So late January we drove in to Suriname. We were immediately surprised by both the cultural diversity and the poverty as well. Of course we knew it wasn’t a rich country but with many of the roads and buildings in poor state and many people on the streets dressed in rags, it was a lot poorer than expected. In the small town Albina we managed to buy some food from the Chinese shopkeepers who didn’t speak any Dutch. However in the rest of Suriname we could speak Dutch again which was really nice. Carefully we drove on, now on the left side of the road. This took some real getting used too. Especially the oncoming traffic on the “wrong” side of the road made us nervous at first. And just so we wouldn’t forget, Kilian put a big piece of tape on the steering wheel, saying “drive left” 🙂 We made it to an overnight camp spot without any issues and the next day we drove on to the capital Paramaribo.
As I wrote in the Suriname blog previously we bought lots of Dutch food that we had missed and it was sooo good! I know Dutch food isn’t exactly haute cuisine, but there are definitely some yummie things that we had missed. In order to get a break from van life and so we could easily explore the city, we stayed in a cheap hotel for a few nights.
We went to fort Zeelandia which is perhaps the most know sight in the city. This is where the Dutch first landed and colonisation started. We also saw the presidential palace, saw the independence square and visited the St. Peter and Paul cathedral, a huge wooden church. We strolled through the streets full with colonial buildings and got soaking wet feet and shoes since there’s almost no drainage for the huge amounts of rainwater that comes down in the rainy season.
From Paramaribo we drove to the coast to visit a big and colourful Hindu complex, situated near a little town called “Weg naar zee”, which literally means road to sea. It was a very colourful complex but a bit run down and with no information, so we just enjoyed the sculptures.
Next to stop was the “Joden savanne” (Jewish savannah). It used to be a plantation populated by Jews fleeing from prosecution. It was founded somewhere in the 1600’s and somewhere in the 1700’s they had around 570 citizens. They also kept slaves to work on the sugar cane plantations. The community dealt with several attacks, both from slaves and from the local indigenous people and nobody has lived there since mid 19th century. Its now an outdoor museum with the left overs form a synagogue and some cemeteries. They are still excavating the area, but due to very limited funding, this is very slow going.
For a while I have been wanting to see some “serious” snakes. Yes we saw some small ones, but so far, despite many attempts, nothing big or venomous. We decided to try one more time and we booked a tour to Brownsberg. A nature reserve known for its snakes. We would drive up there ourselves and a guide would come with us and we would do both a day and an evening walking tour. We knew the road would be difficult but we weren’t prepared for the huge amount of slippery mud. And we have all terrain tyres, not special mud tyres. So after 4.5 years on the road, this became our Waterloo….
So having survived Brownsberg but without seeing any snakes in the wild and with gaining a lot of mud, it was time to leave the country. Again we had to take a ferry to reach Guyana and this time it would be more difficult. The ferry only goes on weekdays and usually only once a day. If you miss it or it’s full you have to wait another day. So we arrived on Sunday afternoon to take the ferry on Monday morning. Despite our very early arrival we were the 5th vehicle waiting in line! And more arrived during the night, including two big trucks… The following day we fortunately did make it on the ferry. It was a close call because the driver who we were parked behind was nowhere to be found when it was finally time to drive on to the ferry! So they started letting other cars, from the second row who had just arrived, go first. With a lot of honking and yelling the a-hole finally showed up, only to move his car to the side, he wasn’t even going to drive on to the bloody ferry, WTH! After a chaotic border process we were able to cross and drive in to Guyana. Also a left hand driving country, but by now we were fortunately a bit used to it.
Guyana looks a lot like Suriname. But even more poor and with groceries being incredible expensive! Apparently money is coming in form oil, but it’s definitely not visible yet. There’s also almost nothing to do for tourists, except for a few expensive tours where you fly into the jungle. We spend one day in Georgetown doing some shopping and some very limited sight seeing, basically the only attraction is a church… We spend the night at an event/ busines site and there we met Jose. He invited us to stay at his fathers land where there would be a creek and other facilities. Since it was on our way we gladly excepted.
The following day we were greeted by Jose’s father, Joe who showed us around. He rented out cabana’s and carbets, but only in the weekend. Now, during the week, we could use all the facilities, including a bedroom, for free! We opted to stay down by the river near a carbet and stayed here for three nights. A beautiful area where we did some work on the van, maintenance and cleaning. It did rain a lot unfortunately, but we could hang out in the carbet. Finnley really liked it too, even though he could roam freely through nature, he choose to hang out in the carbet which offered lots of opportunity for him to play while staying dry!
On Saturday morning we left to drive the infamous road between Linden and Lethem to the border with Brazil. This road is unpaved and can become very muddy and sometimes even impassible. We had deliberately planned to drive this road in the dry season. But nobody told the rainy season that and it had arrived late, so it was now still raining. It took us 17 hours to drive the stretch of 400km and we had to take yet another ferry (what do they have against bridges in these countries???)
On the 18th of February we drove in to Brazil, but this time only for a few days. We did some shopping in Boa Vista and camped at a nice river spot for a few nights and then on the 21st of February we drove in to our last “new” country of our 4.5 year road trip; Venezuela! The border crossing was relatively easy and after a quick stop in Santa Elena to stock up for some food, we drove in to the remote are called Gran Sabana. This border area is strictly guarded with police checkpoints, military check points and indigenous police check points! Everywhere we had to stop and show them our car papers and passports. Sometimes they would get on their phones to check if we had indeed past the previous point legally or if we were allowed to continue. But they were all very friendly and correct. Gran Sabana is a beautiful area that has both savannah and rainforest and lots of natural water. The road is definitely 4×4 only. The first night we stayed at a balneario. We had to pass an indigenous checkpoint to get here. When we didn’t drive out of it in the evening, someone came to check up on us to make sure we were ok! Very friendly and concerned, I guess we should have told at the check point we were going to spend the night there, but this was a new one, even for us.
After a pleasant night we drove on to the next stop, a short hike to a waterfall. From there we found a nice wild camp spot near river. We drove on a little bit to do another hike. But the road became very steep and uneven and we decided this short hike couldn’t be worth al the trouble so we turned around and drove to another hike, called Al Abismo.
This turned out to be a great decision. Close to the hike we met Carlos and he invited us to park up a little further in front of his house. He didn’t live in this house anymore, but in a house a 5 minute walk away. So we had the house and the pool to ourselves for as long as we liked! This was awesome. Finnley loved it too, he spend most of his time exploring the abandoned house. Lying on the cool tiles or walking across the roof. We also did the hike up to the Abismo (abyss) from where we had a very nice view across the rain forest and we visited some caves. It was Kilian’s birthday but being in the middle of nowhere he had to make do with a nice breakfast and some lovely views! We also visited Carlos and his wife Nicole who live in a beautiful self build natural house! They make money from bee keeping. The Gran Sabana is a gorgeous area and one we could live in.
Unfortunately after 5 nights we were out of food and had to drive on. We spend another night at a beautiful location near the Yuruani waterfall where we also had a nice view of the remote Roraima mountain area. Here you can see the highest waterfall in the world, Angel falls. You can only reach the waterfall by plane ($$$$) or a through a three day hike (one way!), so we didn’t see Venezuela’s most famous highlight. Can’t have it all right? And there’s so much beauty to see in Venezuela besides the waterfall.
And then the hunt for diesel (gasoil) began. We knew the fuel situation in Venezuela wasn’t great. So we filled up just before we left Brazil and we had enough diesel to drive 650km. It wasn’t enough… Every fuel station was closed. Nobody knew when to expect fuel and most gas stations only sell benzine, not diesel. Benzine was sold in lemonade bottles along the road, but no diesel. Eventually we managed to buy some diesel from a trucker who took it out of his own tank. We paid double the price, but at $1,- this was still a good price. We made it to Ciudad Guyana where there “was sure to be diesel” there wasn’t! I send out a cry for help in the Venezuela travellers group and someone thought he could arrange for us to get diesel in the morning. While staying in a parking lot from a hotel (once again for free, pool, shower etc included, because they want to help foreign travellers) one of the guards talked to someone else who promised us diesel the following morning. And he came through! Again this diesel was bought from the black market for double the price, but who cares! We now had enough fuel to drive to the coast where the fuel situation should be easier. Along the road most fuel stations where open but they literally had lines, longer than a km of cars waiting for benzine! We have never seen a situation this bad. Imaging having a transport business and having to wait in line half a day or even over night to get fuel! And people have to work, but instead they stand in line waiting for fuel. Bolivia is known amongst foreigners for being difficult to get fuel, but compared Venezuela, Bolivia is child’s play!
More about the fuel situation and travelling in Venezuela in March.
Weer genoten van jullie belevenissen !!
Fijn om te horen!