Driving Suriname

I knew not what to expect when we landed in Suriname but I enjoyed driving a smooth road through neatly tilled farmland. 

Suriname is the smallest country in South America with a population of 500,000. It got independence from The Netherlands in 1975 and Dutch is the official language. However it is one of the most diverse countries you’ll find with a population of Chinese, Indians, Indonesians, Muslims, Afro-Caribbean’s you name it. Indonesian food is popular and supermarkets are mostly owned by ethnic Chinese. It’s an extraordinary place and rather like it as it’s clean and orderly like Holland in the tropics.

Very neat European road signs:

Loading a truck with harvested rice. Suriname exports oil, gold and agricultural products and has a relatively high standard of living. 

Nowhere is perfect these cobbles are not my favorite road surface. 

As annoying as cobbles are there was a mile long stretch of dirt road which came as a surprise. 

At first I thought “Drempel” was the name of a village but after a while I came to the conclusion it meant “speed bump.”

Even the poorest homes were tidy with swept yards and flowers in pots or pruned shrubs for ornamentation. 

Chinese owned food store:

Just a little shower. 

I was surprised to see what looked like a rattlesnake crossing the road. I stopped for it. 

A flood control gate. 

Bridge fishing just like in the Keys:

We arrived in the capital after dark found the apartment and collapsed in bed. A long couple of days. Friday Layne was admitted to the ICU. At first they thought dengue then they figured malaria. Fucking brilliant.