Last modified: 2021-07-10 by ivan sache
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![[Flag]](../images/g/gf-ay.gif)
Flag of Awala-Yalimapo - Image by Valentin Poposki, 29 January 2021
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The municipality of Awala-Yalimapo (1,430 inhabitants in 2018; 18,740 ha) is located in north-western Guiana, being bordered north by the Atlantic Ocean and west by river Maroni. The municipality is composed of the two main villages of Awala and Yalimapo, distant of 3 km from each other, and of the hamlets of Kunawayalé and Ayawandé.
Awala-Yalimapo was settled by Galibi and Wayana natives once living in Pointe Isère, at the mouth of river Mana. Because of the lack in freshwater, they moved to the present-day's site of Awala, on the other bank of river Mana, and subsequently established Yalimapo at Pointe des Hattes, the eastern tip of the estuary of the Maroni.
Awala-Yalimapo is located only 20 km from Mana, to which it administratively belonged; however, the inhabitants of the villages, feeling ignored by the municipal administration of Mana, asked for the creation of an independent municipality, which was obtained on 31 December 1988.
[J. Barret (Ed.). Atlas illustré de la Guyane, 2001]
Pointe des Hattes and the beach of Yalimapo are a main site of hatching for leatherbacks. The world's biggest turtle, the leatherback [Dermochelys coriacea (Vandelli, 1761)] is an oceanic, deep-diving marine turtle inhabiting tropical, subtropical, and subpolar seas. Leatherbacks make extensive migrations between different feeding areas at different seasons, and to and from nesting areas. Leatherbacks feed predominantly on jellyfishes, salps and siphonophores. Females usually produce several (3-10) clutches of 60-90 eggs in a reproductive season, and typically have a re-migration interval of multiple years (2+) between subsequent reproductive seasons.
[IUCN Red List]
Ivan Sache, 6 April 2021
The flag of Awala-Yalimapo (video) is white with the municipality's emblem, featuring a Ka'lina traditional motif, and name below.
Valentin Poposki & Ivan Sache, 6 April 2021