Suriname, An Eco-Adventure

 

 

After a communication mix up, forty five minutes later than planned I am picked up by an employee van to be driven to Bergen Dal Resort.

 

 

 

Like most places nowadays Paramaribo has it's early morning rush hour traffic but it is handled the old-fashioned way.

 

 

Policeman with white gloves and whistles do their best to keep the hectic floor of traffic going.

 

 

 

 

A few stops to pick up employees and soon we are in the lush green open countryside of Suriname. In about two hours we leave the main paved road and begin a short journey on a gravel one through a dense forest. In less than ten minutes we arrive at our destination for the day.

 

A friendly welcome and my activities for the day are arranged. I relax a bit then it is a motorized boat ride along the Suriname River towards the resort's adventure center.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here I find refuge from the blazing morning sun and doze off under a nice large shade tree. I am awaken from a relaxing dream as it is time to go kayaking.

 

It is a lazy outing as we paddle upstream then let the river erase all of our progress. This is fine as I am more about enjoying the scenery than kayaking.

 

 

 

We are told that along this part of the river there are piranhas but they are not the aggressive ones that are further upstream.

 

 

 

 

It takes a moment for me to accept and process this information but soon my feet are dangling in the refreshing water hoping that our guide is 100% correct. Apparently this area has the larger black piranhas which are not as worrisome as the smaller red ones. Another aggressive fish in the area is the “Wolf Fish” but today they all seem to be on their best behavior. Knowing this we eventually find a sandbar along the river and take a full swim.

 

My swim is not without a bit of adventure.

 

 

 

 

I manage to take my “waterproof” camcorder with me only to discover it was not really “waterproof”. However, the most disappointing part about this was not being able to capture my next adventure, zip lining.

After a brief safety demo we then set off for what would be one of my best zip lining adventures. A 600 foot line across the Suriname River then zip lining 600 feet upside down across a rainforest is just going to be hard to beat. It is going to be an experience I will never forget.