Sea Turtles in Suriname

We got up early for our bus from Guyana to Suriname at 5am. Too early, as it turns out, as it arrived at 6, before bouncing along the road to Moleson Creek. This small town is on the Courantyne River, which forms the border with Suriname. We stamped out of the country here, and boarded a car ferry to take us the 30 minutes to the other side.

The immigration process on the other side can be a very slow affair - locals in the know sprint off the boat to get in line first. We adopted this policy - several of us walking quickly, keeping just behind the border guard leading the way. Jo sabotaged one guy ahead of us by accidentally standing on his flip-flop, and we got a prized spot near the front of the line. We got through quickly, but then had to wait for an hour or so as the other people in our bus took their time to get past the queue. We finally arrived in Paramaribo, the Surinamese capital, 12 hours after we'd set off.

The palm garden in Paramaribo

Paramaribo, for us, wasn't the most appealing of cities. There are plenty of white, balconied colonial houses along a few streets near the Suriname River, a small fort and a public garden filled with hundreds of tall palm trees. On Sunday mornings, people get together to have birdsong competitions where they pit their prized 'twatwas' against each other. Unfortunately, the timing didn't work out for us to see this. We did see lots of people carrying birdcages around during the week though! Apart from that, we found the city a little lacking in soul. It was pretty quiet and felt a lot more like a small country town than a capital city. It's very spread out and most people have cars to get around. We found it very difficult to find essentials like grocers and pharmacies - there didn't seem to be any in the centre at all. Although almost every shop calls itself a 'supermarket', they are more like corner shops and don't stock fresh produce, which limited our ability to cook for ourselves.

Colonial buildings and cars in Paramaribo

Apart from the capital city, the other things to do in Suriname are go to the jungle (moth-y) or go to a sea turtle nesting site. We opted for the latter, but baulked at the 175 Euros quoted by tour agencies for a single night. Instead, we took a bus to Albina, the border town with French Guiana, then negotiated a small boat to take us the 2 hours down the river estuary to Christaankondre. This is a village at the mouth of the river, close to the Atlantic Ocean, which is completely cut off from the rest of the country except by boat. We took a basic room in the only place to stay and joined a small tour group to go and see the turtles that night.

Christiaankondre - in the middle of nowhere

We were rewarded with a full moon giving us great light to search for turtle tracks along the beach. This is the easiest way to find them as at the top of the trail they dig a hole to lay in while laying their eggs. They lay between 100-200, then bury them in sand and dash back to the sea. We found several turtles, and they were enormous - maybe 2 metres in length. We saw every stage in the process: the finding a suitable spot and clearing it; the digging the hole; the laying; the burying; and the dash back to sea We also saw a couple of people in this very remote area who were probably stealing the eggs to sell. Although the beaches here have a nominal guard, it is very easy to go there when the guards are not.

The back of a green turtle laying eggs

The next morning, we found another boat to take us back to Albina, the border town. We took yet another boat across the Maroni River into French Guiana. The border process on either side was the most lax we've seen anywhere in the world, and this time there were no queues to negotiate! We are going to spend about a week in this French territory, before flying into Brazil.