Paramaribo, Suriname is an hour from the airport.   Our flight was at 5:00 am so we booked a stay in a guesthouse 10 minutes from the airport.

We arrived after dark and upon exiting the van it felt as if we were dropped off in Vietnam.  Hot and muggy.

Our room – perfectly frigid, basic and spotless.  The bathroom down the hall was a stifling 130 degrees without any air movement. It appeared to have 4 rooms but were the only guests.

A very sweet husband and wife team run the guesthouse although only Sonja got her name above the door.

Sonja’s husband said he’d be ready and waiting  at 2:45 am to drive us to the airport.  Why so early?  Of course knowing I had to get up that early my body decided to stay awake the whole, short night.  UGH.

The airport terminal building was a large heavy plastic tent.  Two airlines had flights out that early in the morning.  We thought we’d be the first to arrive but were amongst the last.

We were headed to Trinidad nicknamed Land of the Hummingbirds .  An island 6.8 miles off the coast of Venezuela – the 5th largest is the West Indies.

After gaining an hour back in time we arrived at our hotel while everyone else was still sleeping.  Thank goodness our room was ready.  After a quick breakfast we headed to bed.  It was raining, we were dead tired and why not?

This was only a quick one night trip. 

The hotel was next to the 270 acre Queen’s Park Savannah where stunning mansions were built between 1902 and 1910,  known as the Magnificent Seven.  Something I wanted to see.

The rain paused and the clouds parted mid-afternoon so we grabbed the opportunity to walk to the park.  Fortunately, I left my good camera in the room.  About a mile out and after having seen the homes the sky was darkening.  Hoping to get back before the rain fell was wishful thinking.  Crossing the treeless park looked to be faster than continuing around the perimeter of the park.  It mattered not because five minutes later the sky opened up and bawled its eyes out.  Saturating us in minutes.  Bill’s umbrella and my raincoat didn’t stand a chance.

The rain was so abundant the streets became rivers – Bill had on his flip flops.  We arrived back at the hotel 20 minutes later absolutely soaked to the bone.  The front desk staff brought us a towel and put the wet floor sign down after we sloppily made a path to the elevator.

We wrung out our clothes, took a warm shower and headed to the covered rooftop bar. 

Cocktails, snacks and a few hands of cards closed the day.

That was our stay in Trinidad.