BEACH PARIAH AND WATERFALL PARIAH
Medium-difficulty hike (7 to 8h return). Take a guide with you who knows the way, and who you can easily find in the village or have recommended to you in Blanchisseuse. At the very end of the main road, past the last houses and hotel in the village, is a red bridge suspended over the Marianne River.
From this bridge runs a dirt track, only passable for a short distance by car, and even then only in the dry season. If you set off on foot from the bridge, you'll have to walk for around 3 hours through the virgin forest, over fairly steep terrain alternating between ascents and descents.
At the end of the track , you suddenly come upon a vast beach leading to the superb Paria beach, which has remained totally wild and unspoilt. A landscape of the beginning of the world, one kilometer of fine sand with, at the very end, a cliff that falls into the sea and the virgin forest that fringes the entire length of the curved beach. Follow the beach to the estuary.
Fifty meters before the estuary, you'll see a passage that goes inland following the river. Take it. After 200 m, the track joins the riverbed. You'll end up with your feet in the river and a shaded pool with a ten-metre waterfall, where you can enjoy a refreshing swim after your walk. Beware: the pool is deep - 7 or 8 m in the middle - and you'll soon lose your footing.
Beyond this first waterfall, there are two other, smaller pools, a kind of natural bubbling bath that can also be reached on foot, and where you can also take a dip.
Youcan continue to Matelot on a two-day trek, bivouacking on the beach.
By boat. A much quicker and less tiring alternative to the Paria waterfall is to ask a fisherman to take you in his pirogue to Paria beach. The trip only takes half an hour. Today's prices range up to US$150. But whether you're on your own or in a group, the price stays the same. During the trip, as you zigzag between small rocky islets battered by the surf, you'll have plenty of time to appreciate the splendour of this wild coastline, which has not yet been damaged by construction. To find a guide or pirogue, contact your hotel or ask Rodger at Lagunamar.