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Kourou, French Guiana

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Kourou is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America. In addition to being an administrative district in French Guiana, it is also the main town in that district.Within the Kourou district lies the Guiana Space Centre, France and the European Space Agency's main spaceport.GeographySome 60km northwest of the French Guyanese capital Cayenne the Kourou River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. At the mouth of this river sits the town of Kourou, which is ringed by four hills: Carapa, Pariacabo, Café and Lombard, with the Singes and Condamine mountains not far behind. There are three lakes within the town's city limits: Lake Bois Diable (where one can take lessons in jetski and other aquatic sports), Lake Marie-Claire (the smallest and calmest), and Lake Bois Chaudat (the biggest of the three; also open to sport lovers, especially canoers and kayakers). Long white sand beaches and some rocky outcrops line the town's ocean coast, the riverbank and all points inland consisting mostly of mangrove and dense tropical rainforest.The town had a fast-growing population of 25,918 inhabitants at the 2007 census. Its inhabitants can be classified into three ethnic groups of roughly equal size: Indigenous peoples (mostly Kalina - also called Galibi), Creoles, Maroons (Boni and Saramaka),Whites (mostly French, from Metropolitan France), andForeigners (Brazilians, Surinamese, Hmong, Haitians, Guyanese, etc.) The Saramaka mostly settled in the quartier Saramaka, along the river. Much of it burned down in a fire in 2006, and hasn't yet fully recovered.

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