Suriname 2018: And the Sloth
A delightful month in the rivers of the Republic of Suriname
Domburg 19 Feb – 19 Mar
Suriname was a Dutch settlement and Dutch is still the official language. It seems that the little Harbor Resort in Domburg is where Dutch boats flock after crossing the Atlantic or to stay out of the hurricane belt. Not much English spoken here and when you have a bunch of Dutch folks sitting around the restaurant and bar drinking and talking, it’s all in Dutch. So, I’m feeling a little excluded except for the one or two American women (cruising on Dutch boats) that I have met. That’s actually fine by me… I’m not interested in sitting around drinking or talking every day and am just as happy to have Willem (social animal that he is) go off now and again on his own to speak and socialize in Dutch.
It’s taken about a week to get caught up on sleep, cleaning, laundry, provisioning, reorganizing and general post-passage work. There is still some to do, but more manageable.
Domburg is not much of a town… it looked more substantial on the map. It consists of the resort (not even a marina – just 10 moorings, restaurant, small pool and ablutions). There are a few basic huts for restaurants and three Chinese shops selling just about everything… the Chinese are very enterprising and I was surprised to see how many remote places have Chinese shops.
The food is a mixture of Indonesian, Chinese, and Indian. I really like the nasie kip (nasi = fried rice; kip = chicken), and it’s cheaper to eat out than fix things back at the boat. That said, it’s all starchy and oily and fattening, so I’ve got to limit how often I do that. I’m fixing salads and such on board as much as I can.
We met a few nice couples and are planning a trip with two. Friday, we go into the jungle to a local village for two nights. Several people have done this trip and have all come back with rave reviews. Next week we are going to take the boats up another river which branches off the Suriname further downstream. That will be about a 5-day trip and will involve lots of mosquito spray! We haven’t had any problems with mozzies while anchored on the river – there’s mostly a nice breeze coming through, but people have complained about them onshore.
Jaw Jaw 2 – 4 Mar
We’re off for a 2-night adventure into the interior and jungle of Suriname. Suriname is 95% untouched with the highest amount of reserve water per capita in the world. It was voted the most “green” country by some environmental agency. Most of the population lives in Parimaribo city and along the river front, leaving the majority of the land untouched jungle and tropical rain forest. We climbed on a local 7-person van/bus for the 2-hour ride to Atjoni, the place where all the local river boats convene and leave from. It was hot and I was in the back corner without much air. Along the way we got a flat tire and stood baking in the sun until we could get the tire changed. Willem and Peter were busy working and the local guys were pretty much just watching them, lol! They did great and we were underway again in pretty short order. We arrived at Atjoni, where all the river boats pick up people and everything else you can imagine, then set out in a variety of directions up and down the river. We were headed to Jaw Jaw (pronounced: Yeaw Yeaw) a local village along the river with about 300 residents. We went to the Jaw Jaw ATele Resort, but I’m not sure “resort” is the right descriptor. It was a small place with 4 cabins for guests, two tables with benches built around huge trees – one of which housed the resident orphaned 2-toed sloth named “Binkie” (how cool is that?), a bathroom, a cabin for the owner, and outdoor kitchen with covered table and bench.
The selling point of this trip was the experience of living in a local village and experiencing their way of life. There was a scattering of other resorts along the river, but most were like hostels with small cabins and communal kitchens. This was the only one where you were actually living in authentically built huts and among the local people. There was only one bathroom which required a calabaza (shell of a big fruit) to pour water in the toilet to flush and pour over yourself to shower. It was all very primitive but fine… though one bathroom for 5 cabins wasn’t sufficient. That the toilet didn’t work for “important business” and we needed to walk a convoluted path to another one – one that none of us could have found in the dark – was a more than a bit of an inconvenience, lol!
Bele, the lodge owner, met us at the river with a tiny little creature at his heels… meet Sander, an orphaned baby wild pig. He was tiny and beyond adorable. Between Sander and Binkie, I was delighted and so whatever slight inconveniences we encountered were of no consequence. We paid full-on European prices – 50 Euro/day/pp, which was a lot, considering, but I think we all felt it was well worth it. We enjoyed some fried plantains upon arrival and then went to the river for a swim. There are lovely rocks along the river and rapids, so you felt you were in a natural Jacuzzi. The water temperature was perfect and we enjoyed watching the local villagers swim and frolic and wash clothes, dishes, or themselves. After the swim we got settled and relaxed. We found Binkie sitting in the tree and Bele told us he’d come down later in the evening, which he did.
Dinner was delicious chicken, rice, green papaya cooked as vegetable, and marinated cucumber… all very nice. Afterwards we kept a keen eye out for Binkie and eventually found that he had made his way down the trunk of the neighboring tree. Bele pulled him off the tree (unceremoniously), and we brought him to the table to feed him some rice. One plate of rice and about a thousand photos later, we put him back on a low branch so he could slowly – after all he’s a sloth – make his way back to his favorite tree spot.
The next morning, we didn’t get as early a start as Willem thought we might… 8:30am and we made our way over for coffee and a very European sort of brekky with salami, sliced cheese, cucumber, tomato, and hard-cooked eggs. Bele, at Willem’s request, made some fried eggs which we all enjoyed. After brekky, Peter, Jaqueline, and I went with Bele on a short walk to visit the village’s school, while Willem decided he wanted to go off on his own. We went for a swim after that and came back to freshly prepared coconut pancakes. Well, they were more a cross between a pancake and biscuit of sorts… but delicious, or “lecker” as the Dutch would say. Off we went afterwards for our jungle walk in the afternoon along a path flanked with dense lush greenery. Dinner was a soup made with little plantain dumplings and rice, basic but nice. It was a good adventure, but we were glad to be heading back “home” at the end of the following day.
Back on Sunday, we had Monday to get settled and on Tuesday, Willem’s friends Petra and Jan Willem came over for a visit. I prepared some tasty treats to go with our wine and beer, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening. We made plans to get together once again before I fly out on the 19th. We had made plans to do a river cruise with a neighboring boat. With no connectivity along the way, it’s always better to go with someone else. Both Willem and I thought we were to set out on Thursday, but Wim and Marjorie the couple on the other boat came over by dinghy on Tuesday and were convinced we had agreed to leave Wednesday… oops! We hadn’t provisioned yet and thought we’d be going to town on Wednesday to be ready the following day. We still had enough on board to probably make it across the Pacific, so we made due with a few fresh items from the local Chinese supermarket (all the supermarkets here seem to be Chinese) and off we went!
Commewijne River 7 – 18 Mar
We headed back down the Suriname River to the cardinal marker and then turned up into the Commewijne River. We anchored in front of the old Fredricksdorp plantation, which we planned to visit on the way back. The major Suriname rivers were lined with plantations when slavery was still in force, but after it was abolished, most closed up shop. We went over to our neighbor’s for a bit and then returned back “home” for a quiet evening.
Off we went the following day for a leisurely cruise up the river. We traveled only about 15 miles, and by mid-day we were anchored on a side river with beautiful foliage surrounding us. We did the same the following day, working our way further upriver. We took dinghy rides to explore and saw lovely little nests hanging from trees, a caymen (mini-gator) and a beautiful blue and gold macaw, in addition to lots of white and blue herons and gulls. There were wonderful pairs of green parrots – always in pairs and always chatting away to one another.
The evenings were magical and beyond romantic… dinner outside in the cockpit under a blanket of stars. We listened to the sounds of the jungle that surrounded us. We talked, or didn’t, sipped wine and ate wonderful things – fresh bread Willem baked for us, delicious cheeses and Iberican Jamon from Tenerife, smoked chicken from Mindelo, and whatever else took our fancy. Afterwards, just sitting and gazing at the stars, then taking a refreshing back-deck shower (the absolute best!) in remote areas with river water when it became sweet. Mornings were also fabulous. The lovely little singing espresso maker (Bialetti 2-cup Moka Timer electric espresso maker sings a little tune when coffee is ready!) absolutely delighted me. Sipping coffee together and watching the jungle come to light and life was just beautiful. I’ll treasure these times always… a dream, really.
The third day in, we reached the small village of Wanhatti and set our anchors mid-river out front. We knew we needed to check in with the village chief (Captain) and brought a small offering of beer for him as well as a bag of lollipops for the kids. Cornelia, who runs a small daycare and refreshment business, met us and guided us around the village. It was an inconsistent blend of houses and shacks, old and new, big and small, prosperous and less-so. Most everyone greeted us warmly.
Our traveling companions decided they needed to get back a bit earlier than planned, so they took off the following morning heading back to Domburg, while we made our way to shore to attend the Sunday church services. There was singing and reading and although we didn’t understand most, we could follow along and were glad we went.
We found out that Willem’s friend Peter was arriving on Wednesday, a day earlier than we thought. As we considered the timing and plans for when Peter was there, we decided it would be nice if he shared the river experience with us. We came up with the idea of arranging transportation from Wanhatti village to and from the airport rather than sailing back to Domburg in time to meet him. That worked out brilliantly and we were able to spend more time on the river before heading back. It was an all-day excursion, but we also got to stop in Parimaribo along the way to provision up and buy some books and things for the kids in the village… better that than more candy.
The following morning, we began our trip back down river after Peter and Willem went for a swim. I wasn’t convinced that swimming there by the village was the thing to do and stayed on board. We didn’t go very far as we wanted to stop at a place overnight and show Peter this lovely remote leg off the river. Peter and Willem took the dinghy on a tour of the side river and came back totally excited to have been inches (okay, well less than a meter) away from a caymen – a mini ‘gator. I thought it not a very clever thing to do, getting so close, as the caymen was faster than they and had he decided to attack rather than retreat, well… it could have ended poorly for all, and especially for Peter who was up front. But they were delighted and both lived to tell about it with all appendages intact. 😊
We made our way back to Fredricksdorp, anchoring and swimming in beautiful remote locations and listening to the howler monkeys calling out at night. We took a tour of the plantation and had a nice lunch at the resort restaurant before preparing ourselves for what was truly one of the highlights of the adventure… the turtle tour!!!
We bought a few lackluster fried things and water to take with us on our tour and met our guide for the trip. Off we went on a traditional slim wooden canoe-like boat outfitted with a small outboard. I sat up front, Willem in the middle and Peter in back. We cruised down a long man-made waterway which was used by the plantations originally. The Dutch put many of these in to prevent the salt water from coming into the fields when the river level was high. In fact, the plantations were lower than the river and dykes were necessary. I saw a bridge up ahead and it was very VERY low… in fact, had I not flattened myself completely into the boat I would have lost my head. The guide didn’t slow down at all!!! As I recovered from the shock of that near-miss, I saw a ramp up ahead. I was sure that we would be swerving to the left and thought the waterway headed off in that direction. But no, because of the difference in water height from river to open sea, this was a dyke that they built a ramp over and covered in slimy mud. Our guide picked up speed and we raced towards the ramp…. YIKES!!! He launched us up the ramp and we almost made it completely over. Had there not been four of us we likely would have gotten up, over, and continued on. We stopped at about 70% of the way to the top and had to get out and push the boat over the rest of the way.
The rest of the 1-hour ride to the coast proceeded without incident. We waited a while at the beach as the turtles don’t come out until dark and high tide. After about an hour, we set out for what I understood would be a 45-minute walk to the turtle-viewing location. About an hour later we stopped and inspected some turtle tracks from the day before… our anticipation was growing.
It was getting darker but the timing of the tide wasn’t just right. Our guide suggested we proceed on to another turtle spotting area. I had assumed that the walk would be along the beach, and part of it was… but we veered off into the jungle and then back out again. Next turtle spot proved equally unsuccessful and we pressed on. This continued until we had walked about 2 ½ hours!
Finally, we spotted a turtle just heading back out to sea. Yippee!!! We decided we had gone far enough and having at least been rewarded with one turtle sighting, we turned back. Mind you, we were walking in flip-flops, which weren’t the best, and at 10PM I was already feeling tired. We spotted another turtle as we proceeded, and she was sitting on the slick clay/mud resting on her way back into the sea. We decided it was worth braving the clay mud to get a closer look. We took off our shoes and were slipping and sliding and just trying not to fall into it. Peter fell, but Willem and I were holding on to one another and I grabbed the arm of our guide who was obviously better practiced in walking through this stuff.
She was worth it though… such a beauty this turtle was and our guide estimated her to be over 50 years old. She was huge. We didn’t get any good photos as we used only our red headlamps as not to scare her off. Fantastic!
So that inspired and fueled me to continue on. I was exhausted by this time and was just managing to put one foot in front of the other and not impale myself on branches or other things in the jungle. And then there was the snake. Willem was delighted to make its acquaintance, but for me all snakes are poisonous and with only flip-flops on my feet, there was plenty of “bite-available” real-estate. Ugh! The snake, however, didn’t seem the least bit perturbed or interested in aggression, which was good.
Eventually, we made it back to the canoe and then rested on the hour-long drive back to the river. We got back on board at about 12:30am with muddy feet/shoes and happy hearts. I was really exhausted and Willem rinsed off my feet for me… so lovely, what a treat. 😊
The next morning, off we went to Domburg, against the tide. Oh well… it was worth it to stay and do the turtle tour, and there were river dolphins surrounding the boat, but we had invited guests over for a farewell party as I was flying out the very next day. We had a lovely evening. It was the second party Willem and I hosted together on-board and was a wonderful time and total success.
Monday morning, Willem accompanied me to the airport to catch my flight out. We were both sad as we had a great sail together. We promised to stay in touch and were both open and happy to consider sailing together in the future… all depending on plans, which as sailors we know are always written in the sand at low tide.
Thank you Willem, for a wonderful month sailing Suriname!