Exploring Suriname

I ended the tale of my walk through Paramaribo a couple of months ago at the Presidential Palace on the Independence Square. I did promise to continue the tour, so here goes.

Walking in the direction of the last picture that was placed in the previous post brings us closer to Fort Zeelandia. This has been a strong hold in colonial times, in one of the bends in the Suriname river. This fort was placed strategically so any ship coming around this turn would be surprised. A lot of bad things happened in here. The place serves as a historical site nowadays.

Well, I’ll leave Fort Zeelandia for another moment. Let’s continue north. We pass by the first entrance of Palmentuin (Garden of Palm trees).

This park is directly behind the Presidential Palace. As you can see in this picture, these are not your regular palm trees. These palms are centuries old, and are very tall.

This used to be the private spot where plantation owners would meet and mingle. At night their sons and daughters would have their romantic walks here. About a century ago, this park was opened to the public. At that time, school children would frequently visit this park to just chase each other through the trees, but nowadays there is not much activity in the Palmentuin. Exceptions are especially during national holidays, when organizations have festivities here. Some words of advise: Even though the entrance in the next picture looks inviting, this is not a place you want to hang around at night. Since this area is kinda secluded, it’s a great place for thugs to attack innocent strollers who walk alone. However, Palmentuin by night can be fun if you’re with a nice big group.

Before we continue, I want to walk back somewhere between the two entrances, which are about 100 meters apart, amd take a look across the street.

Behind the Statue of Mother with Children is the Presidential office building. This is the only place where you’ll see the presidential flag raised. On this flag, the yellow star is replaced by the Code of Armor of Suriname, with a white background, as high as the red bar of the flag. This flag will remain raised until 6 pm, or as long as the President is in the building, whichever comes first. I thought this was worth mentioning. Ok, let’s continue.

After crossing a small bridge, we have now entered “Uitgaanscentrum” (literally: “Going-out Center”). This area hold a lot of spots for entertainment. We’ll get to them, let’s talk as we walk.

The first thing you notice when entering Uitgaanscentrum is the row of sidewalk flower shops. This place always smells great. Every one of the stand owners tries to sell a wide variety of Surinamese flowers. Some even decorate the flowers with some paint and glitters, just to stand out.

Walking a couple of meters down the street from where the previous picture was taken, you would be greeted by ‘t Vat.

Yes, I know, nothing special about all those trees. But this is one of the busiest spots in the evening, especially crowded with tourists. This little outdoor terrace is called ‘t Vat.

‘t Vat (vat = wooden barrel) has the whole area under the trees as place for people to sit and enjoy some food or a drink, or just each other’s company. The food is good, their bar is well stocked, and there is always some nice vibe under those trees. In the future I’ll have some more close-up pictures of ‘t Vat and surroundings.

Speaking of surroundings, if you were to stand where the gray car is, two pictures up, and look north, you would see ‘t vat in front of you. In the same building, a little more to your left, Sun and Forest Tours is located. Right next to it is the reception desk of Zeelandia Suites, a relatively small lodging facility. About 75 degrees to your left you have Tropical Café Papaya’s (which until recently was called Charelle’s).

Looking across the street from Papaya’s, you see Café La Caff, a spot where the younger tourists hang out. Next door to La Caff, there is a pool bar, Margaritha’s, which is on the first floor of a ice cream shop.

Ok, let’s get back to the main road. If you would stand at the bar at ‘t Vat, looking towards the street, you would see the construction of Royal Torarica.

Torarica, to the left of this construction site, is one of the largest 4-star hotels in Paramaribo. More on Torarica later.

I crossed the street to take the next picture.

The first building, adjacent to ‘t Vat, is a Internet café. No need to explain what happens there I guess. Right next to it is Suriname’s biggest discotheque, Club Starzz. Queen’s Garden is the terrace bar/restaurant, located on the ground floor of Starzz. Next to Starzz is another restaurant, Mambo Grill, serving exotic, grilled food. And next to Mambo Grill, Suryani serves Indonesian food.

Across the street from Suryani you see Tangelo, Torarica’s pastry, snack and cocktail bar & terrace. About 50 meters from Suryani (yup, we have to skip a part, because there is some more construction going on here) we have Queens Hotel and “The Spot” (previously known as De Punt, which is Dutch for The Spot), right across the street from the entrance of Torarica Hotel and Casino.

Now you understand why this is called Uitgaanscentrum: Lodging, food, drinks, party and entertainment, all within a couple of seconds walking distance of each other.

This is just a summary of this area. Expect more in depth coverage of each of these places in the future.

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