A Lot Can Change in a Few Years

Suriname was one of the countries we were most looking forward to visiting in this sailing season, but ended up being the most disappointing stop in our circumnavigation. We had friends visit in years prior and they raved about the jungle and wildlife.

Unfortunately, a lot can change over the years. There was no one thing that made the visit to Suriname disappointing, as our impression was based on a cumulative total of events with the addition of our previously high expectations.

The Good

Suriname did have some good points, although nothing stood out as fantastic or a must see.

• The Suriname River was well marked and depths and channel markers corresponded with charting software.
• Suriname has to be a leader in off-grid energization. We spent a number of days in remote villages and all of them are getting solar farm installs with massive battery banks to power the villages, communication facilities and water treatment plants.
• The capital, Paramaribo and surrounding enclaves seem safe. While not perfect, we did not have any interactions or observe anything that would make us feel unsafe.
• Suriname seems to be a favourite stop for sailors from the Netherlands on their first transatlantic crossing. Perhaps this is rooted in the country formerly being a colony of the Netherlands and Dutch being widely spoken. That being said, English is also relatively common with most folks having some understanding.
• The run up the river is quite scenic, especially once one gets past the city. Keep an eye out for big ships as the river is used for transport much further up than cruisers go.
• There are many small markets and fruit and vegetable stands to stop by between the marina and downtown Paramaribo with good quality produce at good prices.

The Bad

• Fishing nets are everywhere on the river and on approach. Some are held in place with water bottles as floats making them difficult to spot. Our suggestion is to not approach the entrance or navigate the rivers in hours of darkness.
• We stayed at Waterland Marina Resort, Suriname. Information published about the location is that it’s 18 miles upriver. That is straight line distance. It’s actually approximately 35NM up the river which makes for a long run. When going up or down the river, one must time the current as it runs at over three knots. Despite asking the resort many times for the time difference between slack tide and current direction change, it was never provided. By our experience only, the current seems to change direction approximately one and a half to two hours after slack tide. If you get this timing wrong, you will be fighting a big current as you make your way up or down the river. This current can make tying to the dock a challenge on arrival.

• Waterland Resort Marina is a beautiful spot. The docks are great and the staff are friendly. Unfortunately, it is a long distance from anywhere. There is nothing nearby and car rentals or expensive taxis are the only way to obtain anything. There is a small restaurant and bar on site, but they are only open during the day on weekends. An approximately 20 minute walk away is a small corner store that has the usual small store items available, but cash only. More on “cash only” in the ugly section. Waterland Resort Marina does not have laundry facilities available to marina guests, but will do laundry for US$11/load. (Note: We were able to negotiate access to one of the cottages on site to allow us to do our laundry there. They advised we were the first cruisers who did this).
• We would also suggest that one checks the prices for marina space on the Waterland Resort Marina before booking. We knew other cruisers who stayed at the moorings at Domburg and raved about their stay there, indicating anything they needed was in close proximity and the prices were quite reasonable. We were told it was eight euros per day to stay on a mooring there.

The Ugly

Customs and Immigration

What a process. We filled out numerous forms in advance (see links below), paid visa entry fees of US$58/person and were told one week before arrival that we needed to do more forms in advance. One is reportedly required to have an agent for all of this and Waterland Marina Resort commonly does this for a fee. All the paperwork is submitted to Maritime Authority Suriname.

We arrived in Suriname on Friday evening and anchored at the mouth of the river to wait for daylight to go up, arriving at the marina on Saturday. We were told we had to wait around the marina until Monday when check in could be completed. No big deal, government offices are commonly closed on weekends.

On Monday morning we took a taxi into town (1500 Surinamese dollars round trip) and waited around for our paperwork to be approved. We were given conflicting reasons why it wasn’t done, ranging from “too busy” to “workers didn’t show up”. By noon we were told that nothing would be done that day and we should return to the marina and come back the next day for the price of an additional taxi.

The next day, we waited at the marina for notification to proceed. Mid morning the paperwork was completed and we are told we must be back to immigration/military police before noon if we wanted to check in. We ended up in a taxi, driving recklessly, just to get it all done in time. In the end, we were left to wonder what is the point of advance paperwork if nothing gets done until one arrives?

Related to this, we had intended to explore the Commewijne River with our boat. It is navigable for a considerable distance upstream and reports on anchoring while surrounded by jungle had us intrigued. However, on arrival to Suriname we were advised that recreational traffic on the Commewijne River required a special permit from Maritime Authority Suriname. Other sailors had gone through the process and applied but approval had not yet been granted — more than a week after application. We quickly cancelled our plans to go up the river between their interactions with the maritime authority and our own.

Banking and Cash and Credit Cards

This ended up being our biggest frustration in Suriname. It is still a cash-based society. There is the odd terminal that will take a Mastercard, but in our stay we only found two places that would take a Visa (Chois Supermarket and the downtown office of Waterland Marina resort).

We figure this was no big deal and that we could take cash out at a local ATM. We had three people on board with three different Canadian banks. One crew member could get no money at any bank machine, another crew member could get a maximum of $1000 Surinamese per transaction and the third person could get a maximum of $4000 Surinamese per transaction.

The next issue was finding bank machines that had money or were functioning. One day we went to four different machines before we found one that let us withdraw anything. End result — it was tough to do much or purchase much when one always had to be wondering how much cash they could get out.

Note: One American fellow there reported he was able to withdraw $20,000 Surinamese without issue. Many places will also accept USD cash or Euros.

The Suriname River

We spent four days in the upper Suriname River — above the Brokopondo reservoir. We were three hours drive from Paramaribo and then loaded in a small river boat and taken up the river for an hour to remote villages. We then hiked off the river in the jungle for about half a day.

Quite simply, it was the quietest jungle we have ever experienced. We saw few animals and birds in the wild and actually saw more in cages heading down the river to be sold at market than we saw in the wild. Reportedly, the birds are used for competitions/gambling and some birds are selling for 500 euros. One cannot blame the poor village people for taking that kind of money. The end result is what appears (to us) to be a depleted and dying jungle. The few parrots we did see were waddling across the village streets with clipped wings. It certainly was not what friends who had been there in the years previously had experienced.

The upper Suriname River is quite beautiful and is used as the transportation hub for a lot of people. It is also used as the washing station and garbage inevitably ends up there from many of the villages. Plastic garbage is abundant, floating in the river and hung up on the bushes.

The other

Updated links for pre arrival forms:

• Maritime Authority of Suriname – Notice of Arrival
• Suriname Immigration and Customs
• Suriname E-Visa Website

Entry fee/visa fee prepayment

We struggled to make this payment system work with any Apple products. We were advised to use Internet Explorer and it worked perfectly. Others reported no issues with it.

All in all, Suriname was our most disappointing country to visit. Eleven days after arrival, we departed, unlikely to return. Other cruisers have raved about it and did not seem to encounter as many hurdles as we did, so perhaps our circumstances with entry and cash withdrawal altered our experience more than others. For any who plan to visit, we recommend having a fair amount of USD cash on hand prior to arrival as that would help with at least one of our problems.

Brent Crack and Mary Bevan
SV Knot Safety

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