After ‘roughing it’ in the Brokopondo, we went down the Suriname River to a luxury eco-lodge called Knini Paati. We spent three nights there, doing all kinds of jungle things. There are a number of these lodges: we chose Knini Paati because it is the only one under Maroon management (see below). And, friends, this was more like it!
After a ride in a van with our new friends (most of whom were Dutch-speaking), we got off at Pokigron. That’s the end of the road, so we got our stuff into pirogues (local name korjaal). These are long wooden dugout boats, motorised and riding very low in the water. The Suriname River is very dry at the moment, so we had to get out halfway through our trip and walk for about ten minutes to another boat farther upstream. The river itself was beautiful, and we saw tons of birds along the way.
They met us with a welcome drink (why doesn’t everyone do this?) and lunch, then we went to our rooms. Which were (you’ll remember where we had been) amazing! They had a bed and a toilet and a front door and even air conditioning (during the night).
The day’s activities included swimming in the (very tame) rapids and taking a boat out at night to see caimans. Both were fun – sitting in the rapids provided a natural spa, and we spotted a bunch of itty bitty caimans. (Still creepy, with those teeth…)
And in the midst of all these activities, we treated ourselves to an even more welcome drink, at the bar! Also, the food was excellent. We asked a lot of questions and learned a lot about Surinamese cooking. (Even in the jungle, we are who we are!)
The people at Knini Paati were extraordinarily friendly. Many of them were talented too: we enjoyed their music and dancing most nights.
For us, one of the highlights of the trip was visiting Nieuw Aurora, a Maroon village on the river. Maroons are the descendants of slaves, kidnapped and brought from Africa to work the plantations. Some of the slaves escaped, and because of the surrounding jungle, and support from indigenous people, they were able to hide, and to establish villages, where their descendants still live today.
Nieuw Aurora is the best known village in the area, so many tourists visit. Still, we enjoyed seeing how boats are built, speaking to villagers, and being shown their church, primary school, medical centre (pretty impressive!) and a small airstrip. It was an added bonus that our guide was a native of the village! The children displayed wild enthusiasm for us, grabbing our hands and – in several cases – shinnying up and clasping our necks, as if we were a tree being climbed. (Alas, we don’t have photos since the villagers do not like to be photographed.)
We also met the village captain, who runs a store. We learned that part of the village is traditionally animist and polygamous, and the other part is Christian. The village church is Moravian, built to replace a wooden one destroyed by a flood.
But the part of the trip that suited us the best was relaxing in hammocks and looking at all the wildlife: lizards, birds, bats, frogs, bugs. We even had a monkey invasion on our last morning there!
All too soon, alas, we had to get back into the boats and leave Knini Paati to return to Paramaribo. But what fantastic memories of the people and the place!
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