Off To The Capital Cayenne!! Today I am heading 3 hours north to the capital of French Guiana which is Cayenne. Luckily Olivier is heading their (flying home to France on holiday) and has kindly offered to give me a lift and drop me off at my next host (Nico's) place. In the morning I packed my things and then made my way around to Oliviers where I helped him organize a few things and clean-up. Olivier wanted to buy a few handcrafts to take back home as presents so we adventured into the Indian community going door to door until we found someone selling. Olivier explained how the people hear don't care for money so much as they all get huge government allowances and as they don't pay rent or anything for their homes the money is more then enough for then. At 1pm we took off in the car for the capital of French Guiana: Cayenne. The drive was absolutely breathtaking with windy roads, lush green Forrest's and sparse Indian communities. We went through police and custom checks and at one point we saw a very rare tree dog that Olivier after 3 years of living here had never seen. By 4pm we had arrived on the outskirts of Cayenne and I was meeting my new host Nico. I thanked Olivier, wished him well on his holiday and made my way to Nicos place. Nico is a very interesting and incredibly guy that lives in a beautiful jungle house surrounded by gardens, fruits and vegetables. Nico lives with his son Titoun and roommate Nicola; they welcomed me with fresh mango and some hot tea. I immediately felt incredibly welcome here and was told that tonight they would go to Capoeira class (Brazilian fight/dance class) and I was invited. We headed into the centre of Cayenne and made a quick stop at a friends place where I was given some delicious fresh fruits: French Guiana is a fruit lovers paradise and I am going to eat myself silly on fruit here. We then made our way to class and I met about 30 odd people all of which were incredibly friendly, English speaking and some even members of couchsurfing. The Capoeira class started and my God just the warm-up nearlly killed me with lots of running, high jumps, kicks and hand-stands. I don't think people realized it was my first time trying the sport but they tried to help me anyway. The whole community feel and general nice feeling made me realize I miss team sports. The instruments came out and we started singing, clapping and in the middle of the circle the Capoeira started; it was very obvious that this was an advanced class with members doing flips, kicks and tricks unlike anything I had ever seen before. And there it was again: a pinch yourself moment where complete happiness overwhelms me. We sung and clapped and watched on as the members performed; the class lasted 2 hours and by the end I was incredibly exhausted. A couple of the lovely girls from the class came and offered to hang-out with me and show me the city over my 4 day stay - half my luck. We headed back to Nicos and as it was late and we were hungry we cooked up a feed of t bone steaks and salad - the perfect protein hit after a huge workout. Nico even cracked a bottle of Frances finest red wine and we chatted the rest of the night away. Nicos story is one very interesting story about a family, a divorce, a shared life and immense travelling and career changes. Once again I feel my blessings and thank my lucky stars for this day.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Indian handicrafts
- Rare Tree-dog spotting
- Beautiful scenic drive to Cayenne
- Cayenne - feels like France
- Cayenne - wild fruit everywhere; 8 types of Mangos
- Capoiera Class; difficult, great energy
- Met wonderful people
- Couchsurfing at Nicos with his son Titoun and roommate Nicola