Cayenne Pepper?? My first look at Cayenne - the capital of French Guiana. This morning I had organized to get a lift into the city with Nicola - Nico's Belgium roommate. Nicola is a very interesting guy who is working here as a Physiotherapist, practices Brazilian fighting: Jujitsu and keeps songbirds (birds from the Amazon that are used around the world in bird singing competitions). My fist stop in Cayenne was the Suriname Consulate and to no suprise getting a visa was not going to be an easy task. At first I was told to go get a visa photo and a photocopy of my passport which in expensive Cayenne cost me $10 - incredible I know. I then made my way back to the office filled out my documents and requested a transit visa. The woman working there at the front desk was a large black lady and made me wait nearly an hour as she took a personal call and played with her nails - after an hour she then made a phone call and told me as I didn't have a flight leaving Suriname I couldn't get this visa and got her colleague to come and explain that to me. The colleague was also a very large black man that had a problem with Australia and told me I couldn't get a visa at all? After trying all my options I ended up handing over a ridiculous $60 and my documents and leaving the decision in the hands of the Visa Gods. After 3 hours messing around with the visa I was ready to go see the city but now unfortunately with a head full of stress and negativity and the thought that the locals might all be so cold and rude. I wondered around the city centre and really enjoyed observing all the colonial architecture but I couldn't help but notice the thousands of Chinese shops which kind of detracted from the architecture. I found my way to the market which although wasn't open today still had a few shops operating. After midday I decided I would try and hitchhike back to Nico's and upon walking out to the highway found about 6 others with the same idea. I joined the Que with my thumb out and my little sign saying Matoury. Amazingly after about 45 minutes in the intense heat a woman stopped and gave me a lift - ahead of all the others which showed a little bit of racial profiling: picking up the white kid as opposed to the 3 Africans, 2 Chinese and 1 French guy. I thanked the local lady for the lift and made the 25 minute walk off the highway back to Nico's place. At around 5:30pm the very interesting and crazy Marie came to collect me; she is a Capoeira practicing Psychologist working and living in French Guiana for two years now. Marie took me to a really nice beach just out of the centre of Cayenne where we were able to go for a nice sunset walk. This beach is famous for having the turtles come to shore and lay their eggs late in the night. It just so happens now is the time of year when the turtles come but unfortunately we didn't see any this time around but we got some nice photos and I learned a bit more about French Guiana and why Marie decided to move here from France. Most French people consider French Guiana a horribly hot, dangerous, mosquito ridden place (which with a very limited view: it could be) but this is good as it keeps the masses of French people from flocking here. Those French that come here find a tropical, green uncrowded (just 250,000 people in the whole country) paradise. Yes there are Mosquitos, yes there are snakes, yes it's hot and humid and yes it is 40% more expensive then France but on the other hand the wage is better, it's tropical and its a somewhat foreign country. After our walk Marie took me to a friends house where there was a big bunch of people meeting (my host Nico included) to practice drumming: they have a group of 40 students that perform every year at carnival. We arrived at the house which was more like a palace and I started meeting all of the group which mainly consisted of French expats and some of which I had met the night before at Capoeira class. The Brazilian cocktails (Caiporinias) were made and as people arrived they took up the various drums and avcocktail and started to join the collective. They have a really strong expat community here and it seems this picussion group is just another reason to get together, have a laugh, a drink, a sing and a dance. When Nico arrived he insisted I join in so I picked up a drum and did my best to keep the rhythm. It turned out to be a really nice night and I got to meet lots of really interesting people. It was late when we headed back and Nico's roommate had a friend around so I made a huge omelette for dinner, chatted a while and then went to bed by 1am.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Song Birds - very popular in this region
- Suriname Visa difficulties, expensive and maybe I won't get
- Cayenne: beautiful architecture, no beach
- Hitchiking difficult - racial profiling
- Marie from CS took me to beach
- Music group practice - invited to join
- Brazil in French Guiana