Niew Amsterdam

 If you have a colony parked up a river and it’s making you money from all the slaves running the plantations around it, then you need a fort at the river mouth to keep pirates and rivals at bay. You also need a quarantine station to make sure new arrivals don’t bring disease (they didn’t have vaccinations back then). 

If you are in Suriname you let this history fall into disrepair but you leave the historical site open to anyone who wants to pay a visit.

We figured it was time Rusty relearned his travel skills so we took him  with us. Actually he had been acting a bit bored pacing around the apartment so we figured he needed some stimulation and the recent rains have dropped temperatures into the 80s. 

I think he enjoyed it. 

The distance to Niew Amsterdam was about 22 miles and Google Maps estimated the drive time at nearly an hour. 

Take a wild guess why the journey is so long for such a short distance…

Sticky traffic to get out of Paramaribo for one, plus the slow speeds required on the paved but very narrow back road to New Amsterdam slowed us down too. 

Neat tidy well organized Suriname with its speed bumps (drempel). 

The park in New Amsterdam is dedicated to independence, including  from The Netherlands in 1975. However there is also a monument to  the ship named below that in 1873 brought indentured Indians from India to work at the jobs slaves had done before emancipation started in 1863 and took a decade to complete. 

Indentured servitude was a polite name for slavery in the post slavery world. 

I’ve never previously seen a cannon held together with duct tape but Rusty found a spot in the shade to face off against the guns. 

There were a couple of local families picnicking at the tables in the shade but there were no staff or anything open on a Saturday. 

I couldn’t figure out what the big sandals symbolized but there they were:

More statuary dedicated to remembering the slaves.

And the drive back Paramaribo that seemed so much shorter than the drive out. On the same road. He wasn’t keen to board but he came reluctantly. 

We passed a cemetery similar to the huge main one in Paramaribo, uninteresting graves made of what look like bathroom tiles. 

And a school. 

The town was described by a traveler as pretty but what we found was a pretty park in an average odd suburban town common in Suriname. 

The capital is the same, a series of suburban streets and lots of greenery with no real center.  The homes are mostly well built brick and mortar homes with neat gardens a bit above the plank structures found in poorer countries. 

We passed a telecommunication museum - closed of course. 

Then back into the chaos of Paramaribo. 

We had planned lunch at our destination but the restaurant was closed so instead we stopped at our favorite fast food place, Roopram near our home.  

After six long weeks in Suriname it’s a lot easier to order food than it was at first, now I know what nasi and bami mean and what comes in a roti. 

We also stopped at Choi’s “ where shopping is a pleasure” and Layne picked up some supplies for the road. 

I walked Rusty after a fashion. 

Then we got home and opened our aircraft style packed lunches, lamb roti for about $16 each. 

Except this is Suriname and shat seems easy isn’t. Instead of peeling back the plastic lid shreds. Sigh. 

But there it is, a mild curry, boiled potatoes and beans, and naan bread with annoying yellow dal powder inside which goes everywhere and adds nothing to the taste. 

A tired old dog after a long day. 

I was pretty tired too. My head cold is only slowly getting better. 

Tomorrow we drive to France.