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| 05-02-2005 Paramaribo Bee's groupmail: Hi guys! Well arrieved in Paramaribo, Suriname, and are enjoying the warm tropical weather and the mix of colonial, Arabian, and Asian architecture. People here are mainly black, but there are different inputs from Asia as well, and there�s even a mosque situated right next to a synagogue in perfect harmony. It is strange to think about the fact that almost every single one of these people stem from people in slavery� We flew on business class here which was pure delight, and stepping out of the big Boeing 747 in the middle of nowhere after flying in over thick mangrove forest was almost surreal. The airport was charmingly small and old, and we quickly got arranged for a minibus to take us for an hour ride to Parbo. We drove through a flat palm tree delta landscape with houses with the same style mix as we see in the architecture here in Parbo. The air is thick and moist and the sweet smell reminds me a lot of Asia. Combined of course with the smell of sun cr�me and DEET � I got a thousand mosquito bites already compared to Rob�s shining zero. When I offer him DEET, he says �No thanks, sweety, I have you!� True love� We went to see Fort Zeelandia today where there was an exhibition with old possessions of a female Dutch plantation owner who was no fun at all to her slaves it seemed. Otherwise we spent most of the time yesterday walking around sucking up the atmosphere and trying to keep awake � we are a bit jet lagged, but it seems to go better today. It�s funny that we can speak Dutch here and people don�t really know where to place me when I start speaking Dutch. My (very!) white skin colour also draws attention, which is not kept a secret. It doesn�t feel like an harassment, though, more like a compliment that you can take or leave. We are the only backpackers we�ve seen here, maybe because we are some of the only tourists we�ve seen, too. It�s a funny experience to ACTUALLY be a bit off the beaten track. Tomorrow we�ll go to Brownsberg which is a mountain 4 hour�s drive away. We organized the trip ourselves as the agencies ask a ridiculous price, even for European standards. So now we are going with a local bus and are going to sleep in our newly bought hammocks � off we go! Hope you are all fine, Hugs, Rob and Berit 31-01-2005 Last week-end we were in Vlissingen to have a great week-end and to say goodby to some friends, We ussually see them once every half year so there is not much change but still. It was a great week-end with the neccesary liquids. Last week has been a week of finishing up and having dinner with work, we have been out last Thursday in Veldhoven for a nice dinner and some drinks after that in the local pub, Jaap even reconised some famous fat darter over there. Today it will be cake day and handing in my laptop an phone, that I will miss dearly, (no more calling on the philips number). 25-01-2005 After about three pairs of shoes Bee has now found here match so that issue is solved, let the walking begin. The tickets are also finally done, we had to change some routes due to airport taxes that went up until 400 Dollars a ticket so that is the reason that we are now traveling from Ecuador and not from Peru. At the moment there is not much to write, it is now working the last days and enjoying the frikandellen speciaal kroketjes. I won't bother everyone with more bla bla and will write again from 5 Februarie. 18-01-2005, At the moment I'm trying to arrange all the flights, flights have been changed due to the airport tax, flying from Lima Peru to Cape town would have cost us 400 dollars a person and that would only be tax, now we are flying from Quito in Ecuador and the KLM promised me that that would only be 53,26 Euro's.For the rest Bee is trying to get some good walking shoes,..... 12-01-2005, Things are slowly progressing as we are coming closer to the third of February.For the Christmas holiday we have been to Denmark celebrating these days with Bee's family.After a lot of great Danish food, a lot of liquor from several countries and a apple water pipe so no strange tobacco but normal apple taste and a great night out in Sonderborg we moved trough the Danish snow back to holland.New Years we celebrated in Holland with the matteam at the house of Ton van Bussel with a lot of Belgian fireworks combined with beautiful ground support from Bart Lodewijks.Last week the last tickets have been order and the trip (flights) are now final. 20-12-2004, At the moment we are preparing our travel, shopping for the first items and we just got our injections against all the tropical diseases. |
| Part I: Untill 05-02-2005 |
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