The hitchhiker's guide to French Guiana

I was in Kourou. It was just after mid-day and I wanted to go west to St Laurent du Maroni on the border to Suriname. I looked for the tourist office in order to collect information on how to find the shared taxis. The information point had moved from where it was placed in Lying Planet and although I accidently found a streetsign pointing towards the tourist information in a completely different place, I didn’t find it. I had to improvise and try to talk to the French people. Damn.

A white guy I met on a supermarket parking could speak some Spanish and a group of black people hanging around outside a tobacco kiosk knew some English. The combined information I managed to collect was that 1) there is no taxi rank in Kourou, the taxis just pass on the street; 2) to go to St Laurent, one have to go back (!!!) to Cayenne and take one from there, if not 3) there is a taxi going to St Laurent at 4-5 in the morning (it circulates the streets until its full). I was not happy about much in my conclusion.

I was therefore going to try hitch-hiking. I liked my new plan because if it would work, it would also save me the €55 taxi fare. I had earlier picked up some info about hitchhiking from the French guy Nicolas and I knew it was possible. I walked out to the main road (it was quite far!) and there, just after the Kourou junction along the big road, I saw other hitchhikers. There was a black lady closest to the junction, after followed a black man with a guitar and at the far end, two younger teenagers. The teenagers were being picked up just as I came and I walked past the other ones to take the position at the far end. By the time I had arrived, put my bag down, taken a few breaths and written my destination on a board I picked up along the way, the first lady was gone. Only the guitar-man and myself left.

It didn’t take long, less than ten minutes, to find someone going all the way to St Laurent. It was an old lady in a large SUV. I made some space in the back-seat and enjoyed a free two-hour ride all the way to my destination. Behind me stood the guitar-man still waiting for a lift. I wondered how long he had been there.

Now, if you are going to hitchhike in French Guyana, follow the below advice that I have collected from a couple of local sources:

1.       Don’t hitchhike around Cayenne. French Guyana is perfectly “hitchhikable” but it’s always best to leave Cayenne in taxis. Go a bit and continue hitchhiking from some village outside.
2.       Never try hitchhiking on the road between Régina and St Georges on the Brazilian border. This road is notorious for drug smuggling and you want to avoid getting involved in that.
3.       In French Guyana lots of people hitchhike (as public transport is really expensive; there are no intercity buses, only shared taxis) and in general, black people stop for black hitchhikers and white people stop for white hitchhikers. If you are tourist, don’t know much French and carry bags, be extra careful which car you choose to get into.
4.      French Guyana has practically only one road (numbered RN1 west of Cayenne and RN2 east of Cayenne) and goes from east to west along the coast. For safety, never try to hitchhike to the interior of French Guyana but only along this main road.
5.      Stand on the main road when you hitchhike rather than some local road inside a town or city for better result.
6.       If you are more than one person it will be more difficult but still possible as many people in French Guyana drive around with pick-up trucks, which can carry all your bags. Just don’t hitchhike in big groups; then you are probably better off renting a car or something.

If it looks like this, it's a good hichhiking-place