5 gems of the smallest independent country on the South American continent
By: Lee

5 gems of the smallest independent country on the South American continent:Suriname

Paramaribo

located on banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 250,000 people, more than half of Suriname's population. The historic inner city of Paramaribo has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002.

Don't Miss:

To have a walk in the Maagdenstraat where you will see a lot of Chinese jewelers. Most of the jewelers are specialized in labor-intensive handmade jewels. It is also quite cheap to give your jewels a bath giving them the glow they used to have, or to simply repair them.

Visit waterkant and enjoy the sunset

To Visit the flea-market on Sunday

To Visit the flower expo at the Letitia Vriesdelaan which happens is scheduled every other Sunday. They sell different type of orchids, cacti, and other plants.

The Suriname Mosque

The National Assembly of Suriname

The Neveh Shalom Synagogue

The Roman Catholic St Peter and St Paul Cathedral

Raleighvallen Nature Reserve

This nature reserve has an area of 78,170 ha and is situated along the Coppename River. It can be reached by airplane (less than an hour) or by car (120 mi) to be followed by a 3-4 hour boat ride. The reserve headquarters and the tourist lodges are located on Fungo Island in the middle of the Coppename River.

Raleighvallen (Raleigh Falls) is the name for the extensive set of rapids near Fungo Island in the upper Coppename River.

The reserve is internationally known as a bird and monkey paradise. You'll see toucans, macaws and parrots and 400 other species. Hanging from the tree branches on and around Fungo Island you'll notice the pendulum-shaped nests of the weaver birds (oropendulas) which are large, colonial nesting birds with yellow outer feathers. These nests can be close to a meter long.

Another interesting feature is the Voltzberg. This granite sugarloaf mountain can be reached on foot in about three hours by jungle trail from Foengoe Island. The Voltzberg rises about 150 m (375 ft) above the forest canopy. The night can be spent in a hammock in a sinple jungle camp at the base of the mountain. During the night you will be surrounded by the sounds of monkeys, tree frogs, and other creatures from the tropical rainforest.

The reserve is also the home of the spectacular and rare cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola).

There is the possibility, as well, of encountering deer, tortoises, tinamous, and several species of monkey on the 7 km (one-way) hike to the mountain. The trail is good but the damp climate of the rainforest, and the steep climb up the Volzberg, make it a heavy trip, especially for the out-of-shape hiker.

Central Suriname Nature Reserve

The Central Suriname Nature Reserve (CSNR) protects some of the most remote, ancient, and pristine wilderness on Earth. It comprises more than 1.6 million hectares of primary tropical forest. The Reserve forms a corridor linking the three most important protected areas in central Suriname: the Raleighvallen Nature reserve in the north, and the Tafelberg and Eilerts de Hann Gebergte Nature Reserves in the central and southern portion of the corridor. The area —an area the size of New Jersey— protects the watershed of one of Suriname's most important river systems, the Coppename River, where there are countless varieties of flora and fauna, many of them endemic. The Raleighvallen Nature Reserve is one of the most important protected areas in South America. Vegetation there consists mostly of moist highland forest, the same forest that covers approximately 80 percent of Suriname. The Tafelberg Nature Reserve is in a remote area that includes the geographic center of suriname. This area is made up of primary rainforest and savanna ecosystems. The Eilerts de Hann Gebergte Nature Reserve has no human populations living within or around its boundaries. This reserve includes parts of the Eilerts de Hann Gebergte mountain range and is made up of primary tropical rain forest and savanna ecosystems. Since there has been very little exploration in this Reserve, very little is known about is flora and fauna. The Central Suriname Nature Reserve is an important precendent in protecting large blocks of undisturbed tropical wilderness. But it is only a first step. The challenge for Conservation International and its funding partners is to continue these efforts to protect the ecological viability of the world's last remaining tropical wilderness areas. Conservation International has been active in Suriname since 1991, using an integrated approach that draws on both the knowledge and expertise of highly trained Surinamese conservationists as well as CI's on-the-ground experience in twenty-two other countries of the world.

Rather than sell the country's forests to the highest-bidding timber companies, the Surinamese government made a commitment in 1998 to protect the forests and explore the long-term economic benefits of sustainable development and ecotourism. Conservation International (CI) joined Suriname to help design, fund, and promote this effort to carefully blend biodiversity conservation and economic opportunity.

Seven years later, the uniquely constructed tourist facilities on Foengoe Island—tucked neatly within the CSNR—are poised to become a premier destination for ecotourism in the Guayana Shield, the massive, two billion-year-old geological formation that underlies five countries in northeastern South America.

Galibi Nature Reserve

Galibi Nature Reserve is world famous as a nesting site for endangered sea turtles. Four species come ashore to lay their eggs between February and August. The nearby Amerindian villages of Christiannkondre and Langemankondre can also be visited, giving you an opportunity to purchase Carib indian artwork. This is a wonderful place to relax for a few days. Here are undisturbed sea turtle nesting beaches, where you have the best chance to observe different species of turtles: the green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas), the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), and the olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea). Eilanti Beach is the only beach where mass nesting aggregations (arribadas) of the olive ridley are known to have occurred in the Atlantic region. The hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) nests only sporadically in Suriname with rarely more than twenty-five nests per year for all of Suriname.

The Galibi Nature Reserve is situated in the Northeast corner of Suriname, at the mouth of the Marowijne River, bordering French Guiana. Because the saline oceanic Guiana Current and the freshwater flow of the Marowijne River collide along the east and north borders of the reserve, it is exposed to many different environmental factors. This results in a great biological diversity characterized by the Suriname coast.

The Galibi reserve and the nearby Amerinidan villages are accessible only by boat, about 1 1/2 hours downstream from the drop in point, Albina. The villagers are allowed to use the reserve for fishing, hunting, plant collecting and small-scale agricultural activities.