Exploring Suriname

Let’s continue where we left off on our tour through Paramaribo.

With my slippers on (I have no other footwear that goes with a pink shirt on blue jeans), I walk back toward the Dr. Sopie Redmonstraat, but this time I walk to the Central Market.

The Hakrinbank building is situated across the main entrance of the market and is one of the taller buildings in Paramaribo. Tried some creative photography by taking a shot where the letters in the foreground are the letter that are blurred by the sun on top.

On the other corner across the street of the market we have another (credit) bank, the VCB Bank, in a relatively modern building.

Yet another modern building in that area.

There is a lot to see in the market, but one thing that really stands out is awarra (Astrocaryum Vulgare), a bright orange fruit . This fruit is sweet, but it has a lot of “threads” which stick to between your teeth, so a lot of people only eat it when they have access to a toothbrush and floss/toothpicks. Awarra grows on a palm tree, but not the usual palm tree. The trunk of this tree is covered with razor sharp thorns, with an average length of 10 cm.
In the same basket, and in the one to the left there are maripa (Inaja, Kokerit), another palm tree fruit. This fruit is simply a hard seed, usually more then 90% of the size of the fruit, covered with a eatable thin film,with a protecting shell around it, topped with a up side down “crown”. A lot of work to enjoy a small layer of sweet taste, which makes it one of my less favorite fruits.

Here is a basket with maripa and some nuts. I don’t even know what these nuts are called so it’s difficult to find the exact name. We just know them as nuts! A thin hard shell (about 2 mm) and the rest is a great nutty nut! This one I can crack all day!

In most countries fruit needs to be imported, but here we have our own grown, fresh fruit. These fruits are usually a lot sweeter and tastier then the ones imported in the big countries. Here we have oranges, then mango’s behind that. If you eat one of these mango’s you probably will never buy an imported mango again!

Tomatoes and peppers. Need I say more???

More produce: String beans, egg plant and cabbage.

This lady was very nice. This is where I bought my banana phone, Sir Hawkeye. This lady liked my idea of taking pictures for my blog. “Maybe my family can see me on the Internet.” I have to make sure I bring her the URL of “Exploring Suriname” so she can tell her folks to look fer her picture.

I know some of you are used to your lobster and king crab, but this is the closest you can get to that taste, for a lot less: our own mud crabs (that’s what I call them). Clean them up, stew them in either a masala (curry) sauce or a coconut sauce and voila! Still a lot of work to crack the legs, where you will get a lot less to eat then the “scissors”, but it’s really worth the work (and the wait :)).

If you see these buggers in the barrels they are usually kept in, you will understand why there is a Dutch saying “Als krabben in een ton” (like crabs in a barrel), which means, everyone is pulling the other down in an attempt to rise to the top.

Just fish. In the Fish Hall of the market, this was the biggest fish. The guy was supposed to stay next to the fish, but he probably didn’t understand that, or just was camera shy. You can still see his foot in the top right corner of the picture, so maybe you can use that to estimate the real size of the fish. People more often sell a lot smaller fish, because visitors to the market usually buy for households, so it’s no use buying such a big fish, unless you’re planning a big party.

One quick last shot of the main hall of the market, before we exit to continue our quest.

This has been the spot where these small dug-out canoe like boats have been docking for decades to bring passengers to and from Meerzorg, on the east shore of the Suriname River (our main river). Dug-out canoe like, because these boats are not really dug out of a tree, but rather build using 2 by 4’s and 4 by 4’s. Since before the bridge across the river was build (visible in the background), these boats were used to carry passenger to Meerzorg, while, back then, the cars were transported by ferry. Nowadays, strong hearted people, who don’t want to wait for the bus and then make the, quite a bit longer, ride across the bridge, just face the shaky boat ride, where the water comes up to 10 cm from the edge sometimes. It’s the most fun when it’s raining and there are strong winds across the river. It is nice to see how these experienced boatmen navigate through the waves. (idea for a future journey?)

Waterkant (literally: Water side) is a spot where people just chill. There is a food court, where a lot of food and beverages are sold 24/7. This is a hot spot, especially at night, before people hit the clubs or after the come from the clubs and, due to the combination of alcohol, dancing and loudly talking a lot of crap all night, are hungry, or just don’t feel like going home yet.

Across the street is the building of the Central Bank of Suriname. This is where Suriname’s gold would have been kept, if it was not given away to multi national companies.

This side of the road at Waterkant (that’s actually the name of the street too) has only houses that were built in colonial times. This is seen by the colonial architecture. Most of these houses look totally different than they were originally built, but it’s important that their front should look the same as it did originally.

Personally I prefer modern architecture over colonial, but hey, everyone has his own taste (mine is the best!).

Here at Waterkant there are some steps leading into the river. These steps were made with bricks. I shot this picture, mainly to show how muddy the water is so close to the coast. We have mud banks along the whole sea line, so our beaches and rivers are not as “tropical” as the rest of the Caribbean. The only exception is that we have a sand bank in front of the Marowijne river, the river that forms the border with French Guyana. But even though the water is less muddy over there, it’s still not the blue ocean kind of water. The only good thing is that we have sandy beaches over there at Galibi.

At the end of the row colonial houses you have a slight turn that leads pass the Independent Square. The first thing you see is this round square (???!!?!) with different flags. In the center you see our own flag. In the background you see the Presidential Palace.

When walking towards the Independent Square you see the Toren van Financien (Tower of Finance), the building of the Ministry of Finance. (Google Earth Place Mark)

Even though I don’t like colonial architecture, I think this is the most beautiful colonial building in Suriname: our Presidential Palace. The president does not live here, because “this is the house of the people”, he says. On some holidays, such as our Independence Day and Emancipation (from slavery) day, the president holds a reception where, usually, the whole country is invited to visited the palace and it’s garden, which extends more than twice the size of the building, behind the palace.

I promise to try to make a picture of this building by night. I love night pictures of this palace.

There is some kind of colonial graffiti on the Palace. This is no history lesson, so I won’t be able to tell you exactly what is in that image and especially not what it portrays. Well, not right now, anyway. I just thought it was nice to point out
Pictures of the Independent square, viewed toward the east. If you zoom this picture in, you see the next picture:

This painter sells his paintings on this corner.

That’s enough for today. Still got a couple more pictures, but my eyes are starting to weigh a lot more then the usually do. I think I’m going to concentrate and study the back of my eyelids. I’ve been doing that for years but still can’t say what’s there to see!

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