Surprising Suriname

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Day 428 Wednesday 12th December
The lady must have called Frank the taxi driver because at 7.40am still no taxi and at 7.45am still no taxi, apparently he had to take his kids to school that’s OK we only need to catch a ferry. The lady quickly called another taxi and he turned up in within a few minutes and got us down the port which was only 5 minutes away. If we had missed the ferry it really was no problem because motorised canoes do the trip all day. This taxi dropped us right in front of the Federal Police building at the port where we were stamped out of French Guiana and we walked the few steps down to the car ferry which costs 4 euros each for the 15 minute journey to Suriname.
We were now in Suriname the second smallest country in South America, (After French Guiana) and it has a total population of 560,000 people, with half of them living in the capital Paramaribo. We followed the road up from the dock passing the welcome sign to Suriname to the Federal Police to get stamped into the country. Make sure you fill in everything on the entry card that you have to hand in here (the man on the ferry hands these out), the Surinamese are sticklers for detail. As we entered the Federal Police building taxi drivers were screaming out at us through the security gates but before we left the building Scott asked one of the Police the best way to get to Paramaribo the capital and he started to give us advice on costs before we hit the hordes outside. Sitting at a table at the end of the office was a lady who we now call “the Fixer” a few minutes earlier I had paid her the money to go to the toilet but now we think she runs the whole show. When she heard our conversation she jumped up and said “just wait I sort it” and she exited the door into the frenzy of taxi drivers, soon the voices were getting louder and then all the drivers were screaming. Next thing the door opened and all these faces started staring in at us when the policeman who stamped us in told them to close the door which they ignored and started calling out to us. He came out from his desk and exited through the door and screamed back at the drivers this all went on for a few minutes. We were left standing with the original policeman we asked the question to wondering does this happen all the time. The Fixer came in and told us to wait and started making calls on her mobile while starting to help new arrivals, the policeman came in slamming the door behind him to the drivers still screaming. We gathered that they were all asking way too much money for the trip and she was not having a bar of it. After another 5 minutes she said it is sorted and follow her so we entered the lion’s den and pushed our way through with the Fixer leading us to a taxi where we confirmed the price 20 euros each including our bags (make sure the price includes your luggage as advised by the policeman and this is the price he said it should cost). We could not believe how friendly and helpful the staff were it is a great way to enter a country. There are public buses and collectivos somewhere in town but this is the easiest and quickest option door to door.
Jumped into the taxi and started the 3 hour trip on a part tarred and part dirt road through the jungle. There is a lot of roadwork happening and new bridges everywhere over small rivers so it will not be long and this road should be fully tarred all the way to the capital. Entering the town you pass over a bridge which has the steepest incline we have ever experienced. The taxi had to change gears to climb up to the top, the photos do not really show it.
We arrived at the hotel at 11.40am and knowing that check in was 2.00pm were not sure if we would get in early. The lady at reception sweetly told us we could have the room early if we like, that’s great BUT it would cost us a half day rate …. WHAT for 2.5 hours, no thank you we will just leave our bags. We walked down the road to a café to get lunch as we had missed breakfast and were now quite hungry stayed here till we could get into the room. We then had a slow afternoon doing a few chores. For one of the few times in our travels we didn’t get out on the streets straight away and by the time we did it was dark.
The town of Paramaribo is a bit of a tongue full, but thankfully everyone just calls it “Parbo” which is so much easier to say. We had heard lots of warnings that this country was a bit rough around the edges and so was hesitant to wander too far from the hotel in the dark until we had got a feel of the place. As it turned out we are unsure what the warnings were about as the town feels really, really safe. Soon discovered that even Parbo was gripped with 12-12-12 fever with countless weddings going on and we lost count of the stretch limos and hummers on the road….we even had a helicopter land in the main plaza to pick up a bride. For our first night we opted to go to a bar called Starrz a few doors down where our hotel had given us a voucher for one free drink and 10 percent off the price of the food. The bar/restaurant was fairly flash and the food prices were high but because of our voucher we stuck with it. For a free drink we got a choice of a juice, a soft drink or red wine…..red wine thanks. The beer to drink around here is “Parbo”, which is a good idea naming a beer after where you are in case you get so drunk you can’t remember where you are. The beer comes in small 0.25 litre bottles 0.5 litre cans or 1 litre bottles, and most places give you a choice but this one didn’t despite them all being on the menu. The small bottles are a rip off price but we stuck with the place, and then our meals were ordinary. The night couldn’t get worse but then they started karaoke…..the humanity. Had to flee quick and we got our bill to discover that they had decided that our free drinks were going to be Shelley’s lemonade and my small beer and hit us $30 SRD ($12) for the wines. Sorry we might be tired but we are not stupid. Arguments started, the manager got involved 3 times they wrote up a bill till we got it our way….won’t be going back there again.

Day 429 Thursday 13th December
Both really excited to be in Parbo and this morning we couldn’t wait to get out and have a good look around. Our Hotel the Queens Hotel is in a small precinct with a few high end hotels that all seem to have casinos. Our hotel has one too but we never saw it open so we guess that maybe casinos are not as popular as they used to be. A short walk from our hotel is all the Government buildings including the legislative assembly and the Presidents palace, all of which are of modest proportions. The present President is what can be best described as a “colourful character”. Desi Bouterse has been in office since 2010, but prior to this he ruled Suriname between 1980 to 1988 as head of a military dictatorship. During this time he has been implicated in the murder of 15 people. Opposition leaders, union leaders, teachers and journalists were rounded up on the 8th December 1982, tortured and then shot. Testimony has been given that he not only knew and planned it but actually killed three of them. In 1986 during a short Guerrilla War against the Government his army massacred 39 villagers (mostly women and children) at the town of Moiwana. Early this year he was able to grant himself along with other suspects immunity from prosecution regarding the murder of the 15 in 1982…being President has it benefits. On top of “alleged” murders in 1999 he has also been convicted in absentia in the Netherlands for trafficking 474 kilograms of cocaine. Wikileaks published cables in 2011 in which he was implicated in the drug trade and Europol has an International warrant for his arrest…again things he can shrug off whilst he is President. The funny thing is the park behind the Presidents Palace is apparently the place to score drugs…I wonder if he personally does the dealing. Of course the President’s benefits can extend throughout the family and he has recently appointed his son Dino the head of the Governments heavily armed Counter Terror Unit. What makes this appointment slightly wrong is that this was the same son that has been implicated in murder, drug and arms trafficking…I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The people in this country are so lovely and friendly it is hard to believe they are governed by perhaps the meanest nastiest bastard of all the present leaders in South America.
We had a long walk all around the town which is full of wonderful old timber colonial buildings, most restored but a lot just in gentle decay. The British were the first to colonise this corner of the world but then the Dutch took over in 1667 and the architecture retains their legacy. With the colony came slaves to work the farms and when slavery was abolished in 1873, most chose to move inland and create their own farms as opposed to working for a wage on their former master’s farm. The colonists in an effort to keep the plantations operating indentured large numbers of workers from China, India and Indonesia and what we have today is perhaps one of the most interesting blended societies in the world. Walking the streets of Parbo is quite amazing just for the incredible variety of people and from what we could see they all get on just fine. In the centre of town is a Mosque and Synagogue side by side, just to emphasize the possible utopia.
We had read that this town had a high poverty and crime rate but we saw little or no sign of it and in fact we thought maybe the country is doing pretty good financially and it appears there may be a huge middle class. Had a walk around the town’s central market which was filled with lots of imported rubbish and fresh fish. Late in the afternoon we decided to stop for a drink and Shelley picked a place called the Riverside Café, which as the name implies sits on the river. The whole place was fenced and caged in, and I was unsure if that was to keep people out or in. The place had a great vibe, full of locals and the music played was brilliant; Aretha, Otis, BB King, Muddy Waters, with a splash of local sounds couldn’t be better.
Had a pitstop at the hotel before deciding to return to our bar for dinner at night. At the bar we got treated like long lost friends and got an amazing feed of “Spicy fish”. The meals proper name was something in Dutch that we couldn’t pronounce nor remember. It was a great finish to a great day…been here only one day and already we are in love.

Day 430 Friday 14th December
First task this morning was to investigate moving onto the next town and we thought we would start with asking at our hotel for options. The good old Lonely Planet suggests you can go via the local minivan or bus and after seeing a few of them yesterday packed to the gills we thought we might investigate other options. Shelley is pretty good with her claustrophobia these days but we really don’t like pushing the envelope on that one and our hotel said they could hire a taxi for us which although expensive was our best option. Charlene the girl at reception was perhaps the most helpful person we have ever come across in South America, and within seconds she was ringing the hotels in our next town to see if they had any rooms. Because it was the weekend the best she could do was a family room for $100 USD…ouch. Had to think about that so we told her not to book anything whilst we went for a walk.
Wandered down to the town’s premier landmark the Zeelandia Fort, which was built by the Dutch in the 1700’s and is perhaps the smallest forts I have ever seen. The word quaint springs to mind, which isn’t exactly a good term for a military installation. Cost 15 SRD ($5) to get in, which also had a dinky museum and collectively kept our attention for 5 minutes. The best part of the fort was the views to the town’s roller coaster bridge and the wreck of a German freighter that was scuttled in the harbour way back in 1939.
Returned to our hotel and ended up deciding on staying an extra night and trying to move onto the border town on Sunday. Charlene suggested we return tomorrow and work out the details, and so we headed out to walk the town again. The town is so picturesque and is full of so many fabulous old colonial buildings including a huge timber church, which the locals claim is the largest timber building in the world. Doesn’t look much from the outside especially as it is covered in scaffold but it is impressive inside. We ended up doing a bit of shopping before stopping at a restaurant for a snack and a beer and then more shopping.
For dinner we headed back to our favourite bar where we got a great welcome and an even greater feed. On top of what we ordered we were given a plate of “Pom”, which is a traditional Surinamese meal. The people of Suriname are just so friendly, it is a real joy to be here.

Day 431 Saturday 15th December
Should have been on the road today, but it is okay to still be in Parbo. We had thought about doing a tour out into the jungle but they are so expensive and quite frankly nothing looking that interesting. Suriname seems to be on a big drive to bring in tourists and its biggest draw card is the jungle. Most jungle tours involve a flight to a remote lodge where you can then do walks to see the local wildlife and smallish waterfalls. I suppose because we have already done a jungle tour in Ecuador we just didn’t feel like doing another unless it had a bit of a wow factor. A multi day tour was going to cost us over a thousand dollars and as we are running low on money we have opted to skip them and hope we can get something in Guyana that maybe more what we are looking for.
We spent the day once again walking around the shops and looking for a barber to get my hair cut, but without any luck. Saw Charlene back at our hotel in the afternoon and she was able to book a room in the next town for two nights and organise our transfer. There are cheaper ways to do this and cheaper hotels but we are starting to get soft and for this leg feel we need to do it easy. For dinner we headed back again to our bar restaurant but we got down there at 7.30 and the kitchen had already closed for the night…damn. Ended up getting a feed at another restaurant before heading home for an early night.

Day 432 Sunday 16th December
Up at 7, packing our bags once again and after all our shopping the bags are starting to really bulge. We checked out of the hotel at 10, and jumped into a taxi for our drive to the town of Nieuw Nickerie, which sits on the border with Guyana. Soon after getting underway our driver asked if his friend could come too as he knew the way better. Not sure if this was true, but we sort of guessed our driver just wanted company on his return to Parbo, and that was fine by us. Ended up picking up his friend on the outskirts of town and he actually did the driving for the rest of the day.
The drive from Parbo to Nieuw Nickerie is through farming country interspersed with the occasional pocket of jungle. Suriname is mostly covered in untouched jungle and savannah and I have read that around 80 percent of the country is pristine. The coast however is heavily “touched” and the area around Nickerie is covered in rice fields and banana plantations. Got to Nickerie at 1pm and our drivers had to stop and ask a local for direction before we were dropped at our hotel. Nickerie is the third biggest town in Suriname with the mighty population score of 13,000. Driving into town on a Sunday and you would think the population was 3 people, 10 dogs and a cat.
The Residence hotel is costing us a silly $70 a night and is just a rundown 2 star hotel, but it has air con and that is worth its weight in gold. We got settled in and then went for a walk around town which looked like they had rolled up the footpath, but we did find a supermarket. At 3pm we wandered down to the hotel restaurant and got a reasonable serving of Pom….only had it twice before and we are now experts on what is good and what is bad.

Day 433 Monday 17th December
Today we had a good look around town looking for a barber for Scott and after 15 minutes had seen the whole of downtown. The town is large but very sprawled out with nothing to see it is just a stopping off point before moving onto Georgetown. We spent a quiet afternoon in our room and later had dinner. Suriname has been a great place to visit and the people were so friendly and warm…it just wasn’t what we had expected. There are a lot of warnings about this place but we felt they were unfounded and noticed a massive push for tourism. Unfortunately our next destination was not to be the same.

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Photos

Paramaribo
The Mosque

Paramaribo
The river

Paramaribo
Old Dutch building

Nieuw Nickerie
Looking down the road

French Guiana to Suriname
Crossing borders

French Guiana to Suriname
Motorised Canoes doing the crossing

Suriname
Hello Suriname

Paramaribo
The Mosque and Synagogue sitting side by side

Paramaribo
The bridge into Parbo

Paramaribo
The street running beside the river with decaying buildings

Paramaribo
The same street looking the other way

Paramaribo
Zeelandia Fort

Paramaribo
Scott with his Parbo beer

Paramaribo
Zeelandia Fort walls

Paramaribo
Main Street of the shopping district

Paramaribo
The Riverside Cafe

Paramaribo
Christmas decorations???

Paramaribo
Presidential Palace

Paramaribo
Police Building

Paramaribo
St Petrus en Paulus Kathedral

Paramaribo
St Petrus en Paulus Kathedral interior

Comments

[traudy]

Bloody Frank!
Sounds like a fabulous place to visit. It makes such a difference when people in general are helpful and friendly, lightens the load. looking good there Scotty with the ole parbo coolant. The president sounds like a awful human being, go figure. How does it all work???

[D MJ Binkley]

Suriname
Reading about some of those S.A. countries that few people bother to see. Enjoyed your story and impressions.