a day in Suriname

I couldn't resist the chance to add another country to my list, although it was a 12-hour trip by bus and ferry to get from Georgetown to the capital of neighbouring Suriname, not to mention some stress in trying to organise transport there, as there is no fixed bus route but rather a number of private operators who collect you from your address in Georgetown and deliver you to your address in Paramaribo.  However one such operator was finally tracked down by my Georgetown hotel, and although they turned up 20 minutes earlier than arranged and had already driven away in the five minutes it took me to zip up my bag and run down the stairs, they did come back 30 minutes later and I was on my way to see a new country!

Driving in from the border the place seemed almost deserted (indeed the population is less than 500,000).  The road was in place a little pot-holed, and I felt that I must be in a much less developed place than Guyana.  So it was a shock to fimally reach the beautiful capital with its really well-preserved Dutch colonial-style architecture.  Apparently (as I have since discovered) the capital is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  I admit to having done no research for this trip besides the practicalities (visa and transport), so had not seen any pictures of the place to prepare me.  I think it can be a good thing sometimes to arrive somewhere with no pre-conceived ideas or expectations, as in this case where I was astonished by what I found.

I spent the morning visiting Fort Zeelandia and the Suriname Museum, and the early afternoon walking the streets, failing to find vantage points from which to photograph the beautiful buildings without their being half obscured by cars.  Clearly the colonial legacy from the Dutch did not include a love of bicycles.  As with Guyana, the population was really mixed, although here I was told that there was a level playing field for all races to invest and to start businesses, which seems not to be the case in the Indian-dominated Guyana.

Having seen all there seems to be I returned to my guesthouse to get an early night in preparation for my 4am bus back to Georgetown.  It was a great place to visit but a day trip was easily enough.