Guiana is a great country with so many things to do:

When you arrive in Guiana the first thing you’ll see are trees. Guiana is covered in dense rainforest. You might also notice that all the satelite dishes point straight upwards, instead of the typical horizontal slant. It's a really strange combination of high tech and no tech. I went from visiting the space station, seeing the vulcan engines which propel a small building through the atmosphere at a speed 8 times the speed of sound, and the rocket boosters which are 50 meters tall, and wearing protective clothing in sensitive satelite rooms, to sitting in the jungle without electricity (let alone internet) for days and days.

The jungle:

There are a few ways of seeing the jungle, but by far the most interesting is the overnight stay. After a day of hiking through the jungle in remote Kou, you come to a small encampment with little tree houses. Beware of the food stealing monkeys..

Hmong Village -

After the Indo-China wars France brought a lot of the refugees back from Vietnam. One particular group were the Hmong (From the same people as those in Clint Eastwood’s Grand Torino). The Hmong live in a small town an hour south of Cayenne. Walking through the streets of the village you may as well be walking through the streets of rural Vietnam; the food, dress, architecture and people still look really Vietnamese.

Caiman searching -

The caiman is a type of alligator, with a shorter snout and less protruding teeth. In a boat ride along one of the many jungle ‘criques’ the guide spots the caimans. On our boat the guide spotted tiny caimans from 70 yards away while driving at top speed! The boat ride isn’t just about caimans though: anacondas and other snakes, tons of birds, sloths, monkeys, and huge insects are all common sights.

The Islands -

There are three small islands off the coast of Guiana - nicknamed 'The Devil's Islands'. This is because of the fortified prison that stood there from the early 19th century until 1946. The prison was mainly for political prisoners, and today stands as colossal and overgrown ruins.

Trip to Guiana 2013!

Hi there! My name is Caspar, I'm 19 years old, living the student life in London, and this Spring holiday I'm off to French Guiana for 10 days to see the newest rocket in the Ariane 5 series! The opportunity came about through a great friend of the family, who works for the European Space Agency, and lives in Rome. Ever since I was a kid I've been in awe of ESA, rockets, having an Italian Godfather (self-proclaimed - the Godfather). And going to space, sort of, well going to see a rocket go into space, is a dream come true.

What is the Ariane 5 rocket?

The Ariane 5 rocket is the latest in the Ariane series. These are ESA (European Space Agency) rockets designed to carry satellites and other payload into orbit around the earth. ESA have been launching Ariane 5 rockets since 1996, but the Ariane series date all the way back to the 1970s. They've carried bits and bobs for the International Space Station, satelites from all over the world,  as well as telescopes and scientific space experiments.


Guiana

French Guiana is a pretty remote place. It’s home to less than 250,000 people and more than 6000 different species of animals, including 700 different types of birds and 500 different types of fish (most of which aren't found anywhere else on earth). More worryingly the country is also home to "unknown" numbers of species of insects, including malaria carrying mosquitos, venomous spiders, and something called the Longhorn Beetle, which can grow up to 8 inches in length....

So why go all the way to French Guiana?

1. It’s close to the equator. This means that as the earth spins there’s lots of free extra velocity for the rocket to pick up as it is launched eastward.

1. It’s one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. Which means rockets won’t end up coming down on top of people if everything goes terribly wrong.

Some of the activities which I have planned include visiting the rainforest, going to the beach, seeing the space station, and finding out as much as I can about ESA and how, what, why the Ariane rockets work!

Cheers,
Caspar

Good Luck Casper - This Weeks Guest Blogger

Good luck to Casper Worthington who on the 6th of April 2013 is off to French Guiana to see the launch of the newest Ariane 5 series rocket!

Casper is our VIP Guest blogger for the week and we hope for him to tell the story of his experience live on the 2020 Education site

Watch this space....