'PURA VIDA' SURINAME!

SO...where to start? Some facts about the country, our adventures.....animals...Waterland marina..heat, humidity, mosquitos...tropic fruits...diversity of people and religions or  chaotic Paramaribo town?
..lot to tell..
But first want to say  we are really content of our decision to come here..We didn,t know nothing about this country and people at all,  but now we know we made a good choice.  Is a wonderful country with really...very very friendly people everywhere. We feel safe and our boat is in a good hands. We will leave it here for 4-5 months because we need to fly to Europe to work again...so we are relaxed because this is the right place to leave it.
Our marina( the only marina is SUriname) is a beautiful resort as well and its located in a remote place surrounded by jungles. Its owner Noel is really great man. He promised us security and even a service to check our bilges and ropes and so on... Is not expensive place comparing to Europe and Brazil as well. Also its  deep in river (about 30 miles in) so there is no swell at all,  fresh water and every day small breeze of wind which is coming along the river.   And no hurricanes, what is very very important! our Grain will stay here when the Hurricanes season in Caribbean so is nice to know we dont need to worry about them  ...Humidity is very high, but with mosquito nets on   ( the ones we made during Atlantic crossing) we will leave small hatches open so air will be able to enter and ventilate our home meanwhile we will be out. The only problem is rain...because it rains at least every two days, so boat must be well inspected before leaving for to be sure nowhere is leaking . Luckily, at least now inside our Grain is dry so hope when we come back we will find the same.

This resort is just 15 minutes walking from main road where we can take a bus to the Capital Paramaribo...so communication is good. You can not come back too late because last bus leaves city around 4 o clock , but we are not night birds so for us thats not a problem. ALso its possible to hitchhike a car..so sometimes trip  is even shorter.
Conclusion...if you like peace and relaxed place when you come back to your boat - this is  a right place .

There is another possibility- stay on anchor or boy 5 miles away from here in Domburg village, but as we are going to leave the boat for long time here we decided to head  directly to marina. Price here if you leave your boat for more than three months drops down a lot, so for us it was worth staying in marina and having non limit water and electricity access .In Domburg you have to pay some euros too... for  dinghy landing and showers on shore.  So if to pay we prefered to pay here. .I leave you a website of this place ,,,,,beautiful place!!!!..  See WATERLAND MARINA SURINAME

During weekdays we are here almost alone...people come  on weekends basically. So all 5 days we enjoy peace and silence of the river and jungle around.. Just at nights all alive creatures wakes up and starts the show...One night we got scared a lot because some strange and loud noise woke up us. Seemed like some lions are .....near by. But later we were told that there were howling monkeys howling so loud. They say there are lots of them around, but we still didn't see any. Just heard them...and lots of nights after. Now we are used to this sound....but believe., first night was not very funny ..I woke up frightened and started closing all hatches. Me crazy, I know. But we are just three boats here and our is the only which have people on board. Two others have owners away....so we are totally totally alone. There is just a security man, Jonhy...great guy...who time to time pass near and tells us stories about the wildlife, like for example which night he saw a crocodile here in marina and so on. Not joking!!! He also promised to bring us crocodile meat....so we are waiting:)

GRAIN DE SABLE IN WATERLAND MARINA

RIVER VIEW

PANORAMIC:)

SURINAME RIVER TRANSPORT:)

CAT FISH.....ONCE YOU SEE THE SIZE YOUR IDEA ABOUT SWIMMING IN RIVER IS GONE

IN THE FISH MARKET THEY LOOK BETTER

But this peace finishe once you leave marina and enter Paramaribo....What a chaotic place!!!!......At a first glance it looks like a mix between Latin American and South Asian city with a touch of Europe because all streets and publicity are written in dutch...Suriname was a Dutch colony, but after the slavery there came lots of people from Indonesia, China, Lebano, Caribbean countries and Brazil to work.....So imagine how big cultural mix it can be! And religion also!,,,Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Budists......No fights no racism ....Nice example to follow

But if you need to fix some papers or other stuff,,prepare with patience.!
After resting and cleaning the boat after arrival we went to city to make out official check in. You know...customs, immigration and so on. In internet we read that it is quite tricky here, so better take a taxi and do it with some local who know the places and all stuff. But we decided we will do it ourselves,,,as we were doing always. Had a paper with names of the streets where to go so thought that will not be difficult....We were wrong. It took us entire two days to do all!!! SO if you come to Suriname by boat...first go to Customs. Than directly to MAS (maritime authority Suriname) where is necessary to enter well dressed. We came like always....shorts and flip flops..and were not alowded in.  Had to go  back to boat and come next day again. As much elegant as we could:)  After MAS next is embassy. There you get a  Tourist Card  for 30 euros each). And finally Imigration.  And all done.  Time to enjoy SURINAME!!!!!

LOCAL STREET TRANSPORT. BUS STARTS TO MOVE WHEN IT IS TOTALLY FULL. 100 PERCENT ERGONOMIC!

COLORS EVERYWHERE

STREET MARKET

SHOES FOR MANY YEARS AHEAD

LADY FROM RIVER VILLAGE

AND LADY FROM FRUIT MARKET

Is not a big country,,,,but it has a very big area where you cant go by car- A JUNGLE!.) So you can either rent a car and see what is possible to see,,,or take one of a tours which are crazy expensive and fly to jungles. Of course we wanted the second option, but ...its not to our pockets..So we rented a ca ,and tried to see what is possible by road and do a tour by ourselves.  We went to see old cacao and coffee plantation- Paperpot where in 2 hours walk we saw capuchino monkeys and big lizards. After drove on the only road to south till Brokpondo and tried to find some waterfalls (result negative because the road was so bad that our car could not go there, finally), than we went to west till the City Albina near Maroni river which makes  border with French Guyana and took river canoe to go to Galibi- indigenous living village on the estuary of the river - and with local guide went to see turtles at night. We saw just 1, but it was  huge! A Green turtle!!...Next day we took a little canoe back to Albina and  in 2 hours trip had more scary moments than is all Atlantic crossing:) Canoe was too small for us three and a driver and his son....so every 10 minutes we were taking water in .ALso there were waves in the river and the wind blowing from the back so many time we thought we will over keel and who knows...maybe finish our trip in a stomach of some crocodile or anaconda...After all you laugh and have good memories,  but not those 2 hours:)
Last day of car we went to see some river villages near ....and of course made fruits and vegetable shoping .
Car rental is very cheap but you have to drive on a left side of the road ( after 5 days driving we are still alive, so as u can see its not very difficult:)THe same is with green and red lights on boys...Here as in all Caribbean sea and America the entrance lights are opposite. WheN entering you have to leave green light on port side and red on a starboard. VERY IMPORTANT!!:)

NEAR LOCAL BOAT

FIGHT WITH A COCONUT

BEACH IN GALIBI

WHERE IS THE END?:)

LIKE IN LILIPUT LAND

A GREEN TURTLE!

I LOVE MY CAMERA!

SPIDER MONKEY!

SOME PEOPLE THEY KEEP THEM IN PLACE OF A DOG.....

RELAX TIME

HERON

CRAB SALAD?

NO! THEY SELL THEM ALIVES IN THE STREET!

RIVER TREASURE:)

AND RIVER DANCER:)

SO again...even if i repeat..but really..we love this place. Ok its really hot,,,around 35 degrees every day...And we don,t know what to do with all our warm clothes...thick sleeping bags and blancets...Hard to believe that from now we will not need them on board anymore...Just bicini, short trousers and T shirts..VIVA LOS TROPICOS!!!!
 It rains almost everyday a little bit, so its incredibly green around...plenty of flowers and strange plants and trees. Mangos trees grows everywhere. But mostly in cemeteries,,,trees there are full of fruits. And taste well. Checked:)...Almost everyone speaks English and no one is bothering you trying to sell something and so on. Locals are polite,,,and helpful. Little bit...ok,,,more than little bit...SLOW....but we were prepared for that. Tourism is just starting here so  even in a capital there are very few tourists around. There are no beaches on the coast...just on the rivers...so big masses of tourists  are not interested to that. Maybe this is the reason why people are so friendly with us:)
After the summer, back on boat we plan to sail up to Tobago, but first we would like to stop in Guyana- another river country of South America. After entering in Suriname and experiencing life on boat in a jungle river before entering blue Carribean waters we want to enjoy this way of life a little bit more:)