River Cruise

Today's activity is to take a "river cruise" It'll be interesting to see what they think is cool.


River cruise is just a large dugout canoe. But with a interesting guide, we went across the Suriname river to Fort Niew Amsterdam (built in 1600's) and then headed up a side river. He took us thru an existing plantation. Met several people who have lived their entire lives there. Products have changed but still run as a large farm/ranch. Some aqua culture (shrimp) cattle veggies etc. The current owner bought the place many years ago. (an old jewish gent who lives in town) First thing he did was sell the land under peoples homes to them for 1 guilder per lot. So many own their own homes and really like the owner. Just interesting to see how people live in little villages in the middle of nowhere. Our guide seemed to know everyone and they all knew him. So we got into see many simple things. People smoking fish. A pet capibara. Monkeys, pets and wild, and much more.

Then we went upstream to another plantation (1789) whicch has been turned into a hotel. But all the old buildings were there, grounds well taken care of and a real feel for an old plantation.

Worthwhile day.

Suriname

Suriname, formerly known as Dutch Guiana, was acquired by the Dutch from the British. (I think in the 1700's) Because things grow so well here (especially sugar cane) the Dutch traded New Amsterdam and Manhattan island for Suriname. The country gained independance in 1975. Not as clean as the french but better than Guiana. In the old town, lots of OLD dutch buildings. I found our church in one of those old buildings. Large population of blacks (escaped and freed slaves) Javanese, Chinese, Indians, (India), Amerindian, and Dutch. All speaking dutch with a caribbean/creol accent. (Chinese is "chinee")

While eating lunch we watched some repair construction on the siding of an old building. We shook our heads at the scaffolding.

Back to Suriname

Liked the trip to French Guyane ? Now you have to come back the same way you came. No air connections between the 2 countries. At least the roads in French Guyane are fairly good. By the way, rolling hills in FG as opposed to the total flatland in Guiana.

And we discovered why the air conditioning in his car was not working well. His alternator did not work so the blower motor didn't have any juice to run.

And when he was done with a drink, he just tossed the empty out the window. We climbed all over him for that. (always seem the natives are the trashy folks, not the visitors) Went by a small river where a fisherman had just caught a nice fish (18 inches) and our driver stopped. Not to show us the fish but he tried to purchase it. We told him we were not going to drive 2 hours in a fishy car.

Lame - do not use Albert for transportation

After another river crossing and teeth ratteling drive we ended the night in Paramariboo, Suriname.

Salvation Islands - Devil's Island

Next day we headed on a one hour boat trip out to the islands. For the non-trivia folks, back many years ago, when countries had lots of inmates, they settled penal colonies away from their countries. That is how much of Australia was settled (and maybe why Australians are so hardy) The French sent their prisoners to French Guyane. Many towns on the mainland had minimum security prisons and some medium. Where are you going to escape to ? The most dangerous and those who kept trying to escape were sent to the islands. (the name Salvation Islands came from a disasterous colonization effort years before and the islands provided life until relief parties came)

The main and administrative island was St. Joseph. There they held prisoners in compounds but they were free during the day to move around the island, they all had jobs, tended gardens, fished, etc. The solitary confinement cells were here. 5 by 8 feet. Over 70% who went into solitary died there. Even speaking with you neighbor was not allowed. Gruel and a piece of bread was put through a tiny door once a day.

The worst of the worst were sent to Devil's Island (one of three islands) Until Papillion (remember the Steve McQueen movie or the book) no one had ever escaped from Devil's Island. The French continued to use this penal colony until the 1950's.

Now if you think I learned a bunch about the islands while there, you would be very wrong. Everything is in french only, tours in french only. descriptive signs and plaques in french only and helpful staff in french only. Lots of natives go out to the islands. When you get just that far from the mainland, the water goes from chocolate to silty green and you can see a few feet into the water. On the north side of Royal Island, there is actually a sand beach instead of mud. Long hot day.

French Guyane

We stayed in the town of Kourou at the the Hotel des Roches. No, not the roach hotel. Hotel on the rocks. It is situated on the point of land where the river enpties into the ocean. By the way, every river and the ocean here is milk chocolate colored. Tons of silt. The motel and the town are very modern and clean (best hotel so far) Most everything you would want is available and several you would not want (McDonalds, etc)

The reason is that Kourou is the center for the european space agency, all their launch pads, control centers and assembly areas are all here.
Trivia - it is much more efficient to launch to space from near the equator than further north. So every launch has foreign dignatories and polititions, etc who are involved in that satellite or mission. When you are showing off, you clean house and make everything look good. The 20 of this month (October, 2011) they are blasting off a satellite with a soviet Soyous rocket so the motel had bunches of Russian speaking folks.

But try to get a waitress to explain the french only menu.

Travel from hel - oops, travel from heck

Early morning flight from Georgetown, Guyana to Suriname. (no problem so far) Then the "seanic drive" to Kourou, French Guyane. This is where the problems began. We were picked up in a minivan taxi with a "guide" . The van shocks had been shot for years, and so had the road. After 20 minutes, the road disappeared. Ok, it didn't disappear the pavement stoppped and the potholes and wash boards began. And the driver liked to travel at 110 kph to 120 kph. Driving down the middle of the road most of the time, passing anywhere. This is the main road east to west in the country. Erik, think of the road from Honduras to Guatemala.

Finally after 4 hours of gut wrentching jolts, we arrived at the river which forms the border with French Guyane. We left our minivan and driver, took a dugout canoe over the river (Timm, think Marajo Island) And then we were in France. The other countries gained independence earlier in my life but this is still a French colony. And it is FRENCH. Euros only. ATTITUDE. This is France, we not speek de English. (English pig dogs) But it was very clean for litter. Our "guide" picked up his oun car to drive us the 3 hours into the country to hour hotel. (Shar, think Cartegena taxi) On the road he had a tire blow out, AC did not work very well, could hardly understand him. Whew. More later, the line is backing up for the computer.

Kaitour falls

This day we caught an early flight ( a charter plane ) to fly about 1hr 20 minutes into the interior. One of their national parks is Kaitour Falls. Since we had chartered the plane for just the 3 of us, our tour company sent one of their junior associates with us, (we had weight capacity)

Selwin is 23 and a skinny black man. Trying to be very professional in dress and act. But Selwin had never been in an airplane before, much less a small plane. After the safety check, we were off. As soon as we left the ground - you know the feelings that creates - Selwin FREEKED out, screaming like, well like a girl. Travel member Candy was closestst to him and kind of grandmotherly tried to calm him down. Pilot was fairly young but very professional and and meticulous. Pilot ignored Selwin completely. After a while, he started to look around at the countryside. Upon landing, he did just fine.

We took 2 hours at the falls to check out the various viewpoints. Nice falls, about 850 feet high. The falls created a nice breeze, which was well appreciated. Around the falls are often seen Cock-o-the-rock birds and poisonous yellow tree frogs. They live in the water of these plants, but too hot today to be seen. But it was so hot we did not get to see either.

I talked to Selwin about the feelings one has with such an experience and tried to teach him that he could train his body to interperatate the feelings as fear or fun, he can chose. On the way home he did just fine and we had the pilot fly over the city so Selwin could see from the air what his city looks like. (Absolutely no mountains anywhere near here) He especially noticed the harbor bridge and even saw his own house from the air. Selwin came back from out trip more of a man, more confidant and much more experienced. It was fun to be along and experience his change.