In January 2016 I read “Wild Coast”, by John Gimlette, and found it very interesting as it is part travelogue and part history about a region of South America I knew very little about. The term “Wild Coast” appears to have been coined by 17th century Dutch explorers (de wilde kust) and refers to the coast of Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana…
I saw on their website that Rainbow Tours organised trips to Guyana and so went along to the Destinations Travel Show where I met Sarah Frankish, from Rainbow, who had recently been to Guyana and had thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was sold…
Panama – October 2016
I started the trip in Panama more by accident than design. I had mentioned to Sarah that I wanted to visit Suriname after Guyana and that I didn’t want to fly via the USA. Sarah suggested flying with KLM to Panama and then flying back with KLM from Paramaribo.
In the words of Alexander Orlov: simples.
Panama has set itself up as the gateway to Central America and quite a lot of international airlines fly there.
A few days in Panama meant that I could see the Panama Canal and add another country to my list.
The flight was straightforward – albeit 10 hours and 40 minutes of tedium. KLM business class is comfortable enough and roomy. The food was okay. The IFE very good indeed with a terrific music selection – the best I’ve come across in any airline. I find it easier to listen to music on flights than watch TV or films…
Immigration & customs at Panama were straightforward if a bit slow – but that’s usually the case. My driver was waiting for me – the drive to the hotel was a bit tedious because of the heavy city traffic.
Panama City is a big, high-rise place that initially seems uninviting. It is actually quite a safe, friendly city and easy to walk around – albeit that the pavements are a bit dodgy. It isn’t an attractive city, though. The old quarter is undergoing significant renovation – so at the moment it is a bit untidy but should be lovely when finished.
The old part – Casco Viejo – has UNESCO World Heritage status – is not currently worth staying in as it is about 4km from where the main shops and restaurants are. With the significant renovation underway there aren’t many places to stay or eat yet. This explains why I was staying in what is usually referred to as the business district. There is a nice walk around the bay along the Avenue Paseo del Mar from the main city to the old city. It is very humid in Panama, though – so having walked around 12km there, back and around – I returned to my hotel drenched.
I stayed in the Hotel de Ville, which, if you look at the Trip Advisor and Booking web sites, sounds terrific: small, friendly and characterful.
It isn’t.
It is old, tired and grubby. It has no restaurant or bar. The breakfast offering is basic and nor is it very friendly.
I’ve stayed in worse.
I had an 05.30 pick-up for the Canal tour and an 06.00 pick-up for my departure – so only had breakfast on one morning. Breakfast starts at 07.00. There are no tea & coffee making facilities in the rooms. They don’t offer anything before 07.00.
Nearby are the Panama Marriott and the Riu Plaza – both good hotels with bars, restaurants and the facilities you expect from a hotel…
In addition to my wandering around the Casco Viejo I went on a partial transit of the Panama Canal – which is an exercise in teaching patience.
You get to the departure point early and wait.
You get on the boat and wait.
You set off to the first lock on the canal and wait.
You enter the first lock and wait.
This is repeated another two times.
After the third lock you sail to the disembarkation point and wait – this time for the bus to take you back to the city.
In between the waiting you get to see a bit of the canal and quite a few ships.
The boat we were on – the Pacific Queen – can apparently take 300 passengers. On the day I went there were about 60. Sixty was comfortable – 300 would be hell.
There probably isn’t much more to see in Panama City apart from shopping malls but there are several national parks throughout the rest of the country that are bound to be lovely.
I flew to Georgetown with Copa Airlines. The guy checking me in had seemingly never heard of Georgetown or Guyana and wasn’t aware of flight CM254.
Bizarre.
I got checked-in eventually and went off through security and passport control.
Despite being quite a big airport there are only 3 food stalls once you get airside – so not much choice as all three sell pretty much the same things. So I had a couple of coffees and a sandwich while I waited for the flight.
I was in economy for the three and a half hour flight to Georgetown. It was a reasonably new 737-800 and the middle seat in my row was empty and so didn’t feel cramped. The flight was an hour late departing as we had to wait for transit passengers on an incoming flight from Havana. It seems that a lot of Cubans fly to Georgetown to go shopping…
It is worth noting that the US dollar is widely used in Panama and accepted everywhere.
Guyana – October 2016
Arriving in Georgetown from another country requires filling out a couple of forms. This was beyond the people from Cuba despite the questions being printed in Spanish as well as English. This meant that immigration was slow.
It didn’t help that our flight came in just after two other flights from Spanish-speaking countries.
Why the problem?
Guyana is South America’s only English-speaking country. None of Guyana’s immigration staff speak Spanish.
Getting stuck behind a plane load of Cubans who can’t understand the forms and consequently haven’t filled them out, aided and abetted by non-Spanish speaking immigration staff is painful.
And time consuming…
Eventually I made it to the head of my queue whereupon the immigration lady seemed delighted to see me – at last! An Anglo!
Well – who’d have thought…
After queuing, immigration was quick as was customs.
Needless to say my bag was waiting for me – sulking, actually – thought it had been abandoned.
Zaman, the driver, was waiting & we set off on the journey to the city and the hotel. The main airport – Cheddi Jagan International Airport – is only 25 miles from Georgetown but it takes an hour or so as traffic is slow.
Cara Lodge is a nice, old colonial building and the hotel feels warm and friendly. Well, I say friendly – the lady on reception was “Miss Attitude 2016” – I think she’d won it in 2015, too. Her strange demeanour didn’t change throughout my stay – although I did catch her out once by making her laugh – inadvertently, of course. She was irritated at being caught out, though (ha!). She and Kanye West could be twins…
Because I was late arriving – the fault of the Republic of Cuba – I was late for an introductory meeting with Rehanna Nannan from Wilderness Explorers. I wasn’t expecting this meeting and so had no idea who she was and equally unaware of being late for anything…
Well, late for anything other than a cold Banks’ beer, obviously.
Anyway, she was talking to 5 other people in what turned out to be “our group”….
Having finished talking to the group she came over to me, gave me an introductory pack and talked me through the forthcoming trip and the process for getting me a visa for Suriname, which Wilderness were taking care of.
Unfortunately she dropped a bit of a bombshell – that there was a 9kg weight limit on bags on internal flights (hold & carry-on combined). This was unwelcome news as I don’t like being caught out – something this basic should have been made clear by Rainbow. Rehanna had fortunately agreed with the manager at Cara Lodge that they would store excess baggage – as the other couple who had booked with Rainbow were similarly unaware. Three of the four people who had booked with a company called Steppes had been advised of the strict baggage allowances…
One of the things I left behind was the info-pack that Rehanna had given me as it was too heavy to take…
Having planned my packing around when I thought I could get laundry done, I was thrown as the hotel doesn’t do laundry at weekends. More disconcerting for lady travellers is that the hotel will not accept ladies underwear for laundry…
Eh?
The hotel manager agreed that I could get my laundry done while I was away & I could pick it up on my return. What a decent chap!
So that solved two things: it meant I would have clean clothes on my return and also helped in reducing the weight of my luggage. I had packed pretty much as I had for my African trip in August – given that I had taken internal flights on a Cessna 208B Caravan and a 6-seat Cessna 210 – where the weight of my luggage wasn’t an issue on any of them. So quite why the restrictions in Guyana, I don’t know…
Our first excursion – and our introduction to the joys of flying in Guyana in a Cessna 208B Caravan – was to Kaiteur Falls.
It was also our introduction to the Eugene F Correia International Airport – or Ogle Airport as everyone calls it. The domestic flights go from here as do a couple of international flights.
Apparently the falls are twice the height of Victoria Falls and five times higher than Niagara Falls – which I find hard to believe. At 226m it is claimed they are the highest single-drop falls in the world. The Angel Falls in Venezuela are 979m but are two-drops.
To get there we flew over forest, forest and more forest. I’ve never seen so much forest – Guyana’s forests cover over 160,000km² – that’s an area bigger than England & Wales (151,000km²)…
After lunch at Kaiteur we flew to the Orinduik Falls – a series of cataracts – on the Ireng River, which forms the border between Guyana and Brazil here. So I stood and looked at Brazil.
It was an enjoyable day and a good start to the tour of Guyana.
Kaiteur Falls
Into the Forest
This was the start of a 12 day tour of the interior and our first flight was to Surama. Checking in at Ogle Airport was quite sweet as first we had to put our bags on the scales and then we had to get on the scales ourselves to be weighed.
At this point we were all slightly nervous about our bags & whether or not their combined weight was 9kg or not. As it turned out the limit is 20lbs of free luggage (they still use imperial measurements) and any excess is charged for. I don’t know what my excess was but it cost me $1,015GD (about £3.95). So you can take more than 20lbs but it will cost you (not very much as you can see)…
Much ado about nothing in a way – but Rainbow should still be advising customers of this.
We were to have been met at the Surama airstrip by a truck from Iwokrama Lodge. But there was no one there. Fortunately a driver from Surama Lodge was taking a passenger to the airstrip to catch the plane we had just got out of. So he took us to the Surama Lodge – this took 3 trips as he could only take 3 at a time…
Once at Surama Lodge we were given lunch as Iwokrama hadn’t sent their truck. This was self-evident but we never did find out why they hadn’t. After lunch we got into Surama’s old, ex-army Bedford and were driven to Iwokrama.
The lodge at Iwokrama is on the banks of the Essequibo River – the longest of the 1,500 rivers in Guyana at about 630miles – and in the rainforest. There is a central two-storey building that combines various offices, meeting rooms and a shop on the ground floor with restaurant & bar on the first floor. The spacious, comfortable wooden cabins are set along the river bank with nice views of the river and grounds.
It was nice & friendly – the food was good; they had Wi-Fi; they do laundry; the bar ran out of Coca Cola to the dismay of rum drinkers but they had plenty of beer.
They didn’t have a tip-box – which we all suggested they should have. This makes tipping lodge staff much easier.
I was beginning to discover what travelling with “birders” entailed.
Scenario One: you stare at a tree for 20 minutes trying to decide if the microscopic bird is on the 3rd or 4th branch; left or right; up or down and by the time everyone has located it the thing flies off before photographs can be taken…
Scenario Two: everyone gets animated as they see the 95th lesser spotted, yellow-tailed humpty dumpty bird and excitedly take 40 photographs of the thing as they ooh and ahh – this also takes at least 20-minutes…
I wasn’t at the stage of wanting to kill anyone, but to further illustrate – we went on a night boat-ride on the Essequibo to see Caiman. This entails staff with bright torches blinding any poor creature they see so that tourists can ooh and ahh as well as say what and where. This joyful exercise was supposed to last about 45 minutes but we spent a good 20 minutes gazing at a white snake as well as eleven centuries staring into the eyes of a few Caiman – their eyes being the only thing you could see – and consequently spent a boring hour and a half going round in circles in the dark…
The next evening we set sail about an hour before sunset to see some petroglyphs. This was much more enjoyable as we could see where we were going and while the petroglyphs themselves aren’t that special the story behind them is interesting and, if true, puts them into context. The theory is that these petroglyphs are between 6 and 7 thousand years old and were used as markers to indicate things like fishing, hunting and so on – quite neat really…
A beautiful sunset, too…
Iwokrama
Atta
After two nights at Iwokrama we drove back along the road we had taken from Surama to Atta Lodge. Here they were expecting us.
Atta Lodge doesn’t come across as overly friendly as we were instructed on do’s and don’ts on arrival and there are lists about the place also outlining things you can’t do. Given that its location is broadly similar to Iwokrama Lodge it isn’t exactly welcoming and it is hard to see why they are so dogmatic. Here WiFi cost $5US for an hour; they will do laundry “but not very much, please”; you can’t charge up electrical devices overnight – so you’re kind of stuffed if your camera needs charging after a long day of photographing anything and everything that moves.
Accommodation was in brick huts – not nice wooden cabins as at Iwokrama – with outdoor bathrooms. The outdoor bathrooms were neither here nor there as it is so hot & humid it is actually quite nice to shower outside. The only slight problem is that while you can’t see your neighbours, you can hear them…
The highlight at Atta is the “forest canopy walkway”. It’s over doing it a bit to claim it as a “highlight”. We spent a good 90-minutes looking at trees and the eleven birds that deigned to fly by.
Even the birders were disappointed and they are more patient than me.
A lot more patient than me…
In reality Atta Lodge turned out to be more friendly and relaxed than the various signs suggested and on our last night they set up the tables on the grass for a candlelight dinner – sweet.
Odd but sweet.
Again the food was good and the beer colder than at Iwokrama Lodge. They have a tip box.
Now here’s a tale…
The manager at Atta – Rory, I think – told us that we could visit the Harpy Eagle nest site on our way to Surama. Surama Lodge wanted $30US per person for this – so 4 of us declined and 3 accepted. The 3 willing to pay were then told it would cost $75US per person as only they wanted to go.
At this point someone phoned Rehanna to complain. Rehanna later came back to say that there would be no charge for visiting the nest site…
All very strange – as you’ll see in the next instalment.
So – the minibus from Surama came to pick us up at Atta Lodge. Off we trundled and stopped along the road so that we could wander into the forest to visit a place where we could see the bright orange Cock of the Rock bird.
This was another first class exercise in staring at trees and looking around forlornly in the hope of seeing something.
The Cock of the Rock did not appear.
After about half an hour we walked back to the mini bus and drove further along the road to Surama – where we stopped again so that we could walk into the forest to see the Harpy Eagle nest. We were told that it was a 3-hour walk.
So it was a bit of a surprise – albeit a nice one – to find we had reached the nest site after about 40-minutes.
Anyway – we were in luck. The Harpy Eagle chick could be seen. Harpy Eagles lay eggs (usually one or two) every four years and nurture the chick for two years before it leaves the nest. The chick we could see is the fourth chick raised by this pair of Harpy Eagles. It wasn’t long before mum & dad came back with a baby Capuchin monkey to feed the chick.
Although we could see them, the height of the nest, its construction and general foliage meant that taking clear pictures was difficult. For once I was quite happy to hang around and watch as it was genuinely quite exciting. Hayley kindly sent me some photos…
We met a group of 8 Swedish guys on our way back from the place where the Cock of the Rock apparently nests – they had been to the Harpy Eagle nest site and only seen the chick. We wished them luck with the Cock of the Rock. When we saw them again later at Surama it turned out that they had seen the bright orange bird – but hadn’t seen the adult eagles.
That’s wildlife for you…
Quite why Surama Eco Lodge – or Wilderness Explorers – wanted to charge us extra for the visit to the Harpy Eagle nest and what their justification was remains a mystery…
Amusingly I got an e-mail from the MD at Wilderness Explorers asking if I could send him any pictures I had taken of the eagles. I hadn’t taken any as the camera in my iPhone is generally useless at taking pictures of birds – and without a clear shot I would have ended up with pictures of leaves and branches.
Much like the pictures most of the birders would have taken.
In fairness the birders all had super-whizzy, ultra-zoom cameras that – amusingly – were a bit too hi-tech for them as they invariably didn’t know what all the settings meant and functions were and so struggled to take pictures in certain conditions…
Listening to them giving each other advice on how to set their cameras up was bizarre…
Right: so you can’t operate your own camera but you are quite happy to tell someone else what they’re doing wrong with theirs…
Surama Eco Lodge has 4 wooden cabins and a brick block with 4 rooms set away from the central building. I was in the block with 2 other singles in the group. The rooms are fairly basic but alright – the power points, however, are in the hall and not in the rooms. How stupid is that?
The rooms and beds were also infested with wee bitey things – regular fumigation is needed.
Surama is in the savannah – so I assumed I wouldn’t get bitten by anything as I hadn’t been bitten at either Iwokrama or Atta. But no – here in the savannah they specialise in wee bitey things.
It would have been useful to have brought some soothing creams – antihistamine cream for example. I had taken some antiseptic cream; anti mosquito spray (deet has no effect on wee bitey things) and some after-sun moisturiser. The antiseptic was useful on the bites but didn’t stop the itching.
Two nights at Surama Eco Lodge was one night too many. The people are friendly enough; the food was good; they had beer; they do laundry and WiFi was available at the office – a short walk from the lodge itself. But we’d all been bitten, there wasn’t that much to see or do and everyone just wanted to leave…
Surama
Rock View Lodge
We left Surama in the Bedford and drove to Rock View Lodge in Annai – still in the savannah. Rock View is pretty swish by Guyana standards. Set in lovely grounds with fish pools, beautiful trees, growing lots of produce and with its own swimming pool.
Rock View is owned and run by Colin Edwards, who first came to Guyana in 1969 and still retains a clipped, English accent. He is a very genial host and likes to regale his guests with stories from his life and experiences in Guyana. In May 2023 he received the Hall of Fame Lifetime Award for contributing to tourism development in the Rupununi and Guyana.
We were also lucky that Vanda Radzik was also staying. Vanda is a Guyanese journalist and activist – very friendly, amusing and interesting. She & Colin talked about their disappointment with the lack of government support for tourism; the withdrawal of regional flights by Trans Guyana Airlines and declining tourist numbers. They didn’t paint a bleak picture but you could tell their frustrations and desire for infrastructure investment.
We also discovered that Jackie, who manages the Surama Eco Lodge, is Colin’s sister in law. The communities are small – everyone either knows or is related to each other…
Accommodation was in nice brick-built rooms – a couple of blocks of 4 rooms each. Being in the savannah we all got bitten by wee bitey things and – as a bonus – I got some bed bug bites. Apparently they do fumigate the rooms here.
3 Dutch folk were over from Suriname: the two guys with the WWF and the wife of one of them, a doctor specialising in tropical medicine. She had travelled to Suriname with her husband and now spends two weeks out in forests looking after Maroon communities and a week at home in Paramaribo. Given that they have two young boys (2 years and 9-months) that must be pretty tough.
They were very interesting and told us about life in Suriname…
The food at Rock View was great; they had a Brazilian beer called Schin – which was actually quite nice but then it is owned by Kirin (subsequently bought by Heineken in 2017); they did laundry (free but a tip is appreciated); WiFi was available at the office. At 6.30 everyone met up for rum – a sort of post-sunset sundowner or pre-dinner drink – very nice…
Unbelievably one of our group didn’t like Rock View as it was “a resort and not a lodge”. When I said that Rock View was the closest Guyana has to the lodges in Africa she replied that “we won’t be going to Africa in that case”.
What? You won’t go to Africa because the lodges are nice? Her husband just looked at me effectively saying “just give thanks you’re not married to her” – so I left it. But really…
Curiously Rock View is alone in the lodges we stayed at in not having solar power – it uses a diesel powered generator that runs from 8am to 12 and then from 6pm to 10pm. So you get up in the dark. Apparently they plan to install solar panels “next year” –however, looking at recent Trip Advisor reviews it doesn’t look as if anything has changed (June 2023)…
Rupununi
We left Rock View in a minibus and drove to a place on the Rupununi River where we got onto boats to zip along to Karanambu…
Now – instructions on wearing hats; sun glasses; long sleeves and sun screen were quite clear – both in Rainbow’s notes and from lodge staff. But one of the group decided to ignore that – being blonde, fair-skinned and prone to sunburn you can see why. When I suggested she cover her shoulders & arms she just shrugged…
After two and a half enjoyable hours whizzing along the river, Hayley was in need of my after-sun moisturiser – lots of it. Luckily she wasn’t too badly burnt & my industrial-sized container of Boots Soltan came in very handy.
You can take the girl out of Suffolk but you can’t take Suffolk out of the girl…
I took Boots Soltan sun cream and after sun moisturiser – both claim to contain insect repellent. The 400ml packs aren’t exactly pocket-sized but lasted me through Africa & this trip. I also like the name: Soltan – as to me it sounds like Soltan the Barbarian – one of Marvel Comics lesser-known super heroes…
The problem is that with humidity running at an average of 80% in Panama, Guyana & Suriname – nothing can stay on for long once you’re outside walking or climbing. Even standing still taking absurd numbers of pictures of things you’ve photographed to death fifty times before…
Still, my Soltans kept me sunburn-free – even if they didn’t prevent me from getting bitten by the wee bitey things…
Karanambu is famous for being the lodge set up as a Giant River Otter orphanage and rescue centre by Diane McTurk. Sadly this aspect of Karanambu is no longer functioning and the Otter buildings are quietly disintegrating in a forgotten corner of the lodge. Diane McTurk is now 85 and is in Georgetown apparently suffering from dementia – which is very sad after a lifetime of pioneering work.
Diane McTurk sadly died on 10th December, 2016 at the St Joseph Mercy Hospital, Georgetown.
The whole lodge has an eerie, forgotten air to it – like the set of a horror movie set in the Badlands and where you have to keep an eye on everyone. Every couple of hours I checked and counted the group to make sure no one was missing. Even then I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there had been 8 in the group when we arrived – but none of the remaining 7 could remember an eighth person…
This is exactly what happens in horror movies…
The odd feeling extends to the haphazard way the lodge is laid out and run.
But.
The food was some of the best we had during our trip. There was no beer, though.
The activities were the best of the entire trip. Two boat rides on the Rupununi – visiting the remarkable lily ponds. Sundowners on the river with rum punch on both trips – then we settled back to gaze at amazingly clear star-filled skies. It was just after full-moon so the early night sky was free of moonlight – just tremendous.
We had a morning drive into the savannah and saw an anteater – wow! – got a nice little video-clip.
For all its endearing weirdness; lack of beer and no WiFi (“it is broken” “will you be fixing it?” “probably”) – it was a great place and for me it was the most special of the places we stayed.
Back to Georgetown
Another boat trip – but with a chastened Hayley covered up – along the Rupununi to Caiman House. Here we met an interesting American scientist, Peter Taylor, who could certainly talk for America – but at least he was interesting.
I didn’t warm to Caiman House – the afternoon / evening activity was a boat trip that dragged on for 5 hours and involved dawdling along the river until sunset when a group came from Caiman House in another boat to capture and measure Caiman.
Of all the pointless exercises.
It all seemed unnecessary and stressful for the poor Caiman they eventually caught. The Caiman was dragged onto the river bank; taped its mouth shut; took various measurements; took trophy pictures of each other standing by the Caiman with one foot on its taped snout.
This is science? Really?
Just horrible.
Back to the lodge about 9pm to discover there was no beer and no rum.
We left next morning for the drive to Lethem (silent “h”) on the Brazil border and the biggest town in Rupununi.
We were due to catch the 11am flight to Georgetown. At 11 o’clock we discovered that the flight wasn’t coming until 11.32 – well, I say “discovered” – I asked. While we were waiting for the plane Colin from Rock View turned up to meet his brother who was flying-in from China (that would have been a long trip). Colin was his usual friendly, chatty self.
The flight back to Georgetown was 95 minutes – I read my Kindle so the journey passed quite quickly. It was good to be back in civilization.
Zaman was there to meet & take us back to Cara Lodge – to the joyous smiles and welcoming arms of Miss Attitude. Gosh was she ever so pleased to see us all again. Sad really as the Good Lord has blessed her with beauty and a figure many would die for…
Five members of the group went off for a distillery tour while I and one other went on a city tour, which I found interesting even though Dennis, our guide, didn’t stop talking and was way too touchy-feely…
Back at Cara Lodge I asked my favourite receptionist where my bin-liner of items was – this was fairly quickly found in a cupboard under the stairs. Next thing was to find my washing. Well – Kanye’s sister was having none of it. She didn’t know and couldn’t care less.
So I found the manager & he got the housekeeping lady to fetch it & take it to my room. Which she did quite happily.
To quote Alexander Orlov again: simples
The lovely Susan, who looks after the bar and is all smiles and lovely and friendly brought me an ice-cold Banks and all was right with the world.
Then the equally lovely Rehanna arrived and gave me back my passport with tourist card for Suriname. She then asked each of us about the trip. We all agreed it had been pretty good throughout and that any gripes were minor…
Dinner with 5 of the group in the hotel was pleasant – the Anglo-Danish couple went off into town, which suited everyone…
A 6.45 pick-up and I was off to Ogle Airport and the next bit of my adventure.
Check-in was a bit of a shambles – not entirely convinced the guy knew what he was doing. Then I went to security – the scanner wasn’t working (had it ever?) so my bag was searched manually – which didn’t take very long.
Then I had to pay the $13US departure tax – but the lady didn’t have any change. I expressed my utter surprise and told her to keep the $7 change from the $20 bill…
Next was immigration whereupon I was asked for a Yellow Fever vaccination certificate. I showed my inoculation pass book declaring my vaccination in December 2001. The lady said I should have had a more recent injection – to which I pointed out that Yellow Fever vaccinations are now “for life” and not 10-years as previously. This was a WHO protocol I knew that Guyana & Suriname had both signed up to (I checked with the Boots pharmacist before I left the UK). The lady sent a minion off to check – she eventually came back with approval. Funnily enough the next guy didn’t have a yellow fever vaccination and told the immigration lady in no uncertain terms that he didn’t need one. He was on the flight so obviously got away with it.
At Paramaribo no one asked or showed any interest in Yellow Fever vaccinations…
Suriname – October 2016
Arrival at Paramaribo’s Zorg-en-Hoop domestic airport was nice & easy. The immigration officer even wished me a happy belated birthday, which was very sweet. Then I opened my bag for the fierce looking customs officers to search.
Grrr…
Then outside to meet Desmond my driver & guide for the Paramaribo city tour.
The centre of Paramaribo has been a UNESCO World Heritage since 2002 – but in 2014 UNESCO threatened the Suriname government with removal of the city’s status if they didn’t set about repairing and maintaining the old wooden buildings.
All of the wooden buildings in private hands are in good condition having been lovingly restored and maintained while the government buildings have been left to disintegrate…
Sad – but the doctor I met at Rock View had warned me that this was the case…
The beautiful Basilica of St Peter and St Paul was renovated between 2006 and 2010 with EU money – I hope that St George’s in Georgetown is equally as lovingly restored…
The city tour was very interesting & enjoyable. I couldn’t check-in to the Eco Resort Inn until 2pm – so Desmond made the city tour last – but it was good. Paramaribo is a much nicer and safer city to see and walk around than Georgetown. Tourists are discouraged from walking on their own in Georgetown – certainly after dark – and advised to avoid the Stabroek Market – whereas the main market in Paramaribo is friendly and safe.
I went to check-in at the Eco Resort Inn at about 13.40 but told my room wasn’t ready. So I went off and had some lunch and about 3pm my room was finally ready.
The next day I had a morning tour of the Commewijne – across the River Suriname from Paramaribo. We visited various plantations, forts and the old Marienburg Rum Distillery & Sugar Factory. It was a terrific morning – really interesting. The guy showing me around the former distillery had worked there from 1954 to 1994 – the place closed down in 1998 – was 82 and did tours to supplement his pension. A sweet old guy – full of memories and stories about the old days.
We then had lunch at a very nice Javanese restaurant before returning to the hotel.
In the afternoon I was booked on a river tour to see the pink river dolphins. A storm was forecast for the afternoon and it duly arrived at about 4pm as we set off in a leaky boat onto the River Suriname. We were all soaked before we got on the boat…
13 adults and 2 children huddled under the ripped canvas covering the boat. The 2 crew – oh and the outboard motor – braved the elements…
It was quite funny although I don’t think my Dutch fellow shipmates were in the least bit amused…
We did actually see quite a few dolphins…
Honestly – the boat was useless for sightseeing in good weather let alone a storm; the outboard motor kept cutting out and the boat leaked…
Still…
Next day I had several hours to kill before my 2pm pick-up to Paramaribo’s Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport – which is 45km south of the city but takes about an hour and a half to get to…
The KLM 747 was there; it took off on time and we got to Schipol safely. During the flight we were showing an arrival about 5-minutes ahead of schedule but then got put in a holding pattern as we got into Dutch airspace and touched down 10-minutes late. I had a fairly tight connection to London and so appreciated having two lots of immigration and security to go through…
My flight to London was boarding as I got to the gate – I sat and watched my bag being loaded onto the plane – the last bag on…
Summary:
KLM were great – as mentioned they have a great programme on KLM FM called “The Edge” – I made notes on the tracks played that I liked and have since bought 25 songs from iTunes – all bar three from bands & singers I’d never heard of
The flights in Guyana were all ok – not necessarily on schedule but hey…
The flight from Georgetown to Paramaribo was likewise fine…
Hotels & Lodges
Cara Lodge in Georgetown is terrific – a great place to stay with very nice, comfortable rooms.
Eco Resort Inn is okay – probably the best option in Paramaribo. Curiously there is a $3.50US surcharge per day for electricity & water. There is no safe in the room nor are there tea & coffee making facilities – which is poor as Cara Lodge features both of these as well as a fully stocked minibar.
Hotel de Ville in Panama was disappointing – I shall post reviews on Booking dot com and Trip Advisor advising of the shortcomings – clearly this place is trading on past glories. It wouldn’t take much to bring it up to a decent standard – that is what is so annoying.
The lodges in Guyana were all ok – they are pretty basic – the ones in the savannah need to fumigate their rooms regularly, though. The food was good in all of them. They all do laundry. They all have WiFi even if the signals are weak and bandwidth limited – or not working, in the case of Karanambu…
Guyana is a poor country – there is little government investment in infrastructure and this is obvious. Declining tourist numbers presumably aren’t helping but the government really should start investing or encouraging external investment otherwise tourist numbers will continue to fall.
Wildlife
Going anywhere and expecting to see things is to set yourself up to fail – and so it is with Guyana. With so much pristine forest, Guyana is one of the few countries left where wildlife is free to roam pretty much as it always has…
So I didn’t see any Jaguar, Puma, Panther, Ocelot, Tapir – yes, at some of the lodges there had been sightings but they were few and far between…
I did catch glimpses of Capuchin; Howler Monkeys – hearing more than I saw; Black Spider Monkeys; Spider Monkeys and caught a brief glimpse of another monkey – the name of which escapes me. I saw a couple of Agouti; some Giant River Otters bobbing up and down in the rivers and quite a lot of Caiman…
The best sighting I had was of the Anteater – and that was terrific…
Needless to say it is a great place to see birds – highlights being the Macaws and the Harpy Eagles – Georgetown itself is also very good. Panama & Suriname likewise are good for bird spotting.
Health
Food was good throughout the trip – no issues anywhere. Bottled water is widely available. I didn’t get bitten once by mosquitoes – which is a result and I didn’t take the anti-malaria tablets I’d brought with me. October was a good time to go as it was mostly dry – overall I was lucky with the weather – but the humidity takes some getting used to.
I do wish I’d taken some antihistamine cream, though, for all the bites from the wee-bitey things.
Summary
Overall it was a very interesting trip. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would – getting bored towards the end in Guyana. I won’t travel with birders again, although the seven of us in the group rubbed along reasonably well – although the Danish lady tried everyone’s patience…
Nor will I stay anywhere with “Eco” in the title…
Rainbow need to tell tourists about the luggage limits on internal flights in Guyana and the need for some kind of ointment to use in the savannah. Torches are also required – something else not mentioned – fortunately I took one based on my experience in Africa.
I have started reading Wild Coast again….
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