Giant Leatherback turtles in Matapica

We always wanted to see it from up close: giant Leatherback turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs. You have to be there at the right time (between now and June) and at the right place. We were there. And we watched it. In awe.

Matapica, a nature reserve situated close to Paramaribo, was not our first choice. Everyone goes to Galibi (pretty far away) and we thought of going there but we looked at some of the tour prices … and they are way crazy. Doing it by ourselves was difficult because of the distance so… off to Matapica!

Swamp trip
What a good decision. No tour needed. With a bus to Marienburg, a quick boat over the river to Johanna Margaretha and a beautiful swamp trip youre there. Boatsman Mr. Nandram brought us some nasi and barra and stopped for every bird in sight.

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We didn’t book accommodation (travelling is somehow more exciting that way) and manager Mr. Loor at Matapica allowed us to hang our hammocks in the daytrip-hut. Perfect, because staying in a house at Matapica is 60 US dollar and that is just not worth it (no kitchen, outside shared toilets that don’t flush and the bathrooms involve a bucket of cold rain water).

White-shelled beach
From the daytrippers hut you walk through a creek filled with fish that walk on the water to the white-shelled beach. There you can see the first turtle tracks. One of the guides woke us up around 10:30pm for a tour along the beach and within moments we found a Green Turtle laying its eggs.

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Emotional experience
You are allowed very close and you can see every egg drop into the massive hole the turtle dug out. Most impressive was seeing the giant Leatherback turtle dig a hole with its powerful back legs, lay its eggs and cover it up again. The process takes about an hour to complete. The grunting, the hard work and knowing that maybe only one of the eggs will hatch makes this experience pretty emotional. We saw seven turtles in total that night.

Off to Nickerie
The last couple of days we’ve been hanging with the family. Its been very nice to catch up and enjoy all the lovely food… but it is time to move. In two hours we are going to Nickerie to visit Bigi Pan. Afterwards we are planning a trip to Apoera and the Blanche Marie Falls.

We are spending more time in Suriname then planned so Peru is becoming part of our plans for a next trip to South America. We are def going to British Guyana and might visit Venezuela (via Brazil)… actually: we have no clue. But that’s the nice thing about travelling: if we like the place we’re at we’ll stay, if we don’t we move…

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We’ll be back in Paramaribo in 5 weeks time. We will update as much as we can.

Love you all,

Brian & Elvira

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