Mont Grand Matoury Nature Reserve At the heart of Cayenne island

The slopes of higher ground between the coastal plains of the Amazon and the Orinoco are home to one of the last areas of primal forest along the coastal strip. Mont Grand Matoury (234 metres) in French Guiana rises up above the plain and attracts the gaze of those living in the town of Cayenne and even the suburb of Matoury. It proudly displays its Amazonian forest, which is still intact thanks to its having been protected as a national nature reserve since September 2006. We set off to discover it at dawn when the slumbering forest is still draped in mist. After barely 15 minutes’ driving, we arrive at the beginning of our trek. In the cool of early morning the landscape is bathed in light and silence. Our walk begins in the morning cool in a wood with canna, Schefflera, Cecropia (‘trumpet trees’) and comou and maripa palms. The vegetation indicates that the forest has been slowly regenerating itself since the La Mirande rum factory closed down over sixty years ago (and of which only a few remains still stand) where they used to cut down the surrounding trees for firewood. At the foot of a maripa palm a somewhat surprised agouti disappears when it sees us arrive. We had just caught it hard at work carrying out its job as forest gardener, propagating and burying the seeds of a large number of tree species all over its territory. Nature is gradually awaking. The rising sun acts as the conductor for a concert of bird song as......