Northern South America Travel Diary

2012

Northern South America Travel Diary 2012

 

Day 2 - Paramaribo, Suriname

Monday

25 June 2012

After yesterday’s long hours of travel, it was something of a relief to sleep in this morning until 9:00 am.  Seven hours of sleep in a flat bed – pure bliss.

Despite the dire weather forecasts of thunderstorms throughout the period of my visit to Suriname, I woke to blue skies and sunny weather, with just a few potentially threatening clouds overhead.  My initial impression of Suriname upon arrival was sketchy at best – trying to discern the dark shapes of the scenery as it sped by the windows of my minibus at 1:30 am in the morning was a fairly fruitless exercise, especially given my fatigue.

Daylight revealed a colourful, low-rise city interspersed with abundant tropical greenery.  Closer observation revealed one of the most ethnically diverse societies I think I have ever encountered, with significant numbers of descendants of black African slaves, Dutch and British colonialists, Indonesian, Indian and Chinese indentured labourers, all seeming to live together harmoniously with the indigenous Amerindians.

My hotel room overlooked a suburban area, dominated more by trees and grass than by buildings.  However, my main focus for the day was to explore Paramaribo’s city centre, located just a mile or so away.  My hotel offered a courtesy bus (actually a car) to the city centre, and it was great to use it to save the walk which, although not too far in terms of distance, had no footpaths (pavements/sidewalks) and would have been wearying in the tropical heat and humidity.

Known as the wooden city of the Caribbean, Paramaribo is dominated by stately Dutch colonial architecture, most of them wooden, and frequently interspersed with very old, elegant trees that also date from colonial times.  The city centre is truly beautiful, and fully deserving in my view of its status as a UNESCO World Heritage city.

It was a joy to walk around the city, camera in hand, taking in the streetscapes.  The total population of the entire metropolis is about half a million people, and the city centre is thus fairly intimate in scale.  I began my walk in Domineestraat, near the German  Embassy, and headed northwards to an area with several streets of colonial buildings; Heererstraat, Henk Arronstraat and Lim a Postraat.  Many of the buildings were beautifully restored, presumably using some money from UNESCO, while others were in what might be politely termed a state of picturesque decay.

It is difficult to single out many specific buildings, but hopefully the photos here give some idea of the overall atmosphere of the city centre.   A few buildings were, however, especially noteworthy.  For example, the Catholic St Petrus en Paulus Kathedral was mind-blowing.  Constructed entirely of timber in semi-Gothic style, it is claimed to be the world’s largest wooden building.  Originally opened in 1885, the building was badly neglected for many years until recent restoration work was undertaken and it re-opened in 2009.

Towards the eastern end of Lim a Postraat, an open parkland known as Onafhankelijkheidsplein is surrounded by several beautiful colonial buildings built with brick or stone, including the Presidential Palace (which is currently under restoration).  On Sundays, Onafhankelijkheidsplein is apparently filled with men who bring their song-birds (usually twatwas from the interior jungles) for bird singing competitions.  Today, it was a fairly empty grass field, but across the road was the National Assembly Building and, of much greater architectural interest, Fort Zeelandia, which is a star-shaped 18th century fortress constructed where the first colonists came ashore.  Unfortunately, the fort is closed on Mondays, so I have made a mental note to return there this Wednesday for a more thorough visit.

I returned to the pick-up point for my car along Waterkant, a beautiful roadway that ran alongside the Suriname River and had another row of beautiful colonial buildings on the opposite side of the roadway facing the river.

My walk had lasted just a few hours, but I was dripping with sweat in the tropical heat and ready for a cool drink.  Nonetheless, the walk whetted my appetite for more explorations of this beautiful city in the next couple of days.

Today’s extra bonus images