• Alan Chapman
  • Alan Chapman

Latin America 2026

A 20-day adventure by Alan. Read more
  • Trip start
    September 30, 2026

    The Journey to Olinda

    September 30 in Brazil ☁️ 28 °C

    Originally, I was going to leave my flat on Sunday 27 September, overnighting at Heathrow, and flying to Olinda on the 28th. However, I woke up on the 27th with a headache in a different place in my head to previously. A doctor on the panel of Saga, my travel insurance company, recommended that I get it checked out at an A&E department before travelling abroad. I spent all the afternoon and half of the evening at St Thomas's Hospital rather than having lunch with Dave and Beth. I was referred to the Same Day Emergency Clinic on Monday which did many tests over several hours before diagnosing a tension headache, maybe due to eye strain, and saying it was safe to travel.
    On Tuesday the 29th, I spent the morning reorganizing my journey with Journey Latin America, rebooking the overnight stay at Heathrow, and updating my travel insurance policy with Saga who refunded a small amount since my holiday would be two days shorter. Eventually in the evening, I left my flat and travelled via the Northern and Elizabeth Lines to Terminal Four at Heathrow, walking the short distance to the Holiday Inn Express.
    I set the alarm to get up at 02.00 on the 30th in order to be at the Terminal by 03.15, three hours before the Air France Flight to Paris. The hotel provided a breakfast box to take me with me. Unfortunately, the desk didn't open until 04.00 but it didn't take too long to check in and go through security and then get a coffee.
    The Airbus 220-300 eventually took off at 07.00, arriving at Charles de Gaulle by 09.00 local time. Terminal 2E in Aerogare 2 was much larger than the airport I remembered from the early 1980s and the early 2000s, having to take a train to another Gate within the same Terminal, and then join a long queue for another security check despite being in transit, before boarding the Air France flight on an Airbus 350-900 to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil which left at 10.50.
    After a 9.5 hour flight, the plane landed at Salvador at 15.20 local time, and the first stamp in my new passport was Brazilian. My holdall couldn't be checked through to Recife so I had to it and check in for the Air Azul flight to Recife departing at 19.40, five hours behind Paris and four hours behind London. The Embraer 195-E2 arrived at Recife just before 21.00, I was met by Baruco, my guide, and a driver who drove us through Recife Velho and down Boa Viagem Avenida, where I was going to say two nights originally, before arriving at the Hotel 7 Collinas in Olinda at 22.30, just over 24 hours after waking up at Heathrow. It is the only hotel in Olinda, the other accommodation being pousadas, and it has the largest grounds. My bedroom was a Superior Twin overlooking the gardens.
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  • Olinda

    October 1 in Brazil ⛅ 28 °C

    After a little overnight rain, the day was hot and humid. This was true of every day on the trip with temperatures in the 30s.
    This was also the first of many good breakfast buffets with cereals, fresh fruits, pastries and coffee.
    Baruco, my guide, arrived at 09.00. We walked through the hotel's garden with its Royal Palms, figus, mango, coconut palms and other varieties of trees, noticing the sign about being aware of falling mangoes and coconuts. There were sculptures by the hotel owner.
    We walked to the San Francisco Convent where there were young friars in casual dress. The baroque 18th century building has walls covered with azulejos tiles depicting colonial life. We continued to the Igreja da Se Cathedral which had great views from the terrace of Olinda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and, in the distance, Recife.
    After visiting one of the many artist's shops in town, we drove along the steep hillside roads, flanked by colourful houses and shops, to the Mosteiro de Sao Bento. In the past, the lovely altarpiece had been disassembled for a Brazilian exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in the USA.
    There was a demonstration by striking employees outside the Mayor's Office, maybe taking the opportunity of the forthcoming elections to make their point.
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  • Recife

    October 1 in Brazil ⛅ 30 °C

    On the outskirts of Olinda, we drove through the area of the black community before taking the road to Recife which was by far the larger part of a continuous conurbation with many high-rise buildings. In the old town, we walked to the Marco Zero near the harbour from where all distances in the State of Pernambuco are measured.
    The former building of the Bank of London and South America, demonstrating the British trading connections with the city, is now the Caixa Cultural, a museum and exhibition space. Other commercial buildings had a British interest and there's a British cemetery. British pirates attacked ports along the coast, and Admiral Cochrane may have been in Recife supporting Brazil's war of independence against the Portuguese.
    We visited the Embaixada dos Bonecos Gigantes, giant puppets of the King, Queen, the Beatles, Pele, Messi and many other personalities paraded during Carnival.
    We walked past the Sinagoga Kahal Zur Israel, the site of the oldest synagogue in the Americas.
    Many buildings in the old town were being renovated and we went inside a previous convent which still had its superstructure and facade but had been hollowed out with a bank, cafe, shops and offices inside. On the way, we passed a man who had been a car washer for 35 years with a bag of keys of the owners who trusted him.
    We drove across some bridges to the modern part of the city and had lunch at a kilo restaurant in an area with many private hospitals and clinics.
    There were many election banners and supporters on the roads.
    There were areas along the pavements in Recife and Olinda with trees and plants protected by small fences, all part of the worship of candomblé.
    Back at the hotel, I had a salad for dinner and then scrolled through the TV channels, full of novelas, some from other countries dubbed in Portuguese, before having an early night to catch up on sleep.
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  • Walking around Olinda

    October 2 in Brazil ⛅ 29 °C

    After another good breakfast including sumo de caju (cashew), and on another hot and humid day, fortunately with a sea breeze, I was given a tour of the Casa Museu Marroquim within the hotel's extensive grounds. It was built in the late 19th century and restored by Murilo and Giscella Marroquim in the 1960s. He was a war correspondent who also interviewed Chairman Mao. In addition to memorabilia of his career, there were lots of Chinese items from Macao plus English china. Starting in the 1980s, their son developed the site and opened it as a hotel in 1998.
    I walked down to the beach past many election banners for the candidates of the Partido Trabalhodores of Lula who was from Pernambuco. There were warning signs on the shoreline about sharks
    The Igreja do Carmo was being renovated.
    The Casa Estacao da Luz had an exhibition of photos about carnivals in Pernambuco plus a permanent exhibition about a famous singer of the nordeste, Alceu Valenca, who used to live there.
    The Museu de Arte Contemporanea is housed in a former Inquisition gaol. There were two early Hockney lithographs from his LA period.
    The Igreja Misericorda was being renovated.
    For lunch overlooking the town, I had feijoda, and palmonha (sweet corn) com queixo. I returned later for a suco of a local fruit similar to acerola.
    After having my photo taken by a sign for Olinda and buying a souvenir of the colourful houses of Olinda in wood, I walked up to the Igrejas Amparo and Sao Joao which were both closed. The Museu Regional had some chinaware from the UK but there was nothing about the indigenous prior to the arrival of the colonists. I reurned to the hotel past the Convent de Sao Francisco.
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  • Olinda at Night

    October 2 in Brazil 🌙 26 °C

    In the evening, I walked into the centre of Olinda and had a banana dessert and a beer at the 4 Cantos Bar, one of four on the corners of a crossroads. Music videos were playing on the big screen. A brass band came past leading a procession of flag-waving supporters of Lula's party. Another brass band played in a music centre which was open to the street. There were lots of people in the streets on the first night of the weekend.Read more

  • The Arrival in Brasilia

    October 3 in Brazil ⛅ 24 °C

    Breakfast at the hotel in Olinda included a tapioca pancake com queixo and sumo de acerola.
    A taxi took me to Recife Airport which I left at 11.30 on a LATAM A321 , arriving in Brasilia at 14.00 to be met by Luis, my guide. On the drive to the hotel, there was a lot of open space between occasional buildings.
    I stayed at the Brasilia Palace Hotel, the second building built after the nearby Palacio da Alvorada, the Presidential Palace. It was designed by Oscar Niemeyer and includes artworks by Athos Bulcao. It was opened in 1958 but badly damaged by fire in 1978 before reopening in 2006. My bedroom looked across to the 5-star Royal Tulip Hotel which was used by foreign dignitaries visiting Brasilia.
    Building a capital away from the coast at Rio was advised by a British sea captain who was escorting the Portuguese royal family into exile during the Peninsular War. The site of present-day Brasilia was designated to be the new capital in 1890 but nothing was done until President Kubitschek bit the bullet in 1956 and commissioned Oscar Niemeyer, the architect, together with Lucio Costa, the urban planner, and Burle Marx, the landscape architect, to design Brasilia which was constructed in four years by 1960. The city has expanded to include satellite cities with the total population now being between two and three million.
    I walked to a bar on Lake Paranoa, passing a capybara. The lake is a large artificial lake created by damming the Paranoa River in order to create some humidity in a generally arid region as well as the opportunities for fishing and water sports for the population.
    Back at the hotel, I had dinner at Oscar's. All the hotel information was on a QR code.
    There was light rain in the evening at the start of the rainy season and it was cooler than the coast, the altitude being 1000m.
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  • The Tour of Brasilia

    October 4 in Brazil 🌧 28 °C

    The tour started late because Luis had a to queue to vote compulsorily at the general election for the President, Senators, Governors, and Deputies at the both the Federal, State and District Level. The road to the Presidential Palace and around the Praca doe Tres Poderes were closed in case of trouble.
    We went by car to all the zones in the city, including the embassy zone which, similar to the hotels, banks, commercial, and sport clubs, is divided into North and South either side of the Eixo Monumental. We stopped by the radio tower at the top of the Eixo Monumental but couldn't go up it to get an overview because the lift was broken. Other sites were closed on Sundays such as the JK Memorial.
    We walked around some market stalls, some of them selling coloured rocks and stones.
    We stopped in the Army zone where the roof of the review platform acts like a sounding- board. The theatre is next door. The avenue in front is wide enough to act as an emergency runway.
    In the new residential zones, the apartment blocks are not permitted to be higher than six storeys. Some of them are also horizontally linear and also on stilts, mirroring other themes of Niemeyer's and Costa's.
    After the Sunday morning masses, we went inside the spectacular Cathedral.
    The buffet lunch was in a restaurant beside Lake Paranoa where there were lots of restaurants and moorings for boats. Many banks, companies, and the military have private clubs along the shoreline.
    Afterwards, we visited more zones, crossed the JK Bridge, and stopped outside the Banco do Brasil Cultural Centre.
    Finally, we went inside the 400-bed 5-star Royal Tulip Hotel which has photos of all the world leaders who have stayed there. The 4-star Tulip Hotel is next door. Their owner also owns the Brasilia Palace Hotel.
    In the evening, there was a victory celebration in the hotel for Andre Kubitschek, the great grandson of the former President, who had become a Deputado Distrital for the Partido Liberal of Flavio Bolsonaro, the Presidential candidate. Flavio's stepmother, Michelle, the wife of the former President, was a candidate to be a Senator for the Federal District.
    Brazilian elections have a system of proportional representation using party lists. Andre's number was 22022, Michelle's was 222, and Flavio's was 22. The voting is computerised with polling stations closing at 5pm with the results known during the evening. I watched the results on the TV channels with the percentages for Flavio and Lula da Silva changing every few minutes.
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  • Brasilia and Boa Vista

    October 5 in Brazil ☁️ 35 °C

    There was thundery rain in the morning. Fortunatley, it had stopped by midday when I checked out of the hotel and Luis came to continue the tour of the city.
    We went to the Praca dos Tres Poderes which was being repaved with traditional Portuguese stones. The Tres Poderes are the Palacio do Planalto (Presidential Office), the Congresso Nacional, and the Palacio da Justica (Supreme Court). The latter still had armed guards on the terrace, maybe to deter those who wished to impeach the judge who had imprisoned the previous President. The Praca also has the Palacio do Itamaraty, Espaco Cultural Lucio Costa, with a statue of Costa, the Panteao da Patria e da Liberdada, and the Pavilhao Nacional with its enormous national flag.
    After going through security checks, we joined a one-hour tour of the Congresso, going inside the semi-circular chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and walking along one of the tunnels leading to the offices on the outsides of the Praca.
    Some of the concrete buildings in the Praca were showing the effect of 60 years of humidity, and the same was true in the University sector, e.g. the lecturers' accommodation block.
    The Sanctuario Dom Bosco is very beautiful with its 7400 pieces of blue-illuminated Murano glass.
    Driving down the Eixo Monumental, we passed the Teatro Nacional which was closed due to fire regulations but Luis said that there was a lot of cultural activities in the city.
    We walked around Quadra South 308 which was the blueprint of Lucio Costa for the other communities of apartments. Some of the apartments are very large, running the depth of the buildings which are on pillars so there are no physical barriers between residents in the community. Ideally, each community would have a commercial street of retail and hospitality, a church, a school, a library, a health centre, and gardens. Sarah Kubitschek, the wife of the President, promised the construction of the first church which was in this Quadra.
    We drove through other sectors with schools and private hospitals before entering the Igreja da Boa Vontade, the church of a movement with elements of many religions founded in 1950.
    Other buildings we could have visited were closed on Mondays.
    There is little public transport in the city which is very spacious so a car is a necessity.
    Luis left me at the airport at 5pm after a very interesting two days in Brasilia.
    I passed quickly through check-in and security with plenty of time for dinner. I also checked lots of outlets for decaffeinated coffee but with no luck.
    The LATAM flight to Boa Vista left at 21.20 on a Airbus 320. The flight was 3.5 hours but only 2.5 hours on the schedule because Boa Vista is in the Amazonas time-zone, one hour behind Brasilia. There was a short transfer to the Hotel Uiramutam, arriving by 12.30am.
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  • Boa Vista

    October 6 in Brazil ⛅ 36 °C

    On a very hot and humid day with high UV, I walked into the centre of Boa Vista, past public buildings, Boa Vista being the State capital, and down avenues. I reached the Rio Branco, a major tributary of the Amazon, where the ferry goes across to the Praia Grande, a large sandbank exposed when the river is not in flood. I stopped for a drink at the bar overlooking the wide river. To ensure that I took the correct road back to the centre, a man at the bar gave me a lift.
    I walked through the covered market to the Igreja Matriz do Carmo and a platform overlooking the river. The Mirante was closed on Tuesdays. I walked to the Cathedral which had been opened in 2011, and sat down for a rest.
    I returned to the hotel for a shower to cool off, and a kilo lunch for the equivalent of £11. I stayed in my air-conditioned bedroom to watch England beat Czechia 3-0 in the Nations League on ESPN, and also to charge all my electric devices whilst able to.
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  • The Journey to Atta Rainforest Lodge

    October 7 in Guyana ⛅ 34 °C

    I had breakfast soon after 6.30am in order to ready to meet the Journey Latin America group who had been in Rio for a couple of days before flying to Brasilia yesterday to catch the same flight as I had taken the previous day. There were twelve of us plus Etienne, the JLA leader. The youngest was 60 and the oldest 80, and they were very experienced travelers, some taking multi-trips each year.
    After crossing the bridge over the Rio Branco, it was a 90-minute drive by taxi along a quiet road through savannah to the border at Bonfim. We had to show our yellow fever vaccination certificate but there was no customs check, nor a check of the lengthy online immigration form on my phone which I'd completed a few days before.
    We drove across the Rio Takutu on a bridge which had an underpass so traffic could change from driving on the right to driving on the left. We changed money in the border town of Lethem and then had a 3.5 hour drive on a partially-graded dirt road to arrive at Atta Rainforest Lodge. Previous tours had driven for 14 hours along this road to the capital, Bridgetown.
    I shared a cabin with Doug from Exmouth. Despite paying a single supplement, it was understood that I would have to share given that there were only eight cabins here and at the next lodge. There was a mossy net, and the shower, heated by the sun or a solar panel, was open to the sky.
    We went on the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway which was suspended between three platforms 100 feet above the ground. It's being extended to a fourth platform. Only one person at a time could walk along the walkway, and, other than the platform at the start, only eight people could be on each of the other two platforms at the same time. I saw four macaws and a fly bat. I thought that we would stay longer and go up again the following day but a photographic group visited the following day which may have prevented us going up again, and Etienne said that we would see more birds from walking along the road.
    We did a night walk in the forest and saw a juvenile black-throated antshrike.
    Black curassow walked around the grounds of the Lodge.
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  • Atta Rainforest Lodge

    October 8 in Guyana ⛅ 34 °C

    We were up early for coffee and cookies at 05.45 prior to a walk along the Rupununi Road in the hope of seeing birds soon after dawn and before it got too hot. I got a good photo on my mobile of red and green macaws accompanied by tropical kingbirds with the assistance of the guide and his very powerful binoculars on a tripod. There was a roadside hawk but herons, vultures, green parrots and a toucan were more distant. An agouti was on the road and a small caiman in one of the streams.
    Back at the Lodge, I heard an orependula and screaming piha, and saw small lizards running around the grounds.
    I was introduced to an app entitled Merlin which identifies birds by their calls. I had almost forty by the time we left the lodges in Guyana.
    We made a forest walk in the morning to see the hardwoods and other trees and vines. Many of the trees were very straight and tall, seeking the sun above the canopy.
    We made another walk down the main road in the late afternoon and saw a black-coloured vulture feeding on the carcass of a capybara. There were also macaws, toucans, swifts and a heron.
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  • The Journey to Rock View Lodge

    October 9 in Guyana ☁️ 33 °C

    We made another early morning walk along the main road to see a variety of birds.
    After leaving Atta by minibus, we stopped along the road to walk along the Coq of the Rock Trail in the hope of seeing this beautiful bird after which the JLA tour was named. However, we were unlucky. Their appearance is seasonal and related to seeking a mate.
    We continued in the minibus to the Rock View Lodge near the village of Annai. Doug and myself stayed in the Macaw Room where Prince Charles had stayed on a visit to the Amerindians about 25 years previously, so I've probably sat on the same throne as King Charles.
    I saw a green iguana on a lamppost outside the bathroom window and there were bats on the roof of the verandah.
    The Lodge is run by Colin Edwards, an 80-year-old Englishman who went to Guyana on VSO in about 1970. He went to Westminster School, his father being a diplomat. We met two of his sons, two grandsons, and his third wife.
    In the grounds, there were starfruit, mango and cashew trees, and we saw the nuts of the latter being roasted and exploding into fire before being eaten.
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  • Rock View Lodge

    October 10 in Guyana ☁️ 34 °C

    We were up at 05.30 to catch the sunrise over the savannah.
    In the morning, we made a 350ft uphill walk to a viewpoint over the savannah.
    In the afternoon, we walked to the Amerindian village of Annai, and before dinner at the Lodge, we had rum, lime and bitters around the swimming pool.Read more

  • Kaiteur Falls

    October 11 in Guyana ⛅ 31 °C

    We flew from the airstrip next to the Rock View Lodge on a 19-seater Hindustan 228 for 30 minutes to the airstrip at the Kaiteur Falls. The luggage and passengers had been weighed beforehand to ensure that they could go on the plane. There were good views of the hills and forests plus a little turbulence.
    At the Falls, we walked to three viewpoints of the Falls which, at 740 feet, are five times higher than Niagara. The width of the Falls wasn't as wide as it would be in the rainy season but the Falls were still very impressive, surrounded by pristine rainforest. There was a good view of the deep-sided valley of the River Potaro as it flowed from the Falls.
    The ground was similar to the top of Mount Roraima which wasn't far away.
    After eating a packed lunch in the airstrip terminal, we flew on to Georgetown for 45 minutes, experiencing more turbulence. There was a good view of the colourful suburbs of the capital.
    We stayed at the El Dorado Inn and my bedroom had two double beds.
    For dinner at the Bottle Bar Restaurant at the Cara Lodge, I had metemge with river trout, a Guyanan dish.
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  • Georgetown

    October 12 in Guyana ☁️ 31 °C

    We had a bus tour of Georgetown, getting off at various points such as the sea wall and the mudflats at low tide with scarlet ibises, great egrets, and herons. In the National Park, we fed manatees. In the Independence Park, we saw a monument to the 1823 revolt by the slaves which King Charles visited a few weeks later. He and we also saw the Victorian bandstand near the Seawall Esplanade.
    We went inside the Museum of Natural History which is housed in one of the stylish colonial buildings. We also visited the Museum of Anthropology which had an interesting display of maps showing the different claims by Venezuela and Britain to parts of Guyana and Venezuela in the 19th century.
    We walked past the impressive cathedral which claims to be the tallest free-standing building in South America. We drove past the busy local market where many minibuses were parked, waiting for passengers, there being no public transport.
    I bought the same postcard of the Kaiteur Falls for three different prices; 200, 300 and 500 Guyanan Dollars plus stamps at 120 each. The Pound was worth 265 Dollars.
    I had a beer in the Members' Pavilion at the historic Bourdha Cricket Ground, one of many grounds in Georgetown. There is a photo of Gooch bating at Chelmsford, and Hutton, Snow and Atherton appear on the honours' boards. There hasn't been a Test Match there since the early years of the century but local cricket is still played there in front of the stand named after Rohan Kanhai. Hockey is also played there. There is a small astro practice area but there is no astro pitch in the country.
    We had lunch at Shanta's, and I had a snapper curry with dhal and sorrel.
    I had a salad for dinner at the Cara Lodge.
    There were many traffic jams, having a car being one of the first item people buy when they can afford it, and more people can now that Guyana is an oil economy although there was little sign of this in the city. There are few pavements to cover the open drains which flow into the canals which crisscross the city.
    The slogan, One Guyana, was prominent, part of an attempt to bind the different communities together. Guyana is a Cooperative Republic in which all communities should cooperate.
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  • The Journey to Paramaribo

    October 13 in Suriname ☁️ 32 °C

    I walked to the Bourdha Market Post Office to post the cards which hopefully arrived in England, Brazil and New Zealand. Then I walked at least a mile to Water Road and the Demerara River in the hope of seeing the bridge over the river but it was much further upstream. I walked back to the hotel past the British High Commission, the Presidential Palace and the Roman Catholic Cathedral.
    I had lunch at Froggy's, overlooking a crossroads where the traffic lights didn't operate but the traffic seemed to manage.
    After checking out of the hotel at 2pm, there was an 80 minute drive to Chedi Jagan Airport, made longer in time due to the traffic jam caused by the lack of traffic lights at a junction. We should have been spending the day on a long drive to the border with Suriname at a river but it was possible that the single ferry would not be operating due to maintenance so, rather than taking the risk of being stuck at the border, JLA organised a flight to Paramaribo.
    At the airport, we had to complete a lengthy online immigration form despite having been issued with online but printable visas in the UK.
    The Surinam Airways 737-800 was almost full, having started in Miami. The departure board had shown flights to Miami and New York, maybe a reflection of Exxon Mobil being present in Guyana. Surinam also has offshore oil.
    The flight took 40 minutes before landing at the efficient Johan Pengel International Airport, and then we had a 60 minute drive to the Eco Tourica hotel on the banks of the Surinam River in Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam. The clocks went forward one hour so we arrived there at 22.30.
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  • Paramaribo

    October 14 in Suriname ⛅ 34 °C

    I spent the morning walking around Paramaribo, the capital of Surinam. Fort Zeelandia was on a strategic position with its guns on the terrace facing across the Surinam River. Its rooms had many interesting artefacts such as a complete apothecary.
    There were some beautiful Dutch-style house on the promenade and the side streets in the colonial centre of the city. Some of the houses were now government or private offices.
    The Roman Catholic Cathedral was another candidate to be the tallest wooden freestanding building in Latin America.
    There was a synagogue next to the mosque, the latter having a connection to a branch of Hinduism in Lahore.
    In a small cafe, I had fried baga-baga, a saltwater fish, rice and cabbages served in a carton as though a takeaway.
    The city was much smaller and more ordered than Georgetown with working traffic lights, pavements, and less traffic and people on the streets.
    It was very hot and humid so I spent the afternoon relaxing in my bedroom, completing the online emigration form. Completing these forms had taught me where Notes and Files are on my phone.
    We went to an Indonesian restaurant for dinner, showing the Javanese influence in Surinam.
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  • The Morning on the Suriname and Commewijne Rivers

    October 15 in Suriname ☀️ 28 °C

    From the hotel, we went by taxi the short distance to the landing on the Surname River at Leonsberg. Our transport was a covered motorised pirogue.
    We saw a pod of dolphins, and then frigate birds and pelicans. There were scarlet ibises and other waders on a mudflat.
    We disembarked to walk round a village of Guyanese fishermen.
    Our river journey continued for an hour alongside mangroves and rainforest which were populated by lots of snowy egrets but not much else apart from branches with tropical kingbirds, herons and a roadside hawk.
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  • The Afternoon on the Surinam and Commewijne Rivers

    October 15 in Suriname ⛅ 33 °C

    At Frederiksdorp, we stopped at the grounds of a hotel which had been the property of the owner of a sugar plantation. We walked for 15 minutes to Johanna en Margaretha, a village once visited by the Dutch King and Queen, for a drink before reembarking for a short ride before disembarking again to see the remains of the Marienburg rum factory and memorials to those workers executed in 1902 for murdering a cruel Scottish manager.
    Back on the pirogue, we were on the Commewijne River which we must have turned into sometime in the morning. Now we turned back into the Surinam River around the peninsula of Nieuw Amsterdam, disembarking to walk around the grounds housing former military installations, such as the powder store, and the 19th and 20th century prison which had been a barracks in the 18th century when enemy attacks were more likely.
    We crossed the river back to Leonsberg and then back to the hotel.
    Some of us went to Chi Min, a large Chinese restaurant with enormous helpings, for dinner.
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    Trip end
    October 19, 2026