These are the Salvation Islands, made up of three islands, Isle Royale, Saint Joseph, and the Isle du Diable (Devil’s Island). These were originally a leper colony turned penal colony in 1852 by the government of the Emperor Napoleon III. It soon became home to the worst criminals, political and military prisoners as well as the repeat offenders of the French Nation. Officially it was known as “Bagne de Cayenne” or “Cayenne Penal Colony” but soon coined by the prisoners as “Devil’s Island”. This was because of the harsh living conditions, isolation and disease. Many of the more then 80,000 prisoners sent here were never seen again. The remote location along with the surrounding open sea proved to be very effective in preventing any prisoners from escaping the island. There were in fact two successful escapes, one in 1901 and the other, more famous one, in 1941, when convicted murdered Henri Charriere escaped the island. The second escape are much better described in the book and movie adaptation, Papillion - staring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman (1973). After 1938, France stopped sending prisoners here and in 1952 the prison was permanently closed. In 1965, the French government transferred responsibility of the islands to the newly formed Guiana Space Centre. Now, more that 50,000 tourists come to this island annually to visit the prison and the Space Centre. The prison features are still is good condition and well laid out for a good look at life, or so called, life, here. Give yourself a good 2 to 3 hours to explore the buildings and the many interesting animals here, peacocks, monkeys, parrots etc.
The six of us jumped on the 9:30 tender and returned at about 2pm, so we did have a very good look around and took some nice pictures of this beautiful island. Sad and very interesting history but the island is truly a paradise, Fun fact, there is a hotel here and some actually have their honeymoons here, how strange is that. Another interesting and tragic fact has to do with the prisoners that passed away while in custody. When a prisoner died they would ring the church bell and then row them out to sea and dump them into the water. Sharks caught onto this and “shark alley” was born. After a some time doing this, they used to call the church bell, the dinner bell as when it was rung the sharks would start circling. Anyone want to go for a swim? The sharks have all since disappeared after the prison closed. Anyway, great day and visit this this most interesting place on our planet.
We were back to the ship by about 2:30 for a late lunch and then Jan and I had wonderful massages at 4:15, very nice way to spend the rest of the day. We are now on the single digit countdown of this amazing cruise. Here are a our pics of the day, hope you enjoy…
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