Suriname country

Many good books, and nowadays websites like this one, describe Suriname to the interested tourist, bussiness person, scientist, historian or adventurer. So, the only unique additions I can make to this are my own (highly personal) impressions and experiences, gained over the 3 times I visited this country. Just to set the right background, these few facts about Suriname: its 163,265 square kilometres surface consists largely of uncultivated rain forest, leaving only a northern rim of about 30 km wide where most of its 390,000 citizens live.

Fig. 1. A close up of Suriname.

This already makes clear that a couple of liberating conditions are found here which are atypical for most parts of the world: no overpopulation, no overregulation, but an abundance of premieval forest and of course warm weather all year through. These are essentially the things I appreciated most when I had my time off on weekends and went journeying through the country. My favourite destinies became the forested areas southward of Paramaribo (which still needs to be pursued more southward than the Brownsberg environment I've been) and the northeastern shores of Suriname, the Indian village Galibi - reachable only by boat through Albina and via the Marowijne river. During the working week, Paramaribo environment also holds many beautiful spots and pleasant restaurants and terraces I kept discovering.
Suriname is a blessed country in many ways - also natural disasters here are very rare (hurricanes bend of to the north before they reach the Americas) - and this is reflected in its people. They are most often friendly, sophisticated and relaxed, and used to a high standard of living - although the continuing economic woes are posing an ever increasing strain on many of them. The following pictures are a quick pick from the many I have and hardly do these regions any justice, but I jope to improve on this in the near future..

Paramaribo environment..

Two sides of a street on the "Waterkant": the Suriname river and typical wooden houses from the colonial time.
The Palm garden behind the Presidential Palace, a view on Suriname river from my room in hotel Eco Resort.

south of Paramaribo..

A recreation site in the forest, at John Starke training center.

Even more south.. a view from Brownsberg, overlooking Brokopondo lake and the Amazon forest.

eastern Suriname..

Sunrise at Galibi, an Indian village on the eastern coast of Suriname.

To conclude...

The annual miss Galibi dance competition, on the beach of the Marowijne river.