Adventures of Beth and Dan: The Flat Place and lle Royale Devils

Getting closer to the vast and puzzle like mouth of the Amazon we have another tender port which is mostly a beach resort. For us we just aren’t into beaches much anymore unless it’s a fantastic snorkling spot. The name of the island which is Portuguese is Altar Do Chão which means a flat place. The main attraction is a sandbar that is wadeable in the dry season. But be careful of stingrays when visiting beaches here. This town is really not far from Santarém which we visited on our way up the Amazon. Bathed by the Tapajós River it is temporary only available during the rivers high water season. A curiosity about this town is its green lake where waters change color during the day from blue to green. Only a handful of streets are paved within the community of about 7000 people. It’s very small and compact. One option might be to take a local boat ride to the lagoon.

We are only here from 8-1 which with tendering makes it challenging so we both decide we are going to skip the trip and just relax on the boat. With the heat and humidity and then being packed to the gills in a tender I’m just not feeling like I need this experience. I haven’t been doing well with the humidity and typically when I get back to the boat I’m trying to cool myself down with a fan in my face and my head on a pillow!

The new oral fluvial or waterfront promenade extends several hundred meters along which was once a muddy bank. Now they saw there are stairs, rails, and a new dock making it safer and a nicer place to take a stroll. If you had time you could hike to the Floresta National do Tapajos a lovely National Forest where you could also canoe but no one could have time from our boat. They also said there were a few open air souvenir markets offering Indian and regional waters. No internet was available in the terminal. Most passengers we talked to said we didn’t miss anything and they probably could have also skipped the stop.

We have a sea day after the last stop and that’s always a day when we might have a craft session, a guest lecturer or other unique things planned by the ship. We had at least three Cake Days which take place mid afternoon. They make a variety of different cakes and then serve you in the Lido. We both decided we just can’t eat all that sugar so we don’t usually partake of that or afternoon tea which also has different countries sweets. They also have lots of sail away and typically we skip those because we aren’t big drinkers but we do like watching from the Lido or deck three as we throw the ropes, pull the anchor and slide away from the dock.

And if I didn’t show you these before here are the two piranha magnets I bought and the fish scale the vendor gave me for free. They use them to file their nails!

Then we bought two piranha keychains and Dan made me earrings!! Ha ha. They were a big hit on the ship and everyone was doing the same things buying piranha key chains!!

This was my biggest purchase in Peru all handmade. A beautiful alpaca poncho. I got lots of compliments. I never saw another like it but in the cold areas it really did keep me warm.

And then we had this recognition ceremony for making 300 days on Holland. They gave us medallions but honestly I think Dan May tossed them!! And we got a photo taken too with the captain. The only good part was free drinks and a nice lunch in the dining room.

So we enjoy the sea days and it gives me time to work on the blog and my photos. Our next stop was one that many people were very interested in and wanted to know more about the history of the place. In fact the ship showed the movie Papillon in the theater at least the newest version. Folks said they liked the original but we didn’t watch it. Most viewers said it was very violent and they wished they hadn’t watched it! So maybe we made the right choice. Once again another tender port to Devils Island French Guiana. I too wanted to go here. This is a group of islands called IIes de Salt located off the coast of French Guiana. When you are there you can see land to the south so folks from the mainland come here by motorboat or bigger sailboats. In the movie here was the announcement new prisoners would hear as it was a penal colony: “Welcome to the penal colony at Devils Island, whose prisoners you are, and from which there is no escape.” Today only one island has landing capacity where you can experience the haunting and eery history. There are pathways both rock and dirt that allow you to circle the island but they are steep and the stairs rough and uneven. Its overgrown in many areas covering the prison cells and the administrative buildings. Recently they have put some money into recovering some of the buildings of which one houses a small museum. There is a restaurant there, hotel which is rustic and a very small gift shop. If you walked around the island it would take about 45 minutes. But for some reason I totally lost it here. The heat and humidity were just too much. I had to stop three times going up the hill and rest. I finally made it to the top area but let Dan take some photos for me. Then we got to the restaurant and sat in a large shaded area of tables to drink water. We decided to take the stairs back down and not the loop. But the stairs were hard for me too because of the unevenness and the narrow pathway. We did see a few critters but just getting back to the tender took all my energy. When we got off the check in fellow told us several people had passed out once onboard and they had to take a wheelchair for another person so….. I think I wasn’t the only one who found the climate overwhelming. Needless to say it was back to the cabin, fan on, head on pillow and drinking lots of water for a few hours.

The trail heading up the hill. No shade but wide.

You could climb steps going up or coming down. We chose the path to go up.

Some of the documentation about the recovery of the buildings

One house had this unique hammock with the screen covering it. I think the folks who run the hotel live here.

A beautiful rock wall that was a retaining wall

Several of the buildings on site

There were some beautiful Bougainville scattered around the area

The main house for the warden

I had to stop several times going up this path and just lean against the rock wall

But we saw several of these squirrel monkeys and they seemed so tame!

This was just an interesting pile of coconut shells eaten in a big pile.

Some of the grounds with huge trees and lawns

This was a large pond of holding area of some kind but the hotel is in the background with those puffy fluffy clouds

This was the covered restaurant place

The tiny gift shop

A view from the top of the real Devis Island. No one lives there or can go there. Not sure why. The French police come there about every 6 months to check it out.

Peacocks were everywhere!!! Really fun to watch
Male and female and some young ones

Such a beauty!

When the prisoners died they were put out to sea so there are no burial grounds. There were

56,000 prisoners from France brought here.

Only 1/4 returned at the closing of the colony. One of the officials had a swimming pool made down close to the beach on the west side out of rocks. People still come here to swim in it because the waters are full of sharks.

Some egrets were there close to the tender area

Several catamarans were in the bay that brought folks over from the mainland. No swimming off the ramp due to sharks

An old photo

A painting showing bodies dumped at sea

Some of the cells.

Some of the old cell buildings and areas we couldn’t walk into

Administrative offices

There was a hospital here but you can’t enter it or the church, and the also had solitary confinement for many criminals. But you could have been sent here for something as minor as stealing a loaf of bread :(

More like a zoo here with parrots, wild pigs, peacocks and acooti which roam freely along with macaws and lizards.