The first night we had chosen the cheapest hotel we could find here, which was a cosy traveller's place, but the bath and toilet was in the hall way, so when I started to feel a bit strange we went three doors down the street to a room with private bath and air con: pew!!!
I was a bit weak even though I was on my feet again so the first days after my "flu" we just walked around a bit and took in the atmosphere here. There is a nice old and well kept harbour here, with old cranes still standing on rails and an old steam engine exhibited on the walk way. And the old city part is a charm of its own with out-of-use tram tracks going up and down the hills.
Yesterday we went to Ilha de Cotijuba, a little island nearby that, according to our newly bought travel guide over the Amazon area, should be a nature Paradise. However, it was pretty torn by human presence and once again we realized, how special our experiences in Suriname were, sadly... Anyway, we had a great time there, and the beaches were beautiful with white sand and clear water (relatively speaking - it is still river water. But at least we couldn't cut pieces of it - and besides we are probably spoiled from Thailand...). We went on a buggy to the other side of the island where another beautiful beach offered refreshment for our feet and the drink in front of it all was great! The "driver" and his little brother who also joined us, thought it was funny that we went crazy over the water buffaloes along the way and started to point out every living creature on our route. The chicken were not so interesting of course, so when the 8 year old boy waved at me to come along after I photografed a crab on the beach, I was prepared for a cat or the like. So I was thrilled when I saw the (o my, what is that called in English??? It's a very slow mammal that lives in the trees, and in both Dutch and English it's called a Lazy Animal - for the Dutch people on the list: "luiard", for the Germans: Ich glaube, Ihr nennt es "Faultier". I'll just call it Slowy) Slowy sitting in the palm tree, and even more so when I saw a bigger one on the tree next to us! And on the same tree, we saw a green parrot sitting, occationally teasing the Slowy, and you couldn't help laughing at the way too slow attempts of the guy to chase away the annoying bird. Cuuute!!!!
We had some great days here, but now it's time to move on. We decided to take a flight to Manaus instead of the five day long and apparently boring boat trip up the Amazon. The price is about the same and we would like to use the extra days at the beginning of the river. So tonight we'll fly and then we'll go more or less directly to Presidente ??? National Park which sounds amazing with loads of waterfalls. And maybe even catch an English speaking movie, as tv in the room has been limited to Brazilian soaps, bad game shows, Brazilian soaps, American B-movies, football (soccer), and last but definitely not least the national passion: Brazilian soaps - all in Portuguese of course. But we heard that they have English movies in Manaus, so we are hoping!