Cayenne to Paramaribo!! Waking up to rain again and 100s of itching mosquito bites is a good sign its time to get moving again. After thanking Nico, his son and Nicola; I gathered the last of my things and readied myself for the long trip to Suriname. Unfortunately it was raining heavily and I was meeting my carpool lift at the end of Nicos street - only a 10 minute walk but with torrential downpour and having all my things would make for a small challenge. Luckily I had one of those one time use ponchos and was able to cover myself and my things enough to get down to the corner without getting to soaked. My lift came and we were off; picking up 3 others on the way making for a full car; he spoke a little English aswell which was handy. The last passenger we picked up was a very large unfriendly black woman and meant myself and another girl were squished up in the back. The trip was a little painful as we were so cramped and we had to make an hour detour which didn't help. After 3.5 hours we arrived and the driver kindly dropped me at immigration and gave me a good tip on paying only 2 euros for a boat across the river. I got my exit stamp and proceeded to boat area where I was met by what would be a typical Surinamese behavior from this point forward: deceit, lies and trickery: at first I was told the price was 20 euros and then no no no I mean 5 euro - which I new was still far too much. I walked away and they continued hassling me but I didn't look back and continued walking to where all the locals were boarding the canoes; I asked about 6 boats and the lowest price they would except was 3 euro but eventually after 30 minutes one boat excepted my 2 euro offer and we were off. The boat was full of locals and took around 10 minutes to cross the river where I was met by wheelers, dealers and more tricksters. To no surprise when I disembarked I was told the fare was 3 euros so I gave them 2 and walked away. Now I had to find the immigration office and after asking 3 people they all told me I needed to take a boat which turned out to be a lie and after walking 10 minutes I came across it, walked inside and got my passport and visa stamped. Even the immigration officer lied to me about the local bus to Paramaribo - so already I have a bad impression and distrust in the Surinamese people. I wondered around and found a nice Indian girl in a clothes shop that told me that there was in fact a local bus but it had already gone today and that I would need to take a taxi bus for around 10 euros. When I walked back to the riverside where all the vans were waiting I was inundated with offers of 30 euro and above, I obviously refused and offered much less. Some of the guys started grabbing me and trying to take me away from the others offering so called special prices: this really annoyed me and I started getting angry with the lies and the forcible sales tactics. Eventually I found a taxi van who offered ride for 10 euro and I accepted as it was full of people and ready to go. The road to Paramaribo was quite interesting but the driver had all the windows down and I was blasted with cold air the whole way. The girl sitting next to me was quite large and told me I should give her my seat as she was quite fat - I burst out laughing saying she was indeed quite fat but that meant little to me. We arrived in Paramaribo and driver stopped on outskirts of city saying he was now heading south and I had to get out now or wait for him to drop everyone else off first and then he would take me back to city, I agreed as it was pouring with rain and I was a 30 minute walk away from CJs. We drove out into the residential area dropping everyone else off which took over an hour and on the last drop off he complained the van was overheating and he couldn't take me back to city - he did however haul down a bus and give me a few dollars off my fare so although mad I still had a way back to city. The bus took me into city and the bus driver was very kind and directed me towards CJs house. The streets were dead and all the shops were closed as I wondered down the streets. I found CJs place easily but couldn't find anywhere to borrow a phone to call him (he has biometric security and no apartment number); luckily a couple were leaving the apartment and offered to call him for me. CJ came and after a quick hello took me to his little bachelor pad. CJ is a Filipino nurse living and working here in Suriname for 6 months now and has kindly allowed me to stay a few nights here in Paramaribo. We headed to the supermarket to buy some things and on the way CJ filled me in on all the dangers of the city, how he came about to live here and things about the country I might find useful. The supermarket was incredibly expensive and when i went to checkout I found out that amazingly the supermarket doesn't take card so I had to borrow some money from CJ. On visiting the ATM I then found that none of the banks except visa - a Dutch thing apparently. CJ doesn't have a kitchen and just has a rice-cooker which made cooking almost impossible; but with a little creativity I made a vegetable soup with boiled eggs and it was quite tasty.
The rest of the evening CJ and i chatted about life, travels and about Suriname. Nothing seems to have gone smoothly today and people were not so nice so lets hope tomorrow gets better.

OBSERVATIONS:
- Older Creole women think they have rights over younger people
- Saint-Laurent to Albina river crossing was 2 euro, on arrival they wanted 3
- Suriname: initial impression crooks and tricksters - lying to me about immigration, price of taxi and non-existent bus
- Suriname - many people speaking English
- Uneasy feeling - bad types of people
- Taxi van to Paramaribo - 10 euro
- Taxi Van didn't take me all way - made up something about car over-heat - had to take another bus
- CS CJ - Filipino
- CJ freezing aircon - sweater and jeans for first time in months.