European Space Center Harbor
04 August 2009 | Kourou, French Guyana
Benno
Kourou on the Kourou river was an interesting place. The river was dredged constantly by a Dutch dredging company. The dredged channel starts halfway between Ile Royal and the river mouth and goes another three miles upriver, right to the harbor, where they unloaded space rocket sections. Port Captain, Douanes and Immigration were located there as well. Just around the corner, within walking distance of the Douanes and Coast Guard dock was a large Leader Price supermarket.
What really surprised us was a hunting store, where you could purchase shotguns and hunting rifles and ammo as long as you were over the age of 21 years. You try this in Martinique or France! But the chap in the store said, "We have special laws here. The jungle is behind your backyard and alligators and jaguars come right to your kitchen window and eat your dog."
We noticed a French Foreign Legion Infantry Regiment was station here, to guard french jnterest. After living again like God in France for a week here and getting to know the opening hours of the internet cafe, we had the urge to move on for our final leg to Grenada. There we will close the circle of our South America rounding.
The picture shows a freighter from France delivering a section for a space rocket.