Suriname travel guide

Atjoni is where the road ends and the river takes over as the only way of getting further into the hinterland. It's no more than a parking lot for cars, buses, and long boats, surrounded by a couple of gas stations and Chinese trade stores. From here you can hire a boat to take you up river to the jungle settlements. It’s possible to stay overnight in tourist camps at several of the settlements - ask your boat man.

Beni's Christmas Palace is a huge shop selling every plastic-Christmas-related thing ever made - and they do it year around. We're not sure how many plastic Christmas trees they sell in May, but it's hard to get out of the shop without buying something tacky for they seriously have everything. In December (and maybe other months too) a very sweaty Indian guy dressed in Santa costume stands outside the shop and ring a bell while extremely loud Christmas music is blasting out. It's such an odd sight.

All over the Guianas, you see people, mostly men, walking around with a bird in a cage. People here treat their birds really like pets and take them everywhere they go. To work, shopping, visiting friends and even to a doctor's visit. Many houses (and even lamp posts) have a hook to hang the cage up so that you don't have to put the cage on the ground. They say that the more the bird gets used to different environments, the nicer it will sing, but mainly they just take the bird with them for company. Although the tradition of bird singing competitions such as the ones on Sunday mornings in Paramaribo is slowly disappearing, carrying your bird around remains a popular thing to do.

One of the few easily accessible areas in Suriname, Brownsberg, is a forested mountain next to the man-made Brokopondo lake. Once up there, you can spend days doing forest walks to rivers and waterfalls. The walks go on narrow and sometimes steep mostly well-marked trails through dense forest where at the end you reach a pretty river or waterfall where you can freshen up and sometimes swim. Since the base where you can stay overnight is pretty much on the top of the mountain, all trails go down to the destination and going back can be more strenuous because of the uphill. There are monkeys and plenty of birds to give you a real jungle feeling.

Brownsweg is just a small ordinary Surinamese town with wooden houses and a shabby church. On the map, it looks like Brownsweg lies on the shore of Lake Brokopondo, but that’s not the case. Lake Brokopondo is by the way not a natural lake, but a man made reservoir which was constructed during the 60s.

The Chinese came to Suriname to make the road from Paramaribo to the airport, and they stayed. Every town has at least a couple of Chinese trade stores and often they are the only shops around. Eventhough they might just be a block apart, they all sell the same range of food items and imported plastic crap made in China.

Suriname doesn’t have many beaches and none close to Paramaribo. Instead they use the rivers when they want to chill and splash with water. Three kilometers from the airport lies Colakreek Recreational Park, a semi natural waterworld. The water is dark brown, therefore the name. There are picnic tables under shady trees and sandy fields for ball games. It’s a place where locals do things they normally would have done if they have had any beaches. There is another more popular place, White Beach, further south which even has imported white sand. Both places have entry fees.

Suriname doesn’t have many beaches and the few they have are not necessarily pretty. A few kilometers outside Nieuw Nickerie lies Corantijnstrand Beach, which is a serious candidate as the most unattractive beach ever. It’s no more than tiny patch of dark sand with some breakwater boulders and murky choppy water. Anywhere else in the world this would not qualify as a beach.

An hour boat ride from Atjoni lies the rather big settlement of Jaw Jaw. It’s a pretty journey through the dense jungle which pass other similar settlements along the way. Many in Jaw Jaw still live in simple low wooden huts, though some have understandable upgraded to more modern concrete houses. The villagers are easygoing, but not particularly keen on photos. Walk around with your boatman to make communication easier.

Let’s be honest, there are not that much to see in Suriname, and particularly not outside Paramaribo. The road towards east is a monotone stretch through lush vegetation with few houses. So any sight, is worth a stop. The small community of Moengo lies about 45 km before the border to French Guyana. There are a couple shops, gas stations, and oddly, some art installations, but that’s it.