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Bigi Pan: Exploring Suriname's 'big lake'

Eleanor Hughes · 05:00, Mar 01 2020 0

ELEANOR HUGHES

Lined with mangroves and forest, the 8.5 kilometres of tranquil waterway offers little shade.

A 10-minute drive from the town of Nieuw Nickerie brings us to a rickety, short jetty
jutting into the very brown Nickerie River. 

Three narrow long boats await. I clamber off a ladder and hesitatingly climb over the
wooden benches of one – as it rocks dangerously – to the back. Although the boat
could take up to 12 passengers, 10 board. The front is piled with luggage. The gunwales
are a mere 20 or so centimetres above the water.  There are no lifejackets. 

The 15 horse-power motor propels us along the Nickerie for five or so minutes, until
opposite a listing, rusted ship, we turn left.  Ahead lie metal, ladder-like rungs up a
concrete incline.  Disembarking, we walk up it and then watch our four boatmen attempt
to push and pull the first boat up the rolling rungs.  They need help. 
Foot by foot, like a tug-of-war, many arms haul it to the top. It then slides effortlessly
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down into a dyke.  It's a while before all three are in position to re-embark.
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SUforYou Bigi Pan

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Boatmen inch the craft from the Nickerie River to the dyke.
 ELEANOR HUGHES
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Boatmen inch the craft from the Nickerie River to the dyke.

so u th ameri ca
A large, dark brown hawk keeps watch, under the beating sun, as we pass by, along the
four-metre-ish wide dyke which accesses Bigi Pan. Suriname has no roads in this 680
square kilometre wetland system, which joins the Nickerie River to the Atlantic Ocean on
the north-eastern coast of South America. 

Some passengers drape themselves with sarongs, others sit under the shade of
umbrellas on the hour-long boat trip.  I have only a cap.  The 8.5 kilometres of tranquil
waterway, lined with mangroves and forest, offers little shade.  I rest my arms on my
knees.  They slide off, my skin slick with sweat.  Blue and white heron take flight from
their resting places on treetops, perhaps startled by the droning motor.  

The great expanse of choppy water at the end of the dyke is a surprise. Bigi Pan, or "big
lake" of this former Dutch colony is indeed big – an eight square-kilometre lagoon.  We
motor towards one of perhaps 10 wooden, corrugated-iron-roofed structures dotted in
the lake.  It shouldn't be too catastrophic if we do capsize.  The water, a mixture of fresh
and salt, is only 60 to 80 centimetres deep.  I can feel the heat rising from it.  I dip my
hand in over the side.  It's warmer than a lukewarm bath.  

Even guests have to get out to help walk the boat in Bigi Pan.
ELEANOR HUGHES

Even guests have to get out to help walk the boat in Bigi Pan.

The other surprise is that my accommodation is in the water.  Bigi Pan Eco-Lodge is one
of the structures.  The rooms are basic – mine contains two double beds, a mosquito
net over each and a hook to hang clothes on.  Between the wooden floorboards, I can
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see the water, about 60 centimetres below.  A wooden walkway around the back of the
platform complex leads to "showers" – as o u t htiled
a mstall,
e r i caacouple of buckets and a tap
outside to fill the bucket.  I don't know where they, or the toilets, next to them drain or
discharge into… hopefully one of a number of tanks on the eco-lodge's platform.

The 5pm lowering sun shines a silver streak across the choppy lake.  It's birdwatching
time.  Water spraying me as we motor along is cooling in the still humidity.  Flying fish
break the surface and skip across the water like skimmed stones.  A silvery body lands
in a travelling companion's lap.  It's quickly tossed back.  

Like a scene from an apocalyptic movie, white tree trunks devoid of vegetation stand
upright in the water, dead from salt intake.  Perching birds decorate them.  We reach still,
milky tea-coloured waterways where heron wade amongst grassy, low-lying islands. 
The boat propeller hits the lagoon bottom, churning up cement-hued mud.  The water
resembles a lava lamp in motion.  Scarlet Ibis – Bigi Pan has the country's largest
breeding colony – embellish the bare limbs of a tree, giving it the appearance of a
blooming magnolia.  

You might be surprised to learn, as I was, that the Bigi Pan Eco-Lodge is actually situated in the water.
ELEANOR HUGHES

You might be surprised to learn, as I was, that the Bigi Pan Eco-Lodge is actually situated in the water.

Our boatmen cut the motors further along so as not to startle Snowy Egrets near dense
swamp.  They slide overboard when the black coffee-coloured water is only shin-deep. 
Thick black mud coats their feet.  Silence reigns, except for the odd squawk or whistle of
a bird. It's idyllic.  We are the only humans in this great expanse.  A water snake swims,
wriggling like a freshly dug-up worm, when the boat draws nearer.  Like fire sparks,Log in
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Scarlet Ibis take flight across the blue sky adorned with puffy white clouds.

One hundred and twenty species ofsbird, o u t amongst

h a m e r i cthem
a toucan, macaw, frigate bird,
pelican, tern, parakeet, woodpecker, meadowlark and ground dove, call this place home
at some stage throughout the year.  Fifty of the species migrate from North America. 
It's no wonder Birdlife International, a global partnership of conservation organisations,
listed it as an important bird area.  Bigi Pan also hosts 40 different mammals and
30 fish species amongst the white-and-red mangroves of the rivers and creeks and the
black mangrove-forested swampy coast.  In September, apparently one of the best
seasons for bird-watching (which officially runs from February-March and the end of
July-November), I see maybe 10 varieties.  Perhaps I'm not looking close enough, the
majority are at a distance.

It's sad to hear that the nutrient-rich lagoon's biggest threat is the illegal expansion of
neighbouring rice fields. With them, comes pesticides and fertilisers.

Some of the vegetation makes Bigi Pan look like it belongs in an apocalyptic movie.
ELEANOR HUGHES

Some of the vegetation makes Bigi Pan look like it belongs in an apocalyptic movie.

We return to our lodge as the sun sets, rippling water struck orange.  A cloud resembling
a caiman eats the sun.  

Late evening brings another boat trip, this time to spot real caiman, in the dyke that led
us to Bigi Pan.  The boat motor's unrelenting lawnmower tone breaks the silence as we
cross the lagoon under a glittering Milky Way.  Murmuring in the warm breeze – the
temperature may have dropped a degree from the day's 32°C – we peer into the dark as
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our guides search the shoreline with head-torches for the glowing red eyes of the small
crocodiles.   so u th ameri ca

Beaching the boats in the mud, the men disappear into the mangroves.  Eventually they
return.  A baby caiman around half-a-metre long, perhaps 10 centimetres round, is held
captive. I gingerly stroke it, expecting its back to be hard and spiky. Its greenish skin is
soft and spongy.  The little creature is released back into the mangroves.  

The 5pm lowering sun shines a silver streak across the choppy lake.
ELEANOR HUGHES

The 5pm lowering sun shines a silver streak across the choppy lake.

The guides once again disappear, this time armed with a torch and pole.  Below a
quarter moon, we wait silently in the black night.  Somewhere a frog croaks, insects
chirp.  

A non-venomous, thin, whitish snake is brought back twisted around the pole.  Put back
in a tree, it wraps its metre-long body around a branch and is barely distinguishable.  

Another of Bigi Pan's inhabitants lies on the lodge's deck the next morning, the sun rising
late, around 7.30am.  Hopefully, the unlucky, motley grey catfish, whiskery and wide, is
not breakfast… or lunch…  

I gaze out over the tepid water which gently laps at the piles and wonder what else lurks
below.
 tra v el Log in

so u th ameri ca

Suriname has no roads in this 680 square kilometre wetland system, which joins the Nickerie River to the Atlantic Ocean on
the north-eastern coast of South America.
ELEANOR HUGHES

Suriname has no roads in this 680 square kilometre wetland system, which joins the Nickerie River to the Atlantic
Ocean on the north-eastern coast of South America.

MORE INFORMATION New Zealand passport holders require a Suriname Visa.  A $25

admin fee is payable to the consulate and €40 on arrival at the airport
in Suriname. See surinametourism.sr

GETTING THERE To get to Paramaribo, Suriname, the capital, requires long flights with
some lengthy waits between flights. There are several routes you can take. See
expedia.com.  Paramaribo to Nieuw Nickerie, the nearest town to Bigi Pan is  a 229km
drive that takes around 3.5 hours.

CARBON FOOTPRINT Flying generates carbon emissions. Consider offsetting them

when you book.

TOURING THERE The writer travelled with Dragoman UK, an overlanding company,
from Rio de Janeiro to Boa Vista which included French Guiana, Suriname and Guyana.
See dragoman.com

STAYING THERE Paramaribo:  Guesthouse Twenty4 (around $43 for a double room per
night).  Un Pied-á-Terre (around $43 for a double room per night).

The tour operator used for the trip to Bigi Pan was Celestial Tours who organise two-
day trips from either Paramaribo or Nieuw Nickerie, with a night spent in stilted
accommodation, such as the Bigi Pan Ecolodge, on Bigi Pan.  See: celestialtours.srThe
 price depends on how many persons join a tour, but starting at 4 persons, the priceLog
is in
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€150 pp. 

STAYING SAFE The Ministry of Foreigns o u Affairs

t h a m eand
r i c Trade
a is not issuing a specific travel
advisory for Suriname at this time. See safetravel.govt.nz for latest information.

The writer travelled at her own expense.

stu READ & SHOP

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