At noon the sea was gone.

After our arrival the evening before, the internet had promised us: At least on our map app, the Atlantic coast curves right behind the hotel garden with the large pool along Anse de Montabo, a bay east of Cayenne, the main town – the word “ City” doesn’t really fit this settlement area – from French Guiana, a territory in South America that belongs to the euro area and is the size of Austria and has the population of Augsburg.

And the internet also knew: Neither cliffs made of granite or quartzite nor the typical mangrove thicket await you at the Bay of Montabo - but a sandy beach lined with coconut palms with the sonorous name "Plage de Zephir".

Ulf von Rauchhaupt

Editor in the “Science” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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There was still work to be done in the morning, but the rest of the day was free, so after the last Teams meeting, nothing kept us in the hotel, not even the pool.

After all, what's the point of plastic loungers and chlorinated water when you can also sit by the sea?

But, as I said, the sea just wasn't there.

Instead, behind the palm trees, grey-beige silt stretched to the horizon.

However, the low tide did not completely disfigure this coast, especially since there was almost no rubbish lying around.

To the west, the beach ran up to a rocky hill, overgrown with dense vegetation, called Colline de Montabo, which separates it from Cayenne.

Can she be moved?

Nearly.

Eventually, the golden-yellow sand turned into larger and larger chunks of quartzite and picturesquely banded metamorphic rock.

The coast was getting steeper and the space between the silt and the fences of the estates was getting tighter.

In the end there was only a small path inland, but it soon widened into a road and led around the Colline de Montabo on the side facing away from the sea - through a residential area.

It still led a little way past the jungle, but at one point a path came straight out of the thicket.

The vegetation swallowed us up, and only a hundred meters later did a sign reveal the start of an official coastal footpath.

Cayenne also has civilized green spaces, as we discovered later in the afternoon, such as the Place des Palmistes, whose palm trees seem to tower over all the town's buildings, including the cathedral, or the remains of the first fort, on a rock that the French built for the local aborigines in 1643 bought off.

You can also visit a botanical garden.

But a veritable coastal jungle within walking distance of the historic town center - that can only be found here.

The hotel on the Plage de Zephir is the https://grand-hotel-montabo.fr.

A negative PCR test is currently mandatory for flights to French overseas territories.

More at https://de.france.fr/de/franzosisch-guyana