Suriname Jungle

by Cash 
Lagune de Marigot, St. Martin

You might expect that a mountain in the middle of the Surinamese jungles would be a good place to find wildlife. And you'd be right.

During our stay in Suriname, we visited the Brownsberg Nature Park, which included a difficult drive up a crazy road, and it was well worth it.

To get there, we had to drive south from our anchorage in Domburg for two hours until we came upon a very small town bordering the very large lake. From there, we had to drive on a dirt road up the mountain to get to the Nature Park. And boy, was it a crazy road. We were unsure whether the small car we had rented would make it. The road was filled with bumps and potholes and puddles that sometimes took up most of the road. And our car had about 8 inches of clearance.

The blue dot is where we were
when we got the flat tire

While driving far to the left side of the road to avoid a giant puddle, we hit the bank on the side. We got out and checked, and sure enough, the tire was flat. In the complete middle of nowhere.

Luckily we had a spare and were soon back on the road.
















When we arrived at the nature park, one of the first things we saw was a worker sitting at a table, smoking
a cigarette, and watching static-y TV on an old television set.

It was playing some kind of adventure nature program

We took a trail to a waterfall, had a picnic lunch, and walked back. Along the way, we saw many kinds of insects and animals.

Above are pictures of a neat looking fruit and the tree that grows it. Below is a video of a hummingbird on that tree.

I don't know what these strange looking bugs are.

This bright bug landed on our backpack while we were eating!

A butterfly wing my mom found.

Below is a video of a beautiful blue butterfly.

Here's a video of a lizard. At the end you can see a red butterfly.

The sounds of the forest.

Leoval (Leo Falls)

A steep path of tangled roots

At first we thought this was a strange bug, but then realized it was an ant carrying a leaf.

A group of flightless birds feeding.

While most of the way back on the trail, we were feeling pretty good. We had seen many different brightly colored, exotic animals. But there was something missing. All of what we had seen was small wildlife, and we felt a little bit disappointed. That's when Nicole spotted it. A monkey! A wild, South American monkey!