Zoos and Butterflies in Suriname

We have mixed emotions about zoos. We've been to some spectacular ones like the Denver Zoo, for instance, and we've visited some smaller zoos in the Amazonia that were revolting. In all cases, the animals are spectacles, on view for all to see, and in enclosures. The type and size of the enclosures and the care given to the animals is paramount in how we rate the zoo. We passed up the zoo in Cayenne, but we were close to the Paramaribo Zoo and had the time. It's a small zoo, hidden away in a wooded area north of the city, accessible by a narrow, bumpy road with limited signage. Not many people visit though the admission is fairly cheap (SRD10/pp). It's an uninspiring place.

It was a hot day and the animals were naturally lethargic … as were we. We were interested in the zoo because it specialized in South American species. No polar bears or kangaroos or buffalos, but instead tapirs and anacondas and colorful, exotic birds. For instance, we'd never seen a Harpie eagle in the flesh, but of course, his small enclosure made us sad for him instead of excited about seeing one for the first time.

The anteater was out and about, snuffling for ants. The single anaconda was all coiled up in the grass trying to stay cool in his cage and the spectacled caiman was eyes-only above the murky, trash-filled waterhole in which he lived.

A lone tapir roamed his enclosure, as did a couple peccaries and coatis. Two river otters seemed to be enjoying their small pool of water, but they were hard to see. A few monkeys were playing in the trees behind the cages and they were much more fascinating than the caged animals.

Many of the signs had both Dutch and English descriptions. Some of the signs were missing. In other cases, there were signs, but the cages were empty. Most of the cages were surrounded in a fine mesh with a single bar in front to keep people away. Bad for photos and totally useless to keep people out. Unsupervised kids ran in front of the bars, threw rocks and trash at the animals and banged on cages. No one on the supervisory staff seemed to be aware or care. When I scolded one little boy for throwing rocks at the jaguar, he gave me a dirty look, threw another rock and moved on. No parents in sight. The jaguar looked unconcerned.

The birds were gorgeous, but there were several of them crowded in each cage. Photographing them behind bars is not very satisfying. The zoo was depressing, and we left.

We'd heard about the Neotropical Butterfly Park and decided it was probably worth a visit. For some reason, we never feel quite as sorry for butterflies bred in captivity for display. We made our way south out of the Parbo to Lelydorp. The parking lot for the butterfly park was nearly empty and we weren't sure whether it was even open. It was. The admission price was steep (SRD35/pp) for Suriname. I doubt many locals get to visit.

There were a couple of buildings to explore on our own before heading on a guided tour. The Insect Museum came first. Primarily concentrating on butterflies and moths, it gave the arachnids and roaches and beetles and other 6-legged critters their fair share of display place. I noted that all specimens were actually from Suriname which made my skin crawl.

Here's some butterfly trivia for you … “Worldwide there are an estimated 20,000 species of butterflies with roughly ten times more moths.” In Suriname, 1,460 butterfly species have been identified.

A small gallery next door had mediocre quality bird and animal paintings on display. Upstairs in the same building was the panorama with associated audio, touted as “”a hand painted 360⁰ panoramic view of typical Surinamese landscapes”. We were unimpressed, but then maybe we're getting jaded in our old age.

The “vlindertuin” was my favorite part … the butterfly garden. We were able to photograph several beauties before the guide corralled us for a tour.

We didn't realize that the park also bred boa constrictors and turtles for export. We passed by cage after cage of constrictors and then a large area of caged white rats (boa cafeteria) before heading to the turtle hatchery. Honestly, we were less interested in the snakes and turtles and more interested in the butterflies, but we plodded along.

In another small building, we watched slow-working, bored ladies chatting behind glass while picking and packaging butterfly pupas for export to butterfly parks around the world. With so few visitors, you'd think they'd at least make an effort to look interested in their work when guests walked by, but instead they chose to ignore us.

We were led into another room full of lovely blue morphos that had hatched a week or so before. The males are large and black with a contrasting metallic blue on their wings. Absolutely lovely. The females … drab brown and yellow.

New hatchlings gathered together in clusters, a form of protection … safety in numbers.

We followed the guide on a wooded path where she pointed out trees and shrubs, but unfortunately the names were all in Dutch and she didn't know them in English. She led us back to the entrance building, thinking we were ready to leave. Au contraire...we wanted our money's worth and headed back to wander through the butterfly garden again.

All in all, a less than satisfactory day in the animal/insect department. Still, had we not gone to the zoo and butterfly park, we'd have probably regretted it. As Mark Twain so aptly put it … “Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.” With that in mind, we're glad we went.

Want to see more butterflies? Check out our butterfly page on the Nine of Cups website.

Back to the boat for a couple of chore days, but more exploring to come. Stay tuned.

Today's Dutch words – dagvlinder en nachtvlinder – day butterfly and night butterfly (moth)

Cathedrals, Mosques and Temples in Paramaribo

The mix of nationalities, ethnicities and cultures in Suriname lends itself to a religious diversity that is profound. “There is no predominant religion in the country. Christianity, both in the form of Roman Catholicism and variations of Protestantism, is dominant among Creoles and Maroons. Most of the Hindustani are Hindu, but some practice Islam or Christianity instead. The Javanese mostly practice either Islam or Christianity. With 20% of the population, Suriname has the largest Muslim community by percentage in the New World [the Americas].”

In most every what-to-do-in-Paramaribo article and brochure we read, the Synagogue situated next to the Mosque, demonstrating Suriname's religious tolerance, was a must-see and it was pretty impressive.

The Jewish community in Paramaribo is quite small (~2,700) and reputed to be the oldest continuing Jewish community in the Americas. The wooden Neve Shalom Synagogue dates from 1835, replacing a previous one built in 1719. The original Jewish settlers here were descendants of Jews fleeing persecution during the Spanish Inquisition in Europe. We did not visit, but we learned that one of the unique features of this particular Synagogue is its floor of sand, a reminder of the 40 years in the desert after the Jews' exodus from Egypt.

Next door and purportedly sharing a parking lot, stands the grand Ahmadiyya Anjumar Insha'at Islam Mosque. The mosque, reportedly the largest in the Caribbean, took 20 years to build as the use of machinery was not allowed and everything had to be constructed by hand.

The yellow and grey painted St. Peter and Paul Cathedral is touted as not only the biggest wooden structure on the South American continent, but in the entire Western Hemisphere. Building started in 1883, but the towers were not finished until 1901.

The Cathedral was open for viewing and we popped inside for a visit. The interior was unbelievably impressive with elaborately crafted, unpainted cedar wood in a Surinamese design. The columns, pillars and even the Stations of the Cross were carved. Notably, there is no stained glass in the windows. The building was condemned in 1989. Grants provided by the Vatican and the EU and fund-raising efforts led to restoration of the termite-ridden, deteriorated building between 2007-2010. We noted scaffolding still in place indicating the work in progress. One other piece of trivia … the original organ remains in place, however most of its pipes have been stolen.

Though irrelevant to religious activity, just beside the Cathedral in front of the Suriname Bank, there was a protest and large display against the use of quicksilver (mercury) in the gold mining industry because of its devastating effects on the environment.

The Centrumkerk is distinctively octagonal and dates from the early 19th century. It has been a church, a center for the aging, a state church, one of the Parliament buildings at Independence in 1975 and is now listed as a World Heritage building.

We spotted ornate Hindu temples throughout the city and along the roadside on the way from Domburg to Paramaribo. Small, personal, family temples were visible from the road.

Though we're not religious people (except for the Neptune tribute thing maybe), we appreciate the differences in people's beliefs and their methods of worship. Suriname's people seem to have a unique understanding of religious tolerance and freedom, a commendable trait that could be learned and practiced by many. Just sayin'...

Today's Dutch word – kerk - church

Paramaribo - Suriname's Big Smoke

Paramaribo (Pah-ra-MAHR-ree-bo), Suriname's capital city, is only 10 nm down the river from us, but by bus … it's a 1.5 hour circuitous ride on a very limited two bus/day schedule. Through the marina, we hired a car from a local fellow … €10/day, unlimited mileage … and off we headed in an old Toyota towards the country's big smoke. The locals call it Parbo ... just like the beer. It seems the best view of the city's foreshore was from Nine of Cups as we sailed past a few days before.

Paramaribo, probably a corruption of the AmerIndian village name of Parmirbo, was originally settled by the Dutch as a trading post in 1613. It fell into English hands when the Dutch abandoned it and the British built a fort on the site called Fort Willoughby. In 1667, Suriname was given back to the Dutch in the Treaty of Breda. They renamed it Fort Zeelandia, as it is today, and renamed the city New Middelburg (evidently that name never caught on). Paramaribo grew after the abolition of slavery in 1863, attracting many former slaves to the city.

Our first stop was Tourist Info housed in an historic building and located near Fort Zeelandia. For some reason, tourist info is only open Monday-Friday 0900-1530. (Heaven forbid, it would be open on the weekends when people had time off and wanted to get info.) The women were pleasant enough, but had very little information available … a city map, but no country map, and a few commercial brochures for restaurants, hotels and tours.

We decided Fort Zeelandia would be our first stop since it was close by and also had limited hours. On the way to the fort, we walked along a shady, tree-lined street past homes that were the residences of former military officers.

We paid our admission fee (SR$20/pp) and entered the fort which also houses the Surinaams Museum. The fort, “the oldest monumental building in Parmaribo”, has been carefully restored and its brick walls and bastions have historically been the hub of this UNESCO World Heritage city.

The fort's many rooms have been converted into the Surinaams Museum, a rather eclectic mix of Suriname history and culture. A wide open courtyard greeted us on the other side of the short entrance tunnel. A pleasant little cafe, Baka Foto, provided us with our first coffee of the day.

One room was dedicated to the “apotheek”, an old Dutch pharmacy displaying lots of apothecary jars, bottles and pharmaceutical miscellany. All the signs were in Dutch, but we got the gist of the display.

The fort is not very large and never really fulfilled its mission as a fortress. It was too easy to sack … a French pirate, Jacques Cassard, proved the point in 1712 when he plundered the city. We climbed the stairs to the second story and admired the view and the breeze of the Suriname River from the bastions. AmerIndian and Maroon artifacts and handiwork were displayed in several rooms there.

Beyond its role as a fortress, the fort has operated as the site for criminal and slave punishment including hangings. For nearly a century (1872 to 1967), it was used a prison known as “Gebouw” (Devil). It was converted into a museum in 1972, but taken over by a military regime in 1982 until 1994 when it was converted again into a museum. What we missed because of our lack of Dutch language skills, was the sign on the Bastion Verre. A fellow museum visitor, a Dutchman, asked if we'd seen “it”, the site of the Decembermoorden (December murders) that took place December 8, 1982. He led us back to the spot and reiterated the story of 15 prominent men who were tortured and killed on this spot because they criticized the current government. Bullet holes in the wall attest to their fate. According to their website, “The events remain controversial today, as the exact circumstances are still unclear, but the current president of Suriname is the main suspect.”

Climbing to a dusty, stuffy, hot attic area, we found information on Suriname's independence in 1975, as well as small displays on the influences of different immigrant groups especially Indian, Chinese and Indonesian. The fort and museum were a good introduction to Suriname and the city.

It was time for lunch and we were hankering for a roti, those delightful Indian creations of curry wrapped in flatbread … kind of like an Indian burrito. We found a roti shop (they're everywhere) and indulged ourselves. We washed them down with a djogo of cold Parbo, the national beer and then got under way again.

Back on our walking tour track, we walked past the Presidential Palace, a pretty impressive place opposite Onafhankelijkheidsplein (say that three times fast … actually, say it just once if you can) aka Independence Square.

The Ministry of Finance building incorporated the clock tower we'd seen when we'd sailed past. We noted on closer inspection that the clock was about 40 minutes fast.

The Palmentuin (Palm Tree Garden), just behind the Presidential Palace, is Parmaribo's only public park. Originally a 17th century vegetable garden, the 10-acre in-city park is home to about 1,000 palm trees, providing shade along its meandering paths.

We headed to the Waterkant (waterside), the road along the foreshore, where many of the historic wooden mansions stand. The designs are clearly inspired by Dutch architecture of the time, but we're told “incorporate a range of indigenous techniques and local materials.” Painted a crisp black and white, the Dutch style was evident in its eight-over-eight windows, dormers, shutters and decorative embellishments, reminiscent of houses we'd seen in South Africa not so long ago. Most of the current mansions originate from the first half of the 19th century however, as they had to be rebuilt after large city fires in 1821 and 1832. We walked up Mr. Lim A Postraat (Lim A Po Street) for more of the same.

There are probably more dilapidated historic buildings than there are restored ones. Many of the wooden houses are in dire need of restoration, to the point where UNESCO has urged the government to address the problem with threats of revoking the city's world heritage status. Remarkably, despite the decrepit look of the houses, many still appeared to be occupied.

Enough walking for the day, we headed to our hotel for the evening...the Hotel Paramuru. After my success in Cayenne scoring a beautiful suite at the Hotel Palmistes, I was hoping to continue my winning streak in Paramaribo. I was able to book the penthouse at a weekend rate of $50US per day. The website pics looked great. The description was awesome. The reality … a bit disappointing. The elevator ran to the third floor and we lugged our luggage up a rickety metal/wood spiral staircase to reach the “penthouse”. The bath was a shower/toilet/sink only with much to be desired. The bed was lumpy, the pillows thin and the bed linen … well, let's just say, it wasn't quite what we expected. But you know what? It really didn't matter. It had A/C that worked, the shower had hot/cold water and there was a little fridge that managed to keep our Sauvignon Blanc cold. We were together exploring Paramaribo, Suriname. Really … who can complain?

Today's Dutch word “djogo” -jug, in this case a liter bottle of Parbo beer.

More Parbo exploring tomorrow.

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