Suriname and Paramaribo exceed our expectations. How nice and weird to hear Dutch so far away from home, because that is just the native language of Suriname. Just like the Netherlands, but much more relaxed, very nice and friendly people and nice warm weather (during the day it's above 30 degrees, sunny and occasional rainstorm). Celebrating the holidays here is a true celebration, including New Year's Eve. However, 2009 was closed a bit noisy for our boat, read why ...

On Christmas Day we sail up the river at the end of the afternoon and drop our anchor in front of the Torarica hotel; the most beautiful hotel in all of Suriname. We're allowed to use their jetty to get ashore and if we keep a bit low profile and quietly walk down their grounds through the side entrance we don't have to pay the 50 US dollars which is threatened when we ask if we can use their swimming pool. Then we don't have to swim. We toast together with the Barbarossa and the Valentine to the arrival with champagne and sashimi of tuna and wahoo. Very cozy! Then we eat the 1st Christmas dinner at the Torarica hotel - they can only offer us snacks like skewers, bitterballs and french fries. Let that be exactly what we feel like the most. Next to the illuminated swimming pool we have a delicious dinner.

There is a strong current on the river which gets stronger every day in the direction of the spring tide (2 Jan). Every 6 hours the current changes direction and so does the direction of the boats. This requires a lot from the anchor. Luckily it is good anchorage ground, so we are well anchored (...?). In the end we lie there for 7 days and nights.

The days between Christmas and New Year we spend exploring Paramaribo, doing some shopping (in a shop with a lot of dutch products) and clearing the boat and ourselves. Paramaribo is more a big village than a city. No high-rise buildings, lots of green between the houses, busy with traffic and taxis but on simple roads. We walk a lot in the city and get a very good impression of it. We spend most of the time together with the Barbarossa and Valentine. They are very pleasant and also very intensive days.

Clearing up is a story in itself. We have never experienced it like this before and it will, we hope, remain the record for the coming period. The first step is a visit to the Aliens Police, a long taxi ride far out of town. There we have to hand in a crew-list and get a stamp with which we can apply for a visa at the Ministry of Consular Affairs. You only get that visa after you fill in a form per person, add a passport photo and pay 30 euros at the Central Bank. Then you have to return this form with proof of payment to Consular Affairs, hand in your passports and a day later there is a nice visa picture in it. Then back to the Aliens Police (all together) and finally there is a stamp in our passports and we are 'legal' in Suriname. And that for two weeks vacation!

We don't cook on the boat and go out for dinner every afternoon and evening. That's fine here and it's spot cheap. So on Boxing Day we eat delicious Italian in De Waag, and the following days fries with frikandel and delicious satay in 'our pub' Het Vat. As lunch a couple of nice roti (for only 10 euro's with the four of us), and a bit of Javanese in the Javanese quarter. On New Year's Eve we eat delicious Chinese with many different dishes.

We do our shopping in an expensive supermarket with all Dutch products and bring the stock of Koopmans bread mixes back up to standard. In the city itself we find a Blokker and a kind of Hema. And also an excellent bookstore like we have in Tilburg.

On New Year's Day we first celebrate Toine's birthday at the Brandaan. With nice presents and homemade apple fritters (or apple flaps ???). The Barbarossa and Valentine come to eat these together with us and so we have another special birthday on this trip! Then we all go into Paramaribo together. We meet a colleague from our work there and talk with him and his Surinamese wife in the afternoon on the terrace of the Vat, a by now famous place where you can eat delicious food and drink Parbo beers. We hear a lot about life in Suriname.

New Year's Eve is celebrated in Paramaribo with lots of fireworks, music bands on the streets and swinging people. Something the Netherlands really can't match. Days in advance, during the day and evening there is a lot of fireworks. And on the day itself it's hit from noon onwards. Then the shops close and in the centre there is a competition between shopkeepers who can cut the longest knock-off rolls. Such a roll can be over 100 meters with minutes of deafening noise, around jumping burning parts and lots of smoke. Truly a sensation. Luckily there is also a lot of decorative fireworks. We haven't really been able to discover a transition from the old to the new year; at least as many fireworks are lit before 0.00 am as after that.

That's how we spend all day in the city. At night the streets are full of people and music bands. For the children it has been beautiful and together with the Valentine we return to our boat around 21.00 hours. When we sail back it strikes us that they are no longer the same. We sail to the Brandaan and it turns out to be the Valentine (it is dark!). The Brandaan has shown some initiative and has shifted a lot, a meter or a hundred. We were shocked for a moment and also very special; we had been lying firmly on the same spot for 6 days! We are very close to the shore, but fortunately not stuck in the mud. When a boat starts scratching its anchor, there are two ways to stop; either the anchor picks up again or you come to a stop somewhere in shallow water. In this case, the anchor has picked up again. We put the Brandaan back, in the middle of the river we have to give almost full throttle to get ahead; there are stretches with more than 4 knots of current. We need two anchor actions but then the Brandaan is fixed again. It was a bit of a scare but there is no damage so ok! Meanwhile the Barbarossa is back on the quay so Toine is going to catch her with the dinghy. When they return Mira and Monica call out loud that Toine has to come back. As it turns out, there is a river-ship adrift and it is drifting at high speed towards the Brandaan! Unbelievable but still true. Daniel helps fantastic by pushing up the river vessel with his dinghy and pushing past the Brandaan, at the last moment Toine pushes the dinghy between the two ships so the river vessel turns a little and passes the Brandaan at 0,5 meter. What a bizarre event! It was a heavy steel ship, 5 by 15 meters. If that hits you, you'll have at least a lot of damage...

Oh yeah, and it has to be said that in the morning it turns out the dinghy is leaking from us. Probably at the quay against some stakes with solid shell growth damaged. We'll fix it. But all in all a somewhat special New Year's Day!

We spend the last hours of the new year together on the Barbarossa. We come to our senses and toast to the new year. There is still some discussion when it is 0.00 a.m.; there are several times present but who has the good one? All around us there are beautiful fireworks that have been going on for hours; around 00.00 it's still rising. And around two o'clock the Torarica right in front of our boats is lighting up for 20 minutes beautiful fireworks. We are on the boats 1st rank, very nice!

This morning (New Year's Day) we have a great night's sleep. In a few hours we leave for Domburg, 10 miles up the river. From there we will make a trip on land for three days on the 4th of January. On January 8th we will leave Suriname for a trip of three days to Trinidad.