Suriname - A Melting Pot of Cultures

Suriname is a former Dutch colony is located in the northern coast of South America, surrounded by Guyana (in the west), French Guyana (in the east) and Brazil (in the south). Its the smallest independent country in the South American continent.

We arrived in Domburg, a small village situated 6 miles up from Paramaribo on the Suriname river, the evening of 22nd January 2015. It was a day's sail (approx. 125 nautical miles) from St Laurent, Maroni river.

We picked up a mooring (N 05.30.380 W54.02.041) at $8 EUR/day opposite the Domburg Habour Resort. A small marina with 14 moorings, a floating pontoon, showers and a restaurant. At that time, they were building a swimming pool too!

Nice day to rest & relax

Wild Water Lillies somewhere between Domburg & Paramaribo

Here we rented a car for $10/EUR a day from a local and drove into Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its colonial buildings.

The building style is a collection of European architecture with Surinamese influences. The city centre is very charming with its old wooden, colonial houses. It felt like we were in Europe!

Other parts of Paramaribo reminded me of home (Malaysia), with its many mini-markets, busy traffic and crazy drivers.

The inhabitants are a mixture of its indigenous people and descendants from Europe (primarily Dutch and English), Asia and Africa. Lots of Indians, Chinese, Indonesians (Javanese), Creoles and Africans.

It's a very culturally diverse population. There are temples, churches & mosques everywhere. It's one of the last few countries to have a mosque next to a synagogue. Living in peace and harmony.

Mosque & Synagogue - Side by Side

Temple

More Temples

The Synagogue

Mosque

The one thing I really wanted to do but missed out on there was to volunteer at the Green Heritage Fund Suriname. It's a charitable non-profit organization established in 2005. 

There are several programs established with the idea to reinvest the all earnings in the programs to help improve the fate of animals and the environment. 

Their vision is "to create a society that consciously works towards the continued improvement of its environment and the promotion of a green, clean and healthy Suriname". Wonderful! 

The program that really caught my attention was the Xenarthra program which involves rescuing, sheltering, caring, rehabilitating and releasing sloths, armadillos and anteaters, i.e. taking care of these orphaned and distressed animals until they are healthy and ready to return to the forest. 

 

I really wanted to volunteer for that because I really like sloths, perhaps it's cos I feel like one. Haha! I corresponded via email with the founder and director Monique Pool several times, however, due to timing constraints, we were not able to make it happen.

They also have a Dolphin program to collect basic data on the wild Sotalia Guianensis dolphin population in the estuary of the Suriname River. These dolphins look similar to the bottlenose dolphins but are smaller in size. The aim of this program is to increase knowledge and awareness of the wild dolphin habitat and populations, to help protect them and make better environment decisions.

So if you're ever in Suriname, do check them out!