Saül

Saül sits almost exactly in the centre of French Guiana, a village of around three hundred people founded on gold and left with no road in or out, so everything and everyone arrives on the small plane from Cayenne. What it has instead is the best trail network in the territory: marked forest loops leaving straight from the village into primary rainforest, maintained by the Parc amazonien, walkable without a guide.

History

In 1910 a man named Sahul from Saint Lucia found gold here, and the village that grew up and took his name reached a peak of 800 people; from 1930 to 1946 it lay in the territory of Inini, and it was one of the first villages there to get a primary school. In 1952 the Guianese Mining Bureau built a 150 kilometre track from Saül via Bélizon towards the road to Cayenne to develop the gold mine, but it cost more than the dwindling gold was worth and was abandoned in 1960. The church of St Anthony of Padua was consecrated in 1962 and listed as a monument in 1993, and Saül remains the most thinly peopled commune of French Guiana (Wikipedia, Saül, French Guiana).

What's there

• The trail network - marked loops into primary forest straight from the village.
• The fly-in isolation - a village with no road, supplied entirely by air.
• The gold history - the rushes that founded the settlement.
• The forest itself - primary rainforest with its birds, frogs and giant trees.

When to go

July to November is the dry season and the trails are at their best. The wet season peaks April to June and the paths become heavy going. Flights book out ahead in the dry season.

Before you go

Flights are small, weather-dependent and cancelled or bumped regularly, so plans need slack. Accommodation is a handful of guesthouses and carbets. Big mammals are rarely seen; the forest experience is trees, birds and sound rather than wildlife spectacle.

Nearby

Maripasoula is west across the forest, and Cayenne is northeast by air.

Key facts