Chapter 43The next morning came far too soon. Khalid looked tired when he met his companions in the garden patio for breakfast. Renovated to its former grandeur, the Hôtel des Palmistes hosted tourists or business travelers. Most of the tourists were only passing through Cayenne on their way to more appealing holiday resorts such as Rio de Janeiro or even Buenos Aires.
Cayenne is the capital of a decadent French Department. A mixture of relics of French colonization and local folklore has slowly diluted Guyana’s impression of slavery past. The streets of Cayenne have an affinity with those of New Orleans. The two-story houses with their wrought-iron-trimmed balconies and their elaborate sculpted façade adorned of colonnades or volutes would be easy on the eye if only they had been mainta
