Only Ghosts and Monkeys at Devil’s Island

Day 8, Grand World Voyage 2020

Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020; Devil’s Island, French Guiana

The monkeys are posing and preening for the tourists, and I reach in my bag for my iPhone to snap a picture. It isn’t there. I had forgotten to pack it before I came ashore today at Devil’s Island.

I hadn’t realized how dependent I am on that camera when traveling. At least a dozen times over the next few minutes I instinctively reached for it. I’m sure my sister got tired of my requests for her to take a shot or let me use her smartphone. Thus the island photos here are hers, not mine.

I did have my sketchpad and pen. So while Elaine wandered off to explore further, I tried (mostly in vain) to capture the cute faces of the monkeys who ventured closer and closer hoping for food.

And that’s when I realized what a crutch the camera is to my sketching. It captures details I might add later and reminds me of which watercolor hues to use.

As I sketched my way around the island, I struggled to add those details in the moment and try to imprint the colors in my memory.

About the island: We actually were on Isla Royale, the largest of a group of three islands off the coast of French Guiana that comprised the French penal colony of Cayenne during much of the 18^th and 19^th centuries. The notorious prison is commonly known as Devil’s Island.

From the tender pier on Isla Royale we had our choice of a long road or a series of stairs to reach the highest point, where many of the original buildings still stand, one now serving as a small hotel. Nearer the water is the remaining stanchion that once anchored a cable to the smaller Devil’s Island, used to send food and water to the political prisoners kept there. The story is that blood flowed into the channel between the two islands from the butcher shop, attracting sharks to discourage escape.

Henri Charrière wrote the book Papillon about his imprisonment and escape (controversial due to its disputed details). The 1973 movie of the same name, starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, tells his story. I watched a 2017 remake that was the featured film on board today, which amazingly didn’t show a single palm tree. The three islands are covered in them.

This marks my first foray into South America, so another continent checked off (and only Antarctica to go). Tomorrow is another sea day before we arrive at our first Brazil port, Belem.

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After we left our last port of Saint Lucia and the Caribbean Sea, the seas kicked up. Nothing as rough as on the Voyage of the Vikings last summer in the North Atlantic, but enough to make us weave down the hallway. I heard the crew closed the outside promenade deck at one point. And yesterday netting showed up to block access to the Lido pool. When you watch the waves generated by the ship’s motion, you can see why:

As if I didn’t have enough to do on sea days, I signed up for an italic calligraphy class a passenger is teaching. To be honest, I initially thought from the signup sheet that it said Italian calligraphy. So much for the readability of calligraphy. But I am trying different lettering styles in my sketchbook, and I thought it would be a nice addition.

So far it has been more of a lecture about the history of paper, printing, inks and writing implements. But I’ve learned that italic isn’t necessarily italicized, meaning slanted. And there are a lot of diagonals in the letters. The real lesson is that the key to success is a lot of practice. Now where have I heard that before?