While waiting for the ferry to leave for Suriname, we sat in the shade and chatted to a few of the passengers. A Surinamese man from our minivan had a return ferry ticket for three people but his friends stayed in Guyana so he invited us to join him on his ticket.We had no problems with immigration unlike the girl the minivan driver was flirting with. She did not have a yellow fever vaccination certificate so she was shut out. There was a sign informing everyone that from November everyone would have to carry their certificates so it seemed unfair as it is only July.
The man with the group ticket said he has to evangelise every time he can so he started to preach to a group near him. They spoke Creole and it was so interesting listening to a language that sounded like broken English mixed with Amerindian, African, Dutch and Indian languages, and trying to figure out what they were saying.
We met a lady who was born in Guyana but lived in the Netherlands with her Dutch husband.. She was going to catch up with her niece and family in Suriname. She told us how disappointed she was to miss out on getting a British passport as she was born a few weeks before the British left Guyana. She had not known about the cut off date by which she had to apply for the passport so she missed out. For some reason it seemed important to her.
Her niece spoke excellent English, having come from Guyana, and said her children taught her French when they started school in Suriname and she also spoke Portuguese as her neighbours were from Brazil and had learnt Dutch to get by in Suriname.
We met Maggie who was born in Guyana but lives in New York. She had spent some time catching up with her family in Georgetown and was off to visit an aunt in Suriname. She had only been back twice and seemed very unsure about what to do to esnure she would get to her aunt's place. Luckily the evangelist took her under his wing and reassured her at each step of the way.
After 3 hours we were on the ferry and heading to Suriname. The Suriname immigration office had two lanes. One was for residents and 60+, and the other for non-residents. We were able to whizz through the shortest queue as there were so many non-residents including large groups of young Chinese people.
After being stamped in we were confronted with a huge steel gate and a guard. On the other side of the gate were hordes of men screaming for our attention as they had taxis or minivans to take passengers to different places and once full they would head off. Our minivan ticket covered us all the way to Paramaribo and it didn't take long for us to find our van and driver.
Most of the road was sealed to Paramaribo with more rice fields and sugarcane plantations. We passed several people fishing in the drains beside the road. Every small village we passed through had a Chinese supermarket or a Chinese value store which was quite surprising. Most of the houses were on stilts and wooden. Cows grazed the drains between the road and the plantation.
At a police check point we all got out and chatted to a man from the van who lives in Trinidad and Tobago and he said he used to play cricket for Trinidad. He gave us some sugared tamarind and a green fruit that looked like a lychee. He also sneaked off behind the police shed to do 'business' with one of the policemen.
The minivan dropped us at the apartment building we had booked into. The owner had already put the aircon on to cool the room as it was 29C outside. He had a welcome basket of bread, cheese, margarine, dried banana chips, cassava chips, and peanuts. There was also a bowl of papaya, oranges and bananas. In the fridge were eggs, juice, soft drinks and mineral water. The most customer focused place we have encountered in South America. There was a Chinese supermarket down the street and it was a 20 minute walk to the city centre.
We spent a few days walking around the UNESCO World heritage city centre. The Church is the tallest wooden building in South America.
We went to the Zeelandia Fort to learn about the different groups in Suriname in the museum inside.
There are hardly any ATMs here and the limit is very low. Luckily we carry three cards so can get three times the limit. We also discovered we can use a different machine and take the limit out from that too.
There are migrants from East India, called Hindustanis, and comprise 37 per cent of the population. This statue commemorates them. There are also 31 per cent Creole (those of mixed European and African). The Javanese (Indonesian) make up 15 per cent, while 10 per cent are Maroon (Bush Negro). Even though Dutch is the official language we heard Sranan Tongo (Surinamese Creole) spoken more often. There are lots of Dutch families here on holiday at present too.
This old building reminded us of buildings in Luang Prabang.
We managed to find the Trinidad and Tobago Honarary Consulate in Paramaribo and John spent a lot of time getting all the paperwork together for avisa for Lil. We couldn't believe how much information they wanted before giving me a visa. I needed colour copies of my passport, an extra photo, copies of two months of transactions from our bank accounts, copies of our credit cards, accommodation booking confirmed in Port of Spain, a flight to Trinidad, an itinerary of our stay, a flight onward - they wouldn't accept our itinerary from US to NZ, a yellow fever vaccination certificate and US $50 (non-refundable). Is Trinidad a place where people want to overstay?
We walked through the Palm garden every day and one day saw men using a nail gun to put wooden shingles on the roof of a building there. It didn't take long to re do it. The next day we saw that the whole building had collapsed as the centre beam gave way and they were back rebuilding it.
Once we had the visa information on its way for approval to Trinidad we booked to do a tour to see turtles or hatchlings. We were joined by a Catalan lady from Barcelona and her Dutch husband and two children. She spoke Catalan to the children and he spoke Dutch. The children go to a British school so speak English and the parents speak English to each other. They live and work in Rio de Janeiro. When the children play imaginative games they speak in Portuguese. They were visiting their Dutch friend who works in Paramaribo and also joined us.
On the boat trip we passed may poles in the water where fishermen from Guyana came to net the river. They have constructed a small community of huts where they stay for several weeks at a time.
Our guide brought us an Indian chicken curry and roti dinner which we ate on the sandbar while watching the sunset. We walked up and down the beach but missed a turtle that saw bright lights from the huts and scooted back into the sea. We never got to see hatchlings either and expected that the dogs roaming the beach would have dug up a few eggs.
We now have to take a ferry to French Guiana and will spend a few days there while we wait for our Trinidad and Tobago visa to be issued.
The man with the group ticket said he has to evangelise every time he can so he started to preach to a group near him. They spoke Creole and it was so interesting listening to a language that sounded like broken English mixed with Amerindian, African, Dutch and Indian languages, and trying to figure out what they were saying.
We met a lady who was born in Guyana but lived in the Netherlands with her Dutch husband.. She was going to catch up with her niece and family in Suriname. She told us how disappointed she was to miss out on getting a British passport as she was born a few weeks before the British left Guyana. She had not known about the cut off date by which she had to apply for the passport so she missed out. For some reason it seemed important to her.
Her niece spoke excellent English, having come from Guyana, and said her children taught her French when they started school in Suriname and she also spoke Portuguese as her neighbours were from Brazil and had learnt Dutch to get by in Suriname.
We met Maggie who was born in Guyana but lives in New York. She had spent some time catching up with her family in Georgetown and was off to visit an aunt in Suriname. She had only been back twice and seemed very unsure about what to do to esnure she would get to her aunt's place. Luckily the evangelist took her under his wing and reassured her at each step of the way.
After 3 hours we were on the ferry and heading to Suriname. The Suriname immigration office had two lanes. One was for residents and 60+, and the other for non-residents. We were able to whizz through the shortest queue as there were so many non-residents including large groups of young Chinese people.
After being stamped in we were confronted with a huge steel gate and a guard. On the other side of the gate were hordes of men screaming for our attention as they had taxis or minivans to take passengers to different places and once full they would head off. Our minivan ticket covered us all the way to Paramaribo and it didn't take long for us to find our van and driver.
Most of the road was sealed to Paramaribo with more rice fields and sugarcane plantations. We passed several people fishing in the drains beside the road. Every small village we passed through had a Chinese supermarket or a Chinese value store which was quite surprising. Most of the houses were on stilts and wooden. Cows grazed the drains between the road and the plantation.
At a police check point we all got out and chatted to a man from the van who lives in Trinidad and Tobago and he said he used to play cricket for Trinidad. He gave us some sugared tamarind and a green fruit that looked like a lychee. He also sneaked off behind the police shed to do 'business' with one of the policemen.
The minivan dropped us at the apartment building we had booked into. The owner had already put the aircon on to cool the room as it was 29C outside. He had a welcome basket of bread, cheese, margarine, dried banana chips, cassava chips, and peanuts. There was also a bowl of papaya, oranges and bananas. In the fridge were eggs, juice, soft drinks and mineral water. The most customer focused place we have encountered in South America. There was a Chinese supermarket down the street and it was a 20 minute walk to the city centre.
We spent a few days walking around the UNESCO World heritage city centre. The Church is the tallest wooden building in South America.
We went to the Zeelandia Fort to learn about the different groups in Suriname in the museum inside.
There are hardly any ATMs here and the limit is very low. Luckily we carry three cards so can get three times the limit. We also discovered we can use a different machine and take the limit out from that too.
There are migrants from East India, called Hindustanis, and comprise 37 per cent of the population. This statue commemorates them. There are also 31 per cent Creole (those of mixed European and African). The Javanese (Indonesian) make up 15 per cent, while 10 per cent are Maroon (Bush Negro). Even though Dutch is the official language we heard Sranan Tongo (Surinamese Creole) spoken more often. There are lots of Dutch families here on holiday at present too.
This old building reminded us of buildings in Luang Prabang.
We managed to find the Trinidad and Tobago Honarary Consulate in Paramaribo and John spent a lot of time getting all the paperwork together for avisa for Lil. We couldn't believe how much information they wanted before giving me a visa. I needed colour copies of my passport, an extra photo, copies of two months of transactions from our bank accounts, copies of our credit cards, accommodation booking confirmed in Port of Spain, a flight to Trinidad, an itinerary of our stay, a flight onward - they wouldn't accept our itinerary from US to NZ, a yellow fever vaccination certificate and US $50 (non-refundable). Is Trinidad a place where people want to overstay?
We walked through the Palm garden every day and one day saw men using a nail gun to put wooden shingles on the roof of a building there. It didn't take long to re do it. The next day we saw that the whole building had collapsed as the centre beam gave way and they were back rebuilding it.
Once we had the visa information on its way for approval to Trinidad we booked to do a tour to see turtles or hatchlings. We were joined by a Catalan lady from Barcelona and her Dutch husband and two children. She spoke Catalan to the children and he spoke Dutch. The children go to a British school so speak English and the parents speak English to each other. They live and work in Rio de Janeiro. When the children play imaginative games they speak in Portuguese. They were visiting their Dutch friend who works in Paramaribo and also joined us.
On the boat trip we passed may poles in the water where fishermen from Guyana came to net the river. They have constructed a small community of huts where they stay for several weeks at a time.
Our guide brought us an Indian chicken curry and roti dinner which we ate on the sandbar while watching the sunset. We walked up and down the beach but missed a turtle that saw bright lights from the huts and scooted back into the sea. We never got to see hatchlings either and expected that the dogs roaming the beach would have dug up a few eggs.
We now have to take a ferry to French Guiana and will spend a few days there while we wait for our Trinidad and Tobago visa to be issued.
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