Out of Suriname

We’ve gone west…Nickeri…and over to Guyana….we’ve gone East…Albinia…and the mighty Marowijne… over to French Guyana…can’t go north…so... go south young man go south... south of the equator…where the toilet flush goes in the opposite direction and the brightest star in the sky is the Southern Cross… Brazil… where Europe meets the Americas….I didn’t really know what to expect…and what I found… I really didn’t expect…who would think that Belem …the port city of the Amazon river …would have 40 story condo’s and tree lined Boulevards… there was just something about it…it was…it was…so Latin American…not really pretty…but beautiful in a foreign way…it takes a little time for you to get to understand that the black mold on colorful buildings is unavoidable…it’s humid…and it's hot…but you walk in the shade of tall building or streets shaded by gigantic Mango tress and it's nice. The sidewalks are narrow and the flat face building fronts or walls… with no set backs… makes it feel like you’re walking down an alley… down one of the wider tree line streets I found a cool looking book store…and…much to my pleasure…in the back was an Italian café…got myself a Pocuhutto Ham and Swiss cheese sandwich on the best baguette I had in more then two years….as I sat at a front table where the ceiling to floor French doors... with wooden shutters... were wide open… I sipped my latté… I was in Soho…(yep… I’m ready to come home)
…At the tip of the city…where the Guama River flows into the Guajara Bay is Mangal das Garcas …this fabulous restaurant gets 5 Michelin stars from me…but if you only speak English …ordering a dry Vodka Martini is a real challenge… going back into the city… along the bay front you have it all…fishing boats selling there catch…a seafood market with 30 to 40 stalls that you can buy anything that comes out of the sea…they’ll fillet it and wrap it in newspaper for you… down the street is the open air market filled with organic tropical fresh fruits and vegetables …and then comes an area that you can buy anything…and I mean anything…a toothless lady grabs my arm and pointed to a liter bottle with a purplish brown liquid…labeled…Viagra Natural…how’d she know…no it doesn't stop there…the next section is filled…one on top of the other…maybe 6ft by 6ft eating and drinking stands… tough to find a place to stand… impossible to find a place to sit… …but Brazilians obviously respect senior Americans…a couple of guys got a stool for me…I bought the beer for the next couple of hours…I think they had me pegged…I think we had an interesting conversation…I didn’t understand a word they said…and visa verse…but I got lots of thumbs up when I left. In the Bay…a very big bay…. there are about 100 islands…and they have…what I would call a boat buses… they wind there way through the islands dropping off and picking up passengers… not only from a personal dock but from another boat bus or smaller boat taxi…you had to see that little old lady jump aboard…it was a one hour ride to Barcarena…I got off and walked around for a half hour… saw the whole town and had time for a beer before the bus came back to town …same boat .On the islands there are nice little houses and thousands of Acai palm trees…the district of Para is the capitol of Acai…this is where all the Acai that you health addicts are drinking comes from….no I didn’t do this all in one day…I was in Belem for four days…for the first two you might say I was in my former self mode…I visited a poultry farm…a Acai plantation and a tropical fruit juice processing plant…and yes I will admit it... I spent 2 hours in Leders…a 75,000 sq foot super market that makes any Kroger, Safeway or even Whole Foods look second rate….yes I went to the museum too….and the Theatre da Paz….

It’s on to Fortaleza…a beach city…. a Miami Beach without glitz. ... a wrap around beach holds the city…there are lots of condos, lots of hotels, lots of out door restaurants and what I would call dance halls…with their small bars…big band stands and large enough.. but always crowded... dance floors. Now... if you read the tourist guide…you’ll find a list of parks,…a suggestion to see the new tourist center which they proudly will tell you was once their jail…and of course there are the Cathedrals…I didn’t see any of it…the days were spent on beaches and the evening were spent eating really good food and sipping wine. “The Beach of the Future”…named because they haven’t figured out how many hotels and sky scrapers they want to put up… the beach is about 4 miles long…but…all the tables, chairs and classic colorful beach umbrellas are crowded into a 100 meter by 50 meter area…and as you soak up the rays…vendors…all kinds of vendors make you open your eyes to view their wares…sun glasses, sun screen, sun hats, bathing suits, T shirts jewelry, hammocks, spicy boiled shrimp, fresh oysters and fresh grilled lobsters…4 for 20 Reais ($12USD)…and ice cold beer…. served in an insulated container…can you blame me for not playing tourist… then of course there’s the women…but… what I did notice is that the prettiest ones are not on the beach…it seems… they all work at night. One day I did a tourist thing… I took a 2 hour tour bus ride north along the coast to a beach that I couldn’t even try to pronounce the name... let alone spell it…but it was quite the beach…it went for as far as you could see…the tide was down so it was about 100 yards wide…here again the tables and chairs were in a cluster…not as many vendors…and no food vendors…of course not… the beach was operated by the hotel that the tour bus dropped us at…there was a place to change and lockers to store valuables…very accommodating….the restaurant was excellent...here...there were two first time adventures…I rented a ATV….getting instruction in Portuguese on how to drive it was something else…riding up and down the dunes and speeding across the hard sand was… cool…even cooler was the sail boat ride…the boat was the most unique thing I ever sailed on….me, another guy and the crew of two…which was all there was room for ….pushed off the beach…. the center board was set… the rudder
was placed…and we were off….bucking the sea chop…with a full sail on a close starboard reach. …when we got about a mile off shore the skipper luffed the sail …the mate threw a line overboard with a piece of styro-foam tied to the end… then… in pantomime… the mate told me to dive off and grab on…sometimes I do follow direction…when I grabbed it he pulled up the sheet line and off I went …body surfing behind a…native sail boat…that done.. and back on the boat …I was handed a pair of fins and a snorkel mask…no pantomime needed…the little coral that stuck up through the sand was a beautiful bright orange….what a day....when we got back on the bus as the sun started to set…a long wonderful day….and a vacation break that was much to short….yes…if you’re thinking of going to Brazil…go….just don’t take Suriname Airways….two hour delay leaving…three and a half hour delay coming home….oh well, it’s Suriname…and I’m out of here in 40 days