Apologies to anyone waiting for a postcard from the Amazon.

I bought stamps in Rio in anticipation but the merchants in neither Santarem nor Afua have invested in postcards. Given the number of tourists they get this is a sensible decision.

Now Cayenne, where I am today, is awash with postcards but this being Saturday afternoon the postoffice is shut and the French even in their distant possessions have not freed themselves from the idea that selling stamps anywhere other than a postoffice is something almost immoral.

That apart Cayenne is an interesting port of call. It's got a few grand colonial buildings and lots of decrepit ones. It's very strange to be in the middle of the tropics driving along roads marked exactly as they are in France and supervised with the same intensity by the Gendarmerie.

More later