Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname:
09-10 September 2002.

‘All Nations Quest’ Ep 6
Trinidad & Tobago and Suriname: 09-10 September 2002.
It was a joyful experience departing Caracas at 400 kph on a West Indian Airlines Dash 8-300. The first turbo-prop flight of the Quest. Anything had to be better than Caracas.

Trinidad & Tobago

Therefore, Trinidad & its quieter neighbour Tobago, didn’t disappoint. Lying off the Orinoco river delta northeast of Venezuela, with its beaches & coral reefs, this was the land of the steel drum. However, life hadn’t always been easy for the locals. 43% of the pop descended from African slaves and 40% from indentured Indian labourers.

Our taxi driver, Cleaver Mitchell, quickly dropped his rate when we offered him a days work touring the island. Daniella was Cleaver’s daughter of 9 yrs. Daniella’s dream was “I will like the world to have peace; to visit my cousins in America and also to take over my aunts business.” We didn’t find out what business her aunt had, but she may have got to America at some stage. So one out of three is passable in current standards.

Suriname

Our late evening flight from Port of Spain, Trinidad, had us in Suriname at 0100 the next morning of 10SEP. Zanderij Airport was 58 kms away from the capital Paramaribo. So, in keeping with the ‘vibe’ of the Quest, we headed along a badly potholed road and bunked down at the nearby and ‘less-than-salubrious’ Zanderij guesthouse. No food, no safe drinking water and no air-conditioning. The owner/manager ‘Mr Andrews’ informed us renovations were soon to start and it would be the finest guesthouse in the land. We consumed a warm beer and called it a night. Next morning I was thrilled to see a very large monkey fooling around in the jungle garden outside my room. Until John noticed it was tied to the clothesline. D’oh!

We paid our bill, wished Mr Andrews all the best with his renos, and fled to the airport (sans breakfast) for our early flight to Georgetown, Guyana on a Suriname Airways MD80 jet. By now John and I were into a good routine travelling together. But would it stay that way?

‘All Nations Quest’ Ep 6

To be contd – check out past episodes here.