Monday, March 26, 2012 – departure for Suriname!
Worked most of the beautiful morning before our hotel departure. We arrived at the Miami airport at 11:30 to find the Air Suriname counter, which they rent for four hours when they have flights! Several of the others from our group were also checking in so we had time to talk, walk around and eat lunch before boarding the 737 for Paramaribo (Para-MAY-ee–bo) at 3:30. We wondered why the flight was to last until 11:59PM and luckily, we found out it was NOT and it was even better as we had a 45 minute stopover in Aruba! We had a hot dinner of chicken and rice and cookies, enjoyed the Paibo Beer, and Fernandes drinks of lime green, cherry red and pineapple yellow! The flight attendants were very friendly and so were the people around us. One was a logger, several worked for Alcoa, some had lived in the Netherlands (since they were a Dutch colony) and one was a developer.
We are now one hour ahead of East Coast and so we arrived at 10:40PM. Yeah! An hour can make a huge difference. Immigration consisted of paying US$25 for a visa (nice to have this benefit instead of mailing off your passport with additional fees attached) and collecting suitcases to load in the 24 passenger van. The drive to the Krasnapolsky Hotel was about 30-45 minutes, in the capital city of Paramaribo.
After a quick checkin, we found cheese sandwiches, white bread, peanut butter, butter and a bottle of water waiting for us! What a great gesture extended to all guests due to the late arrival of the flight and since all the restaurants are closed and there is no room service.
We are on the continent of South America; north of the equator, bordered by Brazil, Guyana (used to be British Guyana) and French Guyana (we were just on Devil’s Island a few weeks ago). Paramaribo, the capitol city of Suriname is a junction of cultures and languages. The country is a Dutch colony where people from many countries arrived to work in the plantations. Our hotel is located in the center of the city and there is actually a Popeye’s in the mall courtyard of the hotel! They are undergoing renovations now for a new lobby and breakfast area so our breakfasts were in the RUMORS bar in the hotel’s courtyard. Our room, #621, had a 2-chair balcony facing the Islamic mosque, located next to the Jewish synagogue. But more on that later….
Sleep did not come easily and before we knew it, the alarm was ringing.
One of the group members found an article in today’s Miami Herald about Suriname! “From Despot to Democrat – Leader turns Heads”. Google it from March 26 to read their woes.
