I just returned from what I know will be one of the most memorable trips of my life. Fourteen Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) set out on an expedition to reach a secluded place deep in the untouched rain forest of Suriname and we succeeded.
We were logistically organized and lead by my good friend and fellow PCV, John, but literally lead by a pack of Surinamese boat men that held our lives in their hands guiding us along the Suriname River. We started the trip with a 4:00am departure on Monday morning with the hopes of arriving to John's village by dark. Ha...wrong! The water is so low from dry season that travel is dramatically slower than average. We often would hit sand in the middle of the river and have to step out and walk along the boat as it trudged along to deeper water. Or the river would be so dry in places that we actually carried/pushed/pulled the boat over the rocks to the other side.
Darkness descended upon us so we posted up for the night in a village along the way. We found an empty house, packed in tight, and all managed to find a spot to tie a hammock. The boatmen slept out on the rocks next to the boats with all of the supplies (including food, gas, equipment, and our 7 cases of beer) for the expedition.
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| Here is where we tied our hammocks for the night. |
Tuesday morning we got off to a great start. We were back in boats and on the river by 8:00am. We gratefully arrived to John's village, in the afternoon with daylight to spare. We got washed up, ate well, took a tour of his village, and of course cracked open some djogos of Parbo.
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Excited to have arrived to John's village to rest and regroup.
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| John (the organizer) and Me |
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| Another highlight was getting to go with Christina to visit her village--which is within walking distance to John's village. Here we are standing next to her little gangasa in the back of her house. |
Third day, back on the river at 9:00am heading towards our main destination--one small gangasa and latrine built in the jungle all by its lonesome--that is 8 hours of traveling further (well for the dry conditions) upriver (yes, the Suriname river travels from South to North) from the last village.
Alas we joyously reached our resting stop! Before I could tie my hammock, one guide was out fishing, another two were skinning the Kaiman (which is similar to a crocadile but smaller) that we shot on the travel up, and the last guide already had made a cookng fire with a pot of rice going.
That night we ate well, fresh fish and kaiman, over rice. We went to sleep knowing that the entire next day (Thursday) was a rest day.
The day was filled with activities like sleeping, searching for "lounge chairs" among the rocks in the rapids, Chinese Checkers, lots of talking and telling stories, eating, and more sleeping.
Unfortunately, a few of the PCVs got pretty sick while on the trip, maybe from accidentally drinking some river water or maybe the food. We are not sure. No emergencies though--just really really uncomfortable people.
Friday was back on the boat. We would have arrived at 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon, back to John's village, except for the exciting pursuit to kill the Tapir. I don't have pictures of this because my camera at this point had an exhausted battery and no electricity to recharge it. In total (not including the fish and Kaiman already shot two days ago), two baboons, a bird of some kind, and a Tapir were shot!!! The smaller animals fit in the boat fine, but the Tapir had to be cut up then and there in order to bring it all with us. Many of us watched a large animal being butchered right before our eyes for the first time. To be honest, I don't know what the laws are in Suriname around hunting these animals, so I don't know if it was legal or illegal to be shooting these animals. In the moment, the shock factor of it all was exciting. It also felt good to know how many people the animals will feed. Additionally, the men did not hunt to make a profit, they did it for the food, at least in this case.
It took all of Saturday and half of Sunday to finally make it back to Paramaribo. Everyone arrived safe and sound, exhausted and accomplished.
EPIC.
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