Mana

Mana was founded in the 1820s by Anne-Marie Javouhey, a Burgundian nun who established a settlement where freed slaves could live and work before abolition, an experiment that made the town unlike anything else on the coast. Wooden Creole houses stand around a grid of quiet streets by the river, and rice fields spread across the coastal plain outside, worked in big flat polders toward the sea.

What you actually see

• The Javouhey foundation - a town built as a settlement for freed slaves before abolition.
• The Creole grid - wooden houses along quiet planned streets.
• The rice polders - the flat fields spread between the town and the sea.
• The river front - the Mana running past toward the Maroni mouth.

When to go

July to November is the dry season. The rice fields flood and green with the cropping cycle. The wet season peaks April to June.

Honest expectations

The town is very quiet and most services are basic. The rice fields have declined from their peak and parts lie fallow. It works best combined with Awala-Yalimapo and the turtle beaches.

Nearby

Awala-Yalimapo is northwest, and Saint-Laurent is south.