We had booked into a hotel in Paramaribo called Zin Guesthouse. On arrival it looked great, a bar/café area and a big pool. Our room on the other hand wasn't as great, with a horribly uncomfortable bed, and as we soon discovered it was very noisy at night while the party kicked on downstairs. Our new friend Marcus also decided to follow us there.

Our first task was to get money out, so we found an ATM and had a beer, then went in search for a restaurant called Dumpling #1. Some yummy Chinese dumplings were such a nice treat, though we are not sure if Marcus was impressed.

In the morning Fergus and Marcus arranged a tour for us with a guide a friend of Marcus' had recommended who was cheaper than any other agencies. He would take us to Fort New Amsterdam across the river, up the Commewijne river to an old plantation called Fredericksdorp, and spotting the Suriname Dolphin.

We caught a cab to the port, where our guide passed us off to another guy for the day. Soon after hitting the water we spotted the dolphins. A small species with pink bellies, they were quite a bit more playful than the Amazon River Dolphins so we were able to watch them for some time. They even stuck their heads out on occasion to get a look at us!

We were then dropped at New Amsterdam, and old fort. We were given an hour to look around though no direction on what to see. The old walls of the fort are now a star shaped mound that we walked along for a while in the heat, Marcus carting his entire pack the whole time as he didn't want to leave it in his room!? It wasn't until our hour was almost up that we discovered there was a museum we didn't have time to see.

Back on the boat it took about an hour up river to Fredericksdorp. Our guide, actually boat driver he didn't guide us at all, gave us 2.5 hours. There were a few buildings here, old and nicely cared for, but that was about it. We started to worry about how to fill the time when the owner Marcel found us and offered to give us a history.

We sat in the restaurant and had lunch while he explained that his parents had bought the plantation years back, but they no longer grew much there as the government taxes farmers exuberant amounts and it was difficult to find workers willing to slog it out on the fields, when 61% of the Suriname population works for the government doing a whole lot of not much. Instead he ran it as a hotel though hoped to have cattle there one day.

He explained about the buildings, which included a police station, housing, slaves quarters etc. The height of the building indicated the importance of the occupant. He was a really interesting and intelligent guy and told us a lot about the history of Suriname, the economy there and more. Before we knew it we had killed the 2.5 hours with ease.

We returned back to Paramaribo having had a good day, and though we saved money on our tour, we wondered if it might have been worth the extra money to actually be told a thing or two about the places we visited by a proper guide. Though what our guide did say we could barely understand through his thick Caribbean accent.

Our original plan in Suriname was to then get out of Paramaribo into the interior. We inquired about tours that afternoon and found one with a company that could take us the next day, up river a ways to stay in a lodge run by local Amerindians. We were so close to booking, but our efforts were thwarted by our inability to pay for the tour as we couldn't withdraw enough in one day. This was probably a good thing as it was super expensive, and most of the activities were very similar to what we did in the Brazilian Amazon. But it also meant more time with our third wheel.

The next morning we wanted to sleep in a little. Marcus waited around for us. When we finally got going we checked out town a little, which was lovely and clean, with really well maintained old wooden Dutch buildings. In general, this city surprised us with its nicer shops and streets than a lot of other places we have visited, and we were hard pressed finding anyone who didn't speak English which made things easy. Marcus carried his pack all day again.

We looked at the Cathedral, claimed to be the tallest wooden structure in South America, and other beautiful historic buildings, before locating the tourist info to find out how we could get to the butterfly farm Marcel had told us about. Unfortunately we discovered that and every other attraction in Paramaribo closes at 2pm, only 20 minutes away. That killed our plans so instead we wandered the shops and searched for a decent coffee.

We ended the night with a nice riverside dinner of some local cuisine (the food in Suriname is really nice). Marcus didn't enjoy his, as the chicken had bones.

The next day Marcus was heading back to French Guiana so he wanted to get out to the butterfly farm early. We set off and found the local bus that would take us there. Marcus preferred a cab but we didn't want to pay for one. The bus left when full but that didn't take long.

When we arrived at the farm, we roamed through the museum of specimens and an enclosure with a variety of colourful species including some hatching cocoons. They fluttered around our heads as we tried to find some that stayed still long enough for some pics.

Next we were given a tour of the farm. Here they produce butterfly cocoons that are shipped off to Europe and the US for butterfly enclosures, a never-ending job given their short life span. The butterfly species are kept in individual enclosures to reproduce. Once the eggs are laid and caterpillars hatch, they are fed plants grown by the plant nursery section of the farm. Each of the 20 species will only lay eggs on and eat one type of plant, so they need 20 plant species.

Once the caterpillars are nice and fat, they make themselves a nice little cocoon, and these are either shipped off or kept to maintain a breeding population. The ones they keep are hung (using a glue gun) to hatch into butterflies and the cycle begins again.

The farm also breed snakes and turtles for pet stores. The turtles had a nice enclosure but the snakes were kept in bare small tanks. We found one little turtle who was born with only one eye. They kept him as no one would buy him. We called him Popeye.

After making our way back to town, we walked Marcus to the taxi area. Luckily he had his pack with him already! We waved goodbye as he was engulfed by about 10 drivers all keen to drive him back to Albina.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the silence and had a phenomenal dinner. Japanese Teppanyaki, in Suriname, cooked by our chef "Jackie Chan" from the Philippines. We also booked a tour to Brownsberg National Park for the next day.

LAPFWT