Travel Adventures of an Edmontonian

Thursday, 21 April 2022

Adventures in South America: Paramaribo, Suriname

I woke up Wednesday morning to some sad news: my tour to Kaieteur Falls was canceled. I was not entirely clear why this was the case, but it was clear that not only was it canceled, but there was little to no likelihood that it would be rescheduled any time soon.

With no reason to be in Guyana anymore, I scrambled to see if I could snag a 13:30 flight to Suriname. I got ahold of the TransGuyana airline and they outlined what I needed and said if I made it to the airport for 12:30 I was good to go. I had my proof of vaccination, my Surinamese visa, etc., but I needed a COVID test, so I literally ran down the street to the pharmacy where I could get the test. No luck there, it would be an hour wait. I ran two more blocks and there was more successful. Fifteen minutes later I had my negative test result and jogged back to the hotel to pack.

Of course, now I became my own worst enemy, because the hotel had called me a taxi and told me it would be a few hundred Guyanese dollars. The cabbie quoted me 1,500 (about $10 CAD), however, and I balked. He would not move, and I threatened to go down the block to find another taxi, and he said go ahead. With not much time to spare, I walked off, only to end up walking several blocks, including past the same cabbie who had returned to his house! Needless to say, he had a good laugh at me as I trudged by with my heavy backpack in the heat, still without a taxi! In the end I found a taxi, and paid him 2,000, because at that point I could not afford to waste any more time bargaining! The most ridiculous part about it is I had way too much Guyanese cash anyway, and it is nearly impossible to exchange, so I was just being dumb about it all anyway.

I was flying out of Ogle airport, which is much closer to Georgetown than the larger airport I had flown into.

Ogle mostly handles small planes flying domestically or to Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, or just across the border in Brazil.

We had some good views as we flew.

Suriname is an hour ahead of Guyana, and I landed in Paramaribo's Zorg En Hoop Airport airport--even smaller than Ogle!--around 15:30. It was a fairly quick cab ride to the Hotel Palacio from there.

Hotel Palacio is nothing to write home about, but it is quite close to the historic centre of the city, including the Saint Peter and Paul Basilica.

The historic centre is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Unfortunately, it also largely feels like a ghost town. Many of the buildings are vacant, some derelict, others under restoration. Other buildings are apparently government offices, but even then there is very little activity. The neighbourhood has a lot of potential, but would require quite a bit to make it vibrant again.

Besides touring the historic centre of Paramaribo, I also made sure to try Suriname's most popular beer, the Parbo. Here is a can of Parbo with the Suriname River in the background.

Fort Zeelandia, which dates from the 17th century, is right next to the river here.

As much as I was interested in experiencing Paramaribo, I was hoping to see other parts of Suriname as well. Much like my experience with Guyana, I had difficulty while planning the trip in confirming any options to travel inland. In particular, I had been told significant flooding had made many roads impassable, so tour companies were having challenges accessing many of the usual tourist destinations. On Thursday morning I visited several tour companies offices and all told me more or less the same thing: I did not have a lot of options. I ended up purchasing a tour that involved visiting an old plantation and a nature tour along a creek in kayaks both in daylight and dark, but that would be on Sunday. I also heard about a Paramaribo city tour and a sunset dolphin tour where the Suriname River joins the Atlantic, and so both were on my radar. In the meantime, tomorrow I head off for French Guiana. I was also told to expect flooded roads there, so I am not entirely sure what to expect!

Tuesday, 19 April 2022

Adventures in South America: Georgetown, Guyana

From Barbados my family flew home, and I caught an interCaribbean flight down to Georgetown, Guyana.

I arrived in the evening on Sunday at Guyana's surprisingly modern, albeit quite bare, Cheddi Jagan International Airport. I took a cab with another passenger who is here on business--the main reason, it seems, for anyone to be visiting Guyana right now. I have not identified any other tourists, and everyone I interact with seems to assume I am here professionally as well. I am staying at the Duke Lodge, which is in one of the many old, large, wooden houses around Georgetown.

It was late, but was able to get some great curry for dinner on the lodge's balcony.

Duke Lodge is across the road from the US embassy . . .

. . . and around the corner from the Canadian High Commission.

On the way in from the airport the cabbie told me that on Easter Monday (yesterday) I would see a lot of kite flying, which is an annual tradition. This tourist literature in the hotel confirmed this: "children and even adults buy coloured kite paper to make the kites or purchase one from the many sellers."

I saw my first kites yesterday when I went to the botanical gardens.

It would take someone better at photography than me to capture good pictures of kite flying, but it was quite the sight! By the end of the day I had seen hundreds of kites, of all sorts in terms of size, colour, design, etc.

But, back to the Duke Lodge. Partly why I chose to stay here was the owners, the Gouveias, also own Roraima Airways, which runs tours to Kaieteur Falls. I gather that pre-COVID tours to Kaieteur Falls ran quite regularly, but I had no success trying to confirm a tour before arriving in Guyana, and was still hoping to be able to join one. So, I was very happy on Monday when I was told that there was a tour running Wednesday that I could join! That was great news, so I extended my stay accordingly and paid up for the ticket. That meant I had Monday and Tuesday to explore Georgetown.

On Monday, besides watching hundreds of kite flyers, I did 18 kilometres of walking around the city. I found Georgetown quite interesting, although not at all tourist friendly, and it was difficult to feel comfortable, because my hotel had warned me to not walk around, even during the day. I never felt the least bit uncomfortable based on any interactions with people I had, but that warning was in my head, plus I did feel uncomfortable with traffic (coming in from the airport we had passed two fairly serious-looking car accidents, which was hardly surprising given road conditions and driving behaviour). Anyway, more or less, my main, long walk took me down through my immediate neighbourhood:

And then down Main Street . . .

. . . past the President's residence.

By the way, the President and his family were promoting the Christmas Village, albeit four months after it had taken place!

Also, only two months late, "Love in the Avenue" was being promoted, albeit without the benefit of the President's picture.

I bought some water from a lady with a little stand. She also sells traditional remedies!

Sacred Heart Church is also along Main Street.

Main Street dead ends at the Bank of Guyana building.

The Guyana National Museum next door was unfortunately closed, so I carried on, past the National Library.

I headed east on Church Street, and found the "non-aligned monument" interesting.

St. George's (Anglican) Cathedral is famous as one of the largest wooden churches in the world (and I think I read the largest [or tallest] wooden building in all of South America). Unfortunately, it too is closed.

I moved over to North Road, which runs parallel to Church Street, to carry on east.

The fact that there is a mosque on Church Street is indicative of the religious diversity of Guyana, a fact that they are very proud of.

Despite the fact that this is the middle of a (quite polluted) city, birds were everywhere.

The cricket club looks like it has seen better days, but cricket is still a very popular sport here.

It was past the cricket club where I came into the botanical gardens. There were many, many families here enjoying the holiday Monday. I focused my pictures away from the crowds, and walked the length of the park, and back.

After the botanical garden, I walked north on Vlissengen Road. I passed KFC, and then this building next door, presumably the old KFC, and somehow I found these "ruins" amusing.

At the intersection with Lamaha Street I was also amused to see cows on the median.

I stopped at the Herdmanston Lodge for a couple of Banks beers, which really hit the spot after the long walk in the heat. Then it was back out towards the National Park, where there were more crowds and lots more kite flying.

Exiting on the north end of the National Park and past another cricket club . . .

. . . I was close to the sea wall.

I ate lunch at the Marriot, which is right on the seashore where the Demara River meets the ocean, and is fairly close to the Duke Lodge. After lunch, I went back to the hotel to cool down and rest, eventually jumping in the backyard pool.

In the later afternoon, once it was cooler, I went back down main street, further south past the Bank of Guyana on Avenue of the Republic, to see City Hall. Unfortunately, not only was it closed to visitors, it was completely surrounded by scaffolding!

Well, not completely; the rear was still exposed.

Nearby I saw this sign, which interested me:

Having seen so much yesterday, I felt less ambitious today. After breakfast (which is included at the Duke Lodge), I started my day at the lovely Oasis Cafe, somewhat nearby my hotel, with a coffee and piece of cake.

Then I headed to Stabroek Market, which probably rivals St. George's Cathedral for Georgetown's famous building. Of course, Stabroek Market is much more than just a nice looking building, it is a bustling, vibrant place, full of interesting things for sale and people selling and buying.

Unfortunately, between warnings from my hotel and comments I had read online, I actually did not go inside the market building itself. I have no way to know whether this caution is truly warranted or not, but I played it safe. Anyway, there was plenty to see outside of the market, including this "Thousand Dollar Store". . .