YOLO in SLM Oct 2016

We were still in St. Laurent du Maroni, French Guiana in October.

The owner of the marina here, Davide, heads up the Nereid's Rally from Trinidad and Tobago to St. Laurent du Maroni, via Guyana and Suriname.  The rally boats were arriving so we 'dressed' YOLO with all our signal flags to welcome them. All the rally boats had their flags a flyin', too.

The owner's boat arriving home to SLM.

YOLO flying our signal flags.

Rally boats arriving.

Pirogues at the dinghy dock gangway.

They set up a stage to welcome the rally participants.

This young lady has a baby sloth draped around her neck.  

The baby sloth's face is soooo cute!  It just hung onto her hair and she stroked it constantly.  I have no idea what she feeds it or how she expects to keep it until it is fully grown.

Cotton candy and popcorn, too.  Just like a fair!

Even a fashion show.  Locals paraded by in very informal fashion.

Another boat aground on the beach at low tide. There were quite a few here.

No growth on the steel still amazes me.  They grow weeds and grass in the soil and sand that settles on them, but no barnacles or seaweed on the metals.  The water here has too many chemicals in it.

Not all of the town is nice old architecture.  This home is on the same street, but shows a bit more wear and tear than the stone buildings.

Looking down the main street of St. Laurent du Maroni on a weekend.  No shops open on Sundays here.

A really cute old church at the end of the road.  With a helpful clock tower, too.

The Palace of Justice and the Bank.  I walked by these every day.

A sunset in SLM, looking past the Edith Cavell 'island'.

A view of the old pilings from a previous wharf in town.  They are covered at high tide, making them a navigation hazard to those who might not know they are there.

A supply ship comes every couple of weeks.  The river is so shallow in most places that they can only come at high tide.  It must leave on high tide and can only be half laden.  It has to be out of the mouth before the tide drops too far.

Little sailors like ducks in a row after their lesson.

Walls of the Transportation Camp.

These big butterflies flitted back and forth across the river every day.  They have longer white tips on their tails, like swallowtails, but this one is dead and was blowing down the sidewalk and the tips have broken off.  The teal and white flashes were quite pretty above the brown river water.

The underside of the teal striped swallowtail butterfly.

This boat beached itself right in front of the marina building next to the dinghy dock to sort out a small leak.  It is an electric boat and Jason was quite intrigued by it.

Some of the restored buildings at the Camp.

The back lawn at the camp served as an art exhibit location one weekend.

A view of our landing place from the 2nd floor of a camp building.

That pink building is the Office of Tourism and the marina office is in the other end of it.

The walk into town meant I passed this way daily.

More art in the Camp yard.

The shade of this big mango tree didn't exist when the prisoners were here.

The entry arch of Camp du Transportation in SLM.  All bricks made by the prisoners here.

Karen in a cut out at the Office of Tourism.

We headed off into the creeks off the Maroni River on our way out of the country.  Several of them wind around and meet each other and allow a different trail to leave.

We took YOLO down the tributaries like this.

The jungle greenery invading the water's space.

You never knew what was around the next bend in the creek.

Jason piloting us down the creeks.

Sometimes the river gets pretty narrow, but the water was plenty deep almost everywhere.

Our view of the creek as we turn in the middle of it.

Looking back up the creek.

Sometimes it looks too shallow or narrow to fit, but we always made it through.

Our friend Tom, on Running Tide, was anchored in this creek, so we got together for sundowners--the only two boats in the creeks.

Quiet water in the creek.

When Tom left the next morning, we had the whole place to ourselves--miles of river water!

View from our river anchorage at low tide.  We saw monkeys come down to the bushes and eat bunches of red berries.  Plenty of parrots flew in pairs or flocks overhead every morning and evening, too.

YOLO at anchor in the middle of the creek.  It was deep in the middle and we had to be careful about how much scope we put out.  Had to be enough to keep us in place, but not too much that we would hit the banks on either side as we turned with the tide twice each day.  Even though the water is fresh water, its level and direction of flow is affected by the tide.

We left YOLO and went to explore the creeks in the dinghy.

 Lots of mangrove roots, bamboo and vines.

Jason as we head up the tributaries of the creeks.

I wore my wide-brimmed hat to keep the sun off my face and ears.  The sun here is brutal.

Typical creek view into the jungle.

We followed the creeks until the water ran out.

End of the line for this waterway.

A huge nest of some sort in one of the trees on the bank.

The sky looks so blue from the green/brown water in the creeks.

A fallen tree blocks the way and we turn around.

And we've turned again with the tide.

These long vines drape from the trees overhead.  I didn't like going under them as we saw lots of big spider webs around and I didn't want any dropping on me from above.

One of the shallow spots with a wall of soil along the bank.  The birds and/or animals burrow holes in the bank.  It was rare to see ground higher than the creek water here.

Returning to YOLO.  It's good to see her still where we left her.

These wasps found the overhead lights in our cockpit irresistible.  There were several of them here at a time, building a nest--or trying to start one.  When they were gone, I wiped the bits away.

Jason relaxing.

A sunset on the way.

Karen while we were under way.