD AND DRINK
Those on a tight budget will look to
street vendors, markets, well-stocked
supermarkets (in Cayenne) and small
takeaway joints. There is inexpensive
Chinese food and pizza on offer in the
main towns, as well as proper coffee,
croque monsieurs , crêpes and croissants in
the capital's cafés and bakeries. Cayenne
offers the best variety of cuisines, with
French, Laotian, Chinese, North African,
Indonesian, Japanese, Vietnamese,
Brazilian and Creole options (although
you may find yourself paying Parisian
prices), some of which you'll also find in
St Laurent and Kourou. The best Laotian
food is found in the Hmong village of
Cacao (see p.677).

LANGUAGE
French is the most widely spoken
language, though a significant proportion
of the population also speaks a French-
based patois or Creole, with Chinese,
Neg Maron (Bush Negro or Maroon),
Portuguese and Amerindian languages
spoken in certain areas. In St Laurent,
due to the number of Surinamese and
Guyanese immigrants, some English is also
spoken, and the one language common to
all three Guianas - Taki-Taki - is spoken
along the rivers.