After a thirteen-hour car ride to West Suriname, we arrive in Avanavero, where is the Nature park Wana Wiro lies. Here, we see a huge difference between the houses built along the Suriname river and the houses found in the island of Wana Wiro. These huts are typically Indian style houses, made with much more care, looking like it will last way longer than the huts in Upper Suriname. Whilst I start with preparing dinner, the others take a boat downstream to watch the toucans and macaws. Once everyone returned, we had an Italian dinner and went to bed shortly after.
The next morning, we woke up at 6AM, packed our clothes etc. as quickly as possible and hopped on the boat to go on another seven-hour boat ride to the Wonotobo Falls. Arriving on this island, we discover that we have found ourselves a little paradise. This place is amazing. Birds everywhere, water filled with fish (fish up to 2,5m-3m long that is) and lizards crawling around. The many rock formations along the coast of the island, form perfect hangout spots for sun bathing, after which we can enter the cool water at the sandy beaches. Being surrounded by other minor islands and the vast land on one side, we have a view on many waterfalls, including the Wonotobo Falls. These majestic waterfalls fill the entire width of the river causing a huge drop of the water. These include rapids too, where the water passes rocks formations at very high speeds. It had been a cloudy day during the boat ride, but now the Sun has welcomed us to this place. The sunset was amazing, right above the tree line of Guyana. Peaceful is what I’d like to consider this place, pure, and restless. The water never stops flowing, the fish don’t stop swimming and we try to stay up to hold on to this moment for as long as we possibly can. We went on a night walk to collect data and ended at the actual waterfall already. I couldn’t wait until we could show the others the next morning.
Having no sense of time in this place, we wake up at what seems to be around 9-9:30AM. We make ourselves breakfast and head to the waterfall. Here, we enjoy the wonderful view of two major and a couple of minor waterfalls, whilst we sit on a large flat rock only 20cm under water. We could stay here forever; the warm Sun on our faces, whilst the current from the waterfall passes us by. Once we get back to the camp, we’re really hungry but decide to go on a night walk first.
Here’s how Maureen and I would like to describe this walk:
So here we are, on a night walk of hell… we dodging low hanging branches with thorns, we see a deer in the distance. Low stalking, we realize that we’re not the only ones there. Ticks and large red ants crawl over our feet, legs and slowly up to our shirts. Fortunately, I had tugged in my long pants in my socks, otherwise I would have been bitten at least 80 times. Running back to safety, we wait for the others to return, so we can continue the walk. Climbing over fallen trees covered in large ants, passing bullet ants every 100m, and bumping our heads against some thick overhanging branches, is making us be more aware than ever. No one has walked here before us, that’s for sure. As we’re tired and hungry, we just want to head back to camp and prepare dinner. Six hours later, we arrive at the camp again, parched and famished. Dividing tasks, some prepare fish, others make a camp fire, thirds make alio olio pasta.
So here we are, on a night walk of hell… we dodging low hanging branches with thorns, we see a deer in the distance. Low stalking, we realize that we’re not the only ones there. Ticks and large red ants crawl over our feet, legs and slowly up to our shirts. Fortunately, I had tugged in my long pants in my socks, otherwise I would have been bitten at least 80 times. Running back to safety, we wait for the others to return, so we can continue the walk. Climbing over fallen trees covered in large ants, passing bullet ants every 100m, and bumping our heads against some thick overhanging branches, is making us be more aware than ever. No one has walked here before us, that’s for sure. As we’re tired and hungry, we just want to head back to camp and prepare dinner. Six hours later, we arrive at the camp again, parched and famished. Dividing tasks, some prepare fish, others make a camp fire, thirds make alio olio pasta.
After dinner (00:45), the men go to the other side of the island, to try and catch the famous red-tail catfish. Maureen and I decide to join them, and as we lay there on the blankets, the wheel of the fishing gear starts rolling. Chris, Randy and Dick all go for the fishing rod and after a 10 minute battle between three men and a huge fish, the red-tail appears. This strong creature is beautiful, having the same body colour as a great white, yet having bright red fins. As we, the ladies, wanted the red-tail to live, we asked the guys to release the fish again, and so they did. We went to bed shortly after, whilst the guys only went to bed at like 07:30, after catching another red-tail which went home with us in an icebox.
That morning, we woke up realizing that the adventure came to an end, and that we had to pack everything again. One more swim, one more camp fire, one more time climbing over the large rock formations. We took one more picture in front of the Wonotobo Falls with the group, and then headed back to Wana Wiro resort, and ate red-tail that night. The morning after, we took a good look at the Red Howler monkies on the island, then departed to Parimaribo. On our way, we had to cut our way through fallen trees with chainsaws and machetes, and 21 hours later, we finally arrived at the SUforYou office. What an adventure this has been! You can find our aftermovie of this adventure below: