Adventures in South America: Paramaribo, Suriname

As described in my French Guiana blog post, some "South American realities" meant I need to return to French Guiana today; so yesterday, Sunday, was, in essence, my last day in Suriname. Among other things, I saw the mosque . . . 

. . . which is right next to the synagogue.

I ate some soup for lunch.

After lunch I went to the Central Market. These are photos of it closed up, because I did not want to photograph it when it was bustling.

I also tried to figure out the bus to Albina, on the border with French Guiana. This meant research visits to the bus station, but ultimately I decided the taxi was the better option.

As planned, around 16:00 a snake expert picked me up to drive me out to Peperpot Plantation. We were to meet the other two tourists at Peperpot, across the Suriname River from Paramaribo. Although its history is steeped in colonialism, capitalism, slavery, etc., now Peperpot is a paradise (at least that's what the Dutch tourists who were staying there told me).

These same tourists, one of whom had spent some time as a child in Paramaribo, had a lot of criticisms of Suriname and I would guess they think the country would be better off if it was still a Dutch colony. Anyway, they were happy at Peperpot and very excited for this tour and in particular the snakes they might get to see. In reality, this tour was custom designed for them, and I was just a tag-along. I started out in my kayak and it seemed idyllic.

But, it turned out that my kayak was one of the few that was not badly broken, and after an hour or so of my going back and forth waiting, it was confirmed that Peperpot did not have any more "creek worthy" kayaks. And, so, the one tour I had managed to book got canceled. My snake expert guide drove me back into Paramaribo. 

This morning Carlos, my driver from Friday, picked me up and we began the trip back to Albina. Carlos drives this route frequently (he is from Albina and has family there still, and some of his stories included how he had to smuggle people during COVID lockdowns), and so knows the best food stands, currency exchange places, etc. We stopped for breakfast sandwiches here:

I ordered Bokking, which hot-smoked herring, per Carlos's recommendation.

At Albina, it was back onto Larry's boat and across to Saint Laurent for a passport stamp.

With my passport stamped, we headed down the river to pick up another passenger.

Back in Albina, I finally got the stamp that would satisfy the police and ensure I have no issues leaving Suriname by airplane tomorrow.

On the way back to Paramaribo, we stopped to observe (really we were not able to help) a car crash that must have happened two or three minutes before we arrived. You can tell by how far the car is into the bush that they were going extraordinarily fast!

A group of young men were emerging through the broken windows. There was definitely some blood and shock, but everyone seemed okay otherwise. Further down the road Carlos had another stop to make, this time at a place that sold many things, including vacuum cleaners . . .

. . . but also sausages, so we had another tasty roadside snack.

I was back in Paramaribo by mid-afternoon. The city tour and dolphin sunset cruise were out of the question now. I asked Carlos where I should go for roti, and he dropped me off at his recommended place. This is fast food Paramaribo style, with your Coke poured straight from a 1.5 L bottle.

After lunch and a coffee, it was time for a COVID test, which would allow me to board my early morning flight out of Suriname to Miami tomorrow. It was a bit of a walk to the lab, through streets I had not yet walked, with some advertising that I found intriguing for a variety of reasons.

With my rapid test negative, I was good to fly. I ate my favourite Surinamese food for dinner, chicken and bami, chicken with noodles and green beans, which are not like green beans I am used to--they must be two feet long before they are cut up! Anyway, it is delicious! 

My time in Suriname certainly did not go as planned in terms of tours not working out and the forced return to French Guiana, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. By the way, my visits to Guyana and Suriname mean the only South American country I have yet to visit is Venezuela. May be a few years before a visit there seems viable, but hopefully not too long!

Adventures in South America: Kourou, French Guiana

My hotel in Paramaribo arranged a shared taxi for me yesterday to bring me from Paramaribo to Albina, the town on Suriname's eastern border at the Maroni River. After a couple of hours driving we reached the river and our taxi driver, Carlos, arranged his "boatman" Larry to bring me and his other passenger across the river. It was a great way to cross a border!

I had planned my travel on this day because in theory I required a COVID test to get into French Guiana, and the test I had used to enter Suriname was still valid. Of course, the border guard in Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni did not bother to check it. I did get my passport stamped, and then was able to rent a little Kia Picanto and head onto the N1 highway to get to Kourou. My plan was to spend the night there before coming back to Suriname today (Saturday).

I had been warned of the flooding, and indeed the highway was flooded in several places. Thankfully, I was able to get my little rental through all of the "puddles," but it was a bit nerve-wracking. 

I reached Kourou a bit after 14:00--it is about 2.5 hours driving from Saint Laurent. I checked in at the Hotel Atlantis. This hotel (really most of the town) is clearly catering primarily to professionals working at the space centre, not tourists, which meant it was expensive, but nice enough. Also, they were responsive when I emailed yesterday to ask about the highway (by the way, they told me the highway between Kourou and the capital, Cayenne, is impassable due to the flooding along that stretch, so I felt I got lucky having been able to make it to Kourou!).

After checking in, I still had time to get over to the space centre before it closed. The Guiana Space Centre was what I was mostly interested in seeing on my visit to French Guiana, but it felt somewhat surreal to actually have gotten there.

Unless you book a tour in advance, the only portion of the space centre accessible to the public is the museum.

It takes about an hour or so to tour the museum. 

I was especially interested in learning the information specific to the space centre and its operations. Somehow the fact that there is a space centre in the least-inhabited parts of South America is especially fascinating to me.  

From the museum I drove across town to Pointe des Roches on the Atlantic Ocean. I parked by a hotel with a large ESA poster on the side.

I came down here to see the ocean, but also to see if there was any chance I could visit Devil's Island, which used to host a French penal colony. This pier led me to the launch point for the catamaran that transports tourists out there.

No catamaran, and Devil's Island must be further than I realized, because the schedule shows it is a full day trip to visit. 

Later, I was walking through Kourou a little after dark. I found it interesting to see the campaign posters--the run off vote between Macron and La Pen is tomorrow, and as part of France, polls will be open here just as they will in Paris. Felt odd to see French presidential candidate campaign posters in the humidity of the South American tropics.

Likewise, eating French cuisine for dinner at my hotel restaurant felt surreal!

Last night I ate outside, but this morning breakfast was served in the restaurant's inside, with classical music playing.

I checked out around 9:00 and drove inland a little ways to get to the Montagne des Singes hiking trail. It was a rough road with massive potholes and the Picanto did not enjoy the drive, but I did make it. 

Since my attempts to get inland and into the jungle in Guyana and Suriname had largely failed, I was happy to at least have found this 4 kilometre hike! The trail started out wide and dry and easy...

But it narrowed quickly...

And got much more challenging!

And also very muddy...

At the mountain's "peak" (really it is not especially high, I think 650 metres) you can see the jungle and the ocean in the distance, as well as some of the space centre. I guess this can be a pretty cool spot to watch rocket launches!

No rockets today, nor any other people, but there were a LOT of large spiders.

By 11:00 I was back on the highway and heading back towards Saint Laurent and the Maroni River. Flooding had receded somewhat, but there were still places with water across the road.

I stopped briefly to get some water in a place called Iracoubo, where there were more campaign posters . . .

. . . and a church, and really not a whole lot else (oh, yes, a French military check point is here too, because many people cross the Maroni without going through passport control, so this check point ensures those people do not make it any further into "France").

Yesterday I had been so eager to get to Kourou and anxious about the flooding, etc., that I did not spend any time in Saint Laurent. I had some time before I needed to cross back to Suriname, so I walked around a bit here. Mostly the history of Saint Laurent is related to the major penal colony it hosted for a long time. You can go into some of these buildings, and I did wander into one or two, but for whatever reason did not find it all that interesting. 

I did think this statue was compelling, however.

I went to drop the car and realized that the agency was closed. I had understood yesterday that they would be open for me to drop the car at 14:00. I looked around, and realized the gate around the compound was open, so I went inside. I tried the door of the office and it was open too, but empty! I tried calling, but in the end left a note and the keys on the desk and walked off to the river--I had to get back across because a shared taxi was going to pick me up at 15:00 in Albina. 

I had realized despite the official rules, neither French Guiana nor Suriname were concerned to see COVID tests at the Saint Laurent/Albina border, so I decided to not bother getting one before reentering Suriname. I walked along the river to get to the passport control office.

But now I realized this was closed and all gated up too (and I was not going to sneak in here!). Getting across the river would not be a problem as there were boatmen all over looking for a fare, but I felt that might not be the best idea without having my passport stamped out of French Guiana. Someone pointed me down the river further to where the police station was, so I kept walking. 

The police were friendly, and explained that on the weekends the passport offices on both sides of the border are closed. One of the officers explained my options--wait til Monday or cross back into Suriname without a stamp and hope the Paramaribo airport did not give me trouble when I left the country. He also told me if I chose the latter option that I would be subject to a fine the next time I entered the EU, although surprisingly he did not seem to think this would be too big of a deal. As if the fact that I was be breaking an EU law seemed ironic in the current situation, he said "this is France [so EU law applies], but not really France [hence why a passport office at a fairly busy international border could be closed in the middle of a Saturday!]"

I thanked him and walked back down the road along the river. I was not going to stay in Saint Laurent for two nights, so I decided to cross the river and see how things resolved over there. A boatmen was puling away as I reached the launch point (which is just a pile of rocks!), but came back for me. Sure enough, across the river in Albina the passport office was also closed. Carlos, my driver from yesterday, had arranged a buddy to pick me up, and he was there pretty soon after I go to Albina. I explained the situation to him, and he was frustrated and told me they had reopened the border from COVID shutdowns, but not on weekends. We talked it through, and decided there was no reason not to go back to Paramaribo. So off we went. 

My driver stopped twice at road side stands like this one to get some groceries for dinner.

There is a police checkpoint shortly before Paramaribo, and they wanted to check my passport here. The driver explained the situation to the police, but they pulled us over and began giving us grief. I only understood some of what was being said, but my driver was getting very agitated. He went in to the little hut to speak to the supervisor. Then he came back and told me they were discussing, but he was worried that I might have to give them a bribe. He was very upset. He said they were insistent that I would need to go back on Monday to have my passport stamped, which was disappointing but at least understandable; the bribe, on the other hand, was infuriating. The driver asked what I would be willing to pay, and we went back and forth and eventually I think I gave him about $50 Canadian worth of Surinamese dollars to see what he could do with it. He went back inside and eventually came back out with my passport. He had not needed the cash after all and handed the wad back to me. Phew... There was no doubt, however, that I would need to go back Monday now.

We reached Paramaribo in the late afternoon... this is the approach to the very large Jules Wijdenbosch Bridge that crosses the Suriname River.

French Guiana had been a great experience, but this whole passport thing was proving a bit more of an adventure than I wanted!