suriname

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Suriname may be one of the smallest nations on earth, but it contains many worlds.

Here I am in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname with a cool Spanish girl from Madrid by the name of Patricia.
Suriname is small country inhabited by less than 500,000 people but with huge gold and bauxite reserves.   On the right are pictures of the Alcoa's operations in Suriname. Alcoa is the world's largest aluminium producer. FYI, Bauxite is used primarily to make aluminium.
You should see the size of Alcoa's operation, I mean not a picture like on the left but in real life. It's very intimidating. Especially when you put it in it's geographic context: hundreds of miles of nothingness, enough to make Samuel Beckett sigh. One comes accross maybe one or two bushnegroe tribes and then suddenly these huge machines, reservoirs and noises! Alcoa signed a concession with the state of Suriname shortly after the country gained independence, obtaining the right to mine an area of several thousand square kilometres in the event of a major discovery of bauxite. The company recently discovered bauxite in the middle of the country's largest "natural reserve park" and the State of Suriname is finding itself on its knees in front of a mining company, pleading for the right to maintain and protect its own natural heritage! It's as if the world's been turned upside down.

paramaribo is a really cool city. It's got a little Caribbean feel with a strong
Dutch influence. It's clean, orderly, yet warm and friendly. It's safe and small, so you can walk around at night yet diverse enough for you not to feel completely isolated.
Rumour has it that it is in much better state than Georgetown (capital of Guyana, British Guyana) yet less developed then Cayenne (which is a DOM a part entiere).

This weekend Patricia and I rented a 4x4 and took off into the hinterland. Of the 500,000 inhabitants of Suriname, 95% live near the coast, making Suriname one of the least densely populated countries in the world (with this in mind it is not surprising that of all countries, it was colonised by the Dutch).
We stayed in a camp right in the middle of the natural (bauxite) reserve I was telling you about. We spent two nights sleeping in hammocks. That was cool, to say the least; since Suriname is a tropical country, we brought neither sweaters nor blankets. At night we froze our arses off since the camp was located on a small mountain. What's more, being right next to a gigantic lake, we needed smart weapons to fight the armies of mosquitoes and other unidentified flying insects.

Now when I'm talking about a natural reserve, Im talking about hard-core-long-trunk-Jungle land. OK it's not Amazonia per se, but still Deep Rainforest with huge (I mean HUGE) spiders (some, the famous bird-spiders, look like tarantula's but are actually BIGGER), HUMONGOUS snakes, big, dangerous red ants like the ones you see in documentaries (), carrying big green leaves in a file, thereby cutting the path in a dense green line. We also saw some extremely old trees with long and thin vines just like in "GreyStoke", and incredible birds of all kinds, parrots who speak Spanish, wood-peckers (like the Walt Disney character woody-wood pecker, making rather irritating noises) and above all, howling monkeys. These are monkeys which have been named after their nasty tendency to howl deep "Ohms" in the mornings and in the evenings. When you hear them, you think "Oh my God", and it's one of two things:

-1- a group of Buddhist monks with a portable power generator, a microphone and a 120 watt amplifier saying "Ohm" in unison
-2- a bunch of howling monkeys
But much to my surprise, these monkeys were not large gorillas with developed thoraxes, but rather small red-haired tree-dwelling baboons.

We went on a long walk in the jungle, rested a bit at a waterfall, listening to the symphonic sounds of the forest. It was truly amazing. I only regret I didn't have a microphone to record it on a minidisk player, upload it on the web and later remix it with a rapid drum sequence, and then dub it "jungle music" (hahaha)

All the tourists in Suriname (or 90%) are Dutch, and since it's a nature sort of place they tend to be female (don't ask) and often avoiding life in Holland by conducting some sort of "research" or statistical survey or something so you never know what you can find in the forest.

The next day, after a hot debate on Yugoslavian geopolitics with the hot cook at the camp our travels took us to "the hunt for the Amerindian tribe". For those who, like me, did not know anything about Amerindians, the Indians in the Guyanas come chiefly (ha-ha) from two tribes: Arawak and Carib. We were told that an Arawak tribe lived somewhere west of the river, in a village called "powaka" so we set out in search of the Amerindians.       Instead we arrived in some dusty village inhabited by "bushnegroes". A bushnegroe (in case -like me- you didn't know) is a descendent of a first generation slave who had both the courage and the good fortune to escape alive from a Dutch plantation owner in the 17th century. In those times, the only way for a black man to be free was to run towards the jungle, so these guys ran into the jungle and continued living exactly the way they were before being captured. This is a good example of what makes Suriname such an interesting place, since the bushnegroes have maintained their African culture virtually intact, which is definitely not the case of most Africans today. Anyway I ask a bushnegroe the way to the Amerindian village and (I am not making this up) he replies "take the dirt road on the left 32 electricity posts down the road". So we counted thirty two electricity posts and sure enough, there was a small dirt road. We took it and it slowly got less and less wide, more and more rough, and before long we were driving in the jungle. At this point my colleague Patricia is telling me to turn around, but in my excitement (and I guess overwhelming stupidity) I feel that we were on the verge of reaching the Indian tribe, I could smell human presence, and they were probably just 1km more into the bush. Now remember that I'm driving a 4x4 pick up truck, a little like "Big Foot", that huge blue American truck with huge wheels which crushes 256 cars a minute, somewhat different from a white polo. The actual dirt road ended probably a mile or two ago, and I'm running over bushes, small trees, making my own way through the dense bush, creating a new road network, feeling more North than South american. I'm expecting to stumble at any moment on a clan of stone age Amerindians smoking ayacuhsa when suddenly the car gets stuck in the mud. We seriously did not want to find ourselves stranded in the middle of the bush on a Sunday afternoon...

In the end we decide to turn around and go back to Paramaribo. Then only miles down the main road we see a sign "Powaka" and much to our disappointment, the so-called Ameridian tribe resembles more a Navajo gang of Tupac-listening teenagers drinking Miller in pick-up trucks larger than mine, rather than "Little wolf running over the sun smoking weird plants and dancing like a shaman".     Above is a picture of Powaka, a cultural mecca of the Amerindian civilisation   So we left. Then it was the occasion for me to prove to Patricia that -on top of my formidable sense of direction- I was gifted in the art of driving: to cross a river we had to put our car on a barge and no, I did not drive the pick up truck into the river, thank you very much. Instead admire my coolness on the barge, as I stepped out of the car.  
On the other side of the river we "found" a Spanish-Jewish cemetery dating from the 17th century which took us about 20 seconds to visit. Then we swam in a black river, showed our kangooroos to the locals but that was it: time to head home.


It is with these memories in mind that I leave you, beloved ones. I hope they will inspire the same feelings that have inspired me to share them with you today.  Suriname STATISTICS AND GENERAL INFORMATION

Republic of Suriname

National name: Republiek Suriname

President: Ronald Venetiaan (2000)

Prime Minister: Jules Ajodhia (2000)

Land area: 62,344 sq mi (161,471 sq km); total area: 63,039 sq mi (sq km)

Population (2006 est.): 439,117 (growth rate: 0.2%); birth rate: 18.0/1000; infant mortality rate: 23.0/1000; life expectancy: 69.0; density per sq mi: 7

Languages: Dutch (official), Surinamese (lingua franca), English widely spoken, Hindustani, Javanese

ethnicity/race: East Indians (Hindustanis) 37%, Creole (mixed white and black) 31%, Javanese 15%, "Bush Negroes" (also known as Maroons) 10%, Amerindian 2%, Chinese 2%, white 1%, other 2%

religions: Hindu 27.4%, Protestant 25.2% (predominantly Moravian), Roman Catholic 22.8%, Islam 19.6%, indigenous 5%

Literacy rate: 93% (1995 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $2.081 billion; per capita $4,100. Real growth rate: 2%. Inflation: 9.5%. Unemployment: 9.5% (2004). Arable land: 0.4%. Agriculture: paddy rice, bananas, palm kernels, coconuts, plantains, peanuts; beef, chickens; shrimp; forest products. Labor force: 156,700 (2004); agriculture 8%, industry 14%, services 78%. Industries: bauxite and gold mining, alumina production; oil, lumbering, food processing, fishing. Natural resources: timber, hydropower, fish, kaolin, shrimp, bauxite, gold, and small amounts of nickel, copper, platinum, iron ore. Exports: $881 million f.o.b. (2004 est.): alumina, crude oil, lumber, shrimp and fish, rice, bananas. Imports: $750 million f.o.b. (2004 est.): capital equipment, petroleum, foodstuffs, cotton, consumer goods. Major trading partners: Norway, U.S., Canada, Belgium, France, UAE, Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, Japan, China, Brazil (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 64,000 (1997); mobile cellular: 4,090 (1997). Radio broadcast stations: AM 4, FM 13, shortwave 1 (1998). Radios: 300,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 3 (plus seven repeaters) (2000). Televisions: 63,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 2 (2000). Internet users: 14,500 (2002).

Transportation: Railways: total: 166 km (single track) (2001). Highways: total: 4,492 km; paved: 1,168 km; unpaved: 3,324 km (2000). Waterways: 1,200 km; most important means of transport; oceangoing vessels with drafts ranging up to 7 m can navigate many of the principal waterways. Ports and harbors: Albina, Moengo, New Nickerie, Paramaribo, Paranam, Wageningen. Airports: 46 (2002).

International disputes: area disputed by French Guiana between Riviere Litani and Riviere Marouini (both headwaters of the Lawa); area disputed by Guyana between New (Upper Courantyne) and Courantyne/Koetari [Kutari] rivers (all headwaters of the Courantyne); territorial sea boundary with Guyana is in dispute.

They are renowned as the world's greatest ocean wanderers, spending a lifetime exploring the most obscure waters.

So when a World Wildlife Federation team from Britain tagged a giant leatherback turtle with a satellite-tracking device in South America last year, they hardly expected the critically endangered creature to turn up a few miles off the Cornish coast more than a year later.

But the transmitter revealed that Aikanti, a 1.5m-long female turtle, made a 7,000-mile journey from Suriname to Britain.

After swimming in British waters for the past few days, she has now begun the homeward journey to the South American beach of her birth, to lay eggs.

Aikanti was fitted with the device in South America in June las year, as part of a WWF project to monitor the movement and threats to Atlantic species. The turtle's route to Britain initially took her to the west African coast, and from there to Portugal and the Bay of Biscay.

Rob McNeil, part of the team that tagged Aikanti, said that it was astonishing she had turned up in the UK. Food and ocean currents probably drew her to British waters, which are rich in jellyfish, he said.

"We were very lucky to have tagged a turtle that came to the UK. It goes to show what spectacular endurance these animals have," Mr McNeil said.

Mark Wright, chief scientist for WWF-UK, said that it was not uncommon for leatherbacks to venture to Britain.

"These are creatures that most people associate with tropics, but they visit the UK fairly regularly," he said. "The biggest leatherback ever found, which was about 2.5m long, was washed up on Harlech beach in Wales in the 1990s.

"It is essential that the world takes steps to keep these visitors to Britain from extinction."

Leatherbacks are solitary travellers and spend their lives in the world's seas in an average lifespan of 80 years, although some survive for more than 100. They endure long journeys by adjusting their body temperature. Only females can be tagged while they come to beaches to lay eggs - males never venture on land. Another female, Kawana, who was also tagged as part of the WWF project, died less than a mile from the Suriname beach after being caught in a discarded fishing net.

Thousands of leatherbacks are believed to be killed by abandoned fishing gear or long-line fisheries. While the species has survived for more than 100 million years, only a total of about 34,000 nesting females remain.

Estimates show the species is declining rapidly, especially in the Pacific. In the past 20 years, adult female numbers have slumped to 2,300, making the Pacific leatherback the world's most endangered marine turtle.

Aikanti's arrival in the UK coincides with tonight's edition of Extinct on ITV, featuring marine turtles in South America.

source: http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article2073055.ece

isn't this picture beautyfull? 

one of the most beuatyfull places is suriname is galibi

The Galibi Nature Reserve is world famous as a nesting site for endangered sea turtles. Four species come ashore to lay their eggs between February and August. The nearby Amerindian villages of Christiannkondre and Langemankondre can also be visited, giving you an opportunity to purchase Carib indian artwork.

Galibi is a Carib word for 'watchman'. This is a wonderful place to relax for a few days.

Here are undisturbed sea turtle nesting beaches, where you have the best chance to observe different species of turtles: the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and the olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea). Eilanti Beach is the only beach where mass nesting aggregations (arribadas) of the olive ridley are known to have occurred in the Atlantic region. The hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) nests only sporadically in Suriname with rarely more than twenty-five nests per year for all of Suriname.

The Galibi Nature Reserve is situated in the Northeast corner of Suriname, at the mouth of the Marowijne River, bordering French Guiana. Because the saline oceanic Guiana Current and the freshwater flow of the Marowijne River collide along the east and north borders of the reserve, it is exposed to many different environmental factors. This results in a great biological diversity characterized by the Suriname coast.

The Galibi reserve and the nearby Amerinidan villages are accessible only by boat, about 1 1/2 hours downstream from the drop in point, Albina. The villagers are allowed to use the reserve for fishing, hunting, plant collecting and small-scale agricultural activities.

Local news in suriname 

• Dagblad Suriname (Paramaribo) [In Dutch]
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• De Ware Tijd (Paramaribo)Local news paper
  
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• De West (Paramaribo) [In Dutch]
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• http://www.nospang.com/media/radio/skyradio.htm
  
• one of the most popular radio station also on the net
  

 Art of suriname

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This story came from http://damien.acheson.online.fr/?from=suri

all respect for Damien Acheson