2022 Trans Amazonian Motorcycle Adventure: Day 42

We headed to the port early to make sure we got on the first ferry out at 7:30am. We heard it was a small ferry with only room for 2-3 cars and a few motorcycles.

Only Guy, Chuck, Mike and I secured our e-visas on time so we went ahead and cross into Suriname while the others visited the consulate on the Guiana side to try to figure out what happened with theirs.

The road to Paramaribo was beautiful. Not one pothole anywhere with the thick jungle beginning to encroach on the sides of the road. Very green and humid.

There were wooden houses pretty much along the whole 200km to the capital. Improving significantly (brick, concrete, glass) as ew got closer to the city. Also, small water canals along the roads began to show up. Just like in Holland.

Suriname seems more populated and with more energy than Guiana. It also feels bigger and richer. We even dodged 2 policemen stopping cars for speeding. What?!?!

Our hotel was in the old Peperpot Plantation. A coffee and cacao plantation started in 1675. Lots of Dutch tourists riding bicycles along the small canals to the Nature Park next door. Surreal.

The plantation buildings are being nicely restored with their surrounding verandas creating a nice plantation in the tropics feeling. It also had a great pool and restaurant and small canals where yo could take kayaks around.

The people in Suriname are a melting pot of peoples from all over the world. Blacks, Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Indonesian, whites. All small grocery stores have Chinese names and everybody seems to speak 2-3 languages … English, Dutch, and Taki-Taki (like Creole) are the most popular.

After resting at our nice hotel we headed into town which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Lots of wooden mansions facing the river, restaurants, stores and bars. Most of them closed because it is a holiday in Suriname.

We ended up visiting one of the only places open along the river and, to my surprise, everybody in the restaurant/bar was Cuban. Sat down with a group of recently arrived emigres and heard their stories. All I can say, is that this experience and their stories made me be grateful for all the things I have been blessed with.

All of them are looking for a chance for a better life. They left family behind, young sons and daughters … they showed me their pictures and I almost lost it … not knowing when they will see them again … 5, 10, 20 years? A sad prospect but with lots of hope for a better tomorrow.

Some of them were on their way to Mexico and some to the US. Their next stop was going to be Managua.

The interesting part was that even within their current situations they all considered themselves lucky for making it this far .. and the hope for a better future that they believed was coming was worth the sacrifice … and they danced, and laughed, and played, and the world was good today.

We headed back to our plantation after dark only to find out that our side of the river had had a flash storm and all the power was knocked out. We had dinner in the dark, with no fans or breeze and it was so hot … the sounds of the jungle all around us was hypnotic … lots of birds communicating.

We found out that there is only one ferry that crosses from Suriname to Guyana and it leaves at 9am. Given that we are 300 kms away from the border, we will have to spend the night at the border (South Drain) before proceeding to Georgetown in Guyana.