#43 - TALES FROM THE FIELD #8

When I left you last we were in Suriname. It was the end of our trip. We visited Brownsberg Natuurpark over the course of a handful of days in search of the world's largest spider. I will always regret not setting up camp at Brownsberg and dream of the night herping that Guy and I could have done. I decided then that I would never again join a trip where all "team" members didn't have an equal say. We spent our last days in Suriname at an apartment style hotel with a pool in the suburbs of Paramaribo. That was wasted time. I could have been in a hammock at Brownsberg when not scouring its bush for spiders, snakes, lizards and frogs.

However, that was not to be and our base camp at New Babunhol River Resort certainly was a wonderful place to stay. So I want to back up a week from my last Tales and tell the story of the beginning of about 10 days in our open-air "Pitiko House" on the shore of the Suriname River. In earlier installments of Tales from the Field I mentioned this camp and how I enjoyed two swims a day in the river. It was one of the only shoreline places we saw WITHOUT piranha nets, but I never was bothered by these toothy predatory fish. Paul and I had some glorious cool downs in the river, while Guy and Andy were not keen for a swim. I also mentioned our evenings with beer and cigar on the lawn of our little house, where we would watch episodes from the first two seasons of Game of Thrones on my laptop after a nice dinner and recording our field notes for the day. But let's start at the beginning of the Babunhol story ...

Our first base was at Oxygen Resort in the southern suburbs of Paramaribo (aka Parbo, just like the name of the fine Surinamese beer), but those are tales for another day. Andrew had booked New Babunhol River Resort as our primary base camp for the middle of our trip and we sorted our gear at Oxygen before checking out, and then headed to the east side of Parbo to visit the offices of Babunhol. This was a twist from any other adventure. Apparently we were to call on the owners of the resort before we headed south following the western shore of the Suriname River to Babunhol. We found the office in a small industrial park and were greeted like visiting heads of state. They ushered us into their modern offices and led us to a conference room. What an odd beginning to another tarantula hunt! We sat around a table and were offered coffee, tea and cold drinks in an air-conditioned room featuring artist's renderings of developments and blueprints. Suriname is definitely third world, and at times felt like "fourth world", but here we were having "tea and crumpets" in a modern office suite. A Dutch woman in proper business attire and the owner, a perpetually smiling dark-skinned man of Suriname, interviewed us and seemed fascinated that this group of middle aged Brits (save for your American author) had selected their riverside resort for a hunt for spiders of all thing. They seemed unaware of the creatures that we found find at Babunhol. However, they were very excited about our visit and I expect they thought we would lead in other tourists. We would soon discover that New Babunhol River Resort was really just a weekend getaway for Parbo residents. The discussion between Andrew and the owner and his office manager went on and on and Guy, Paul and I became restless. We wanted jungle, not chit chat in the most modern setting we had encountered in Suriname. Thankfully, our business meeting was eventually adjourned.

We climbed back into our little red Hyundai Tucson and headed south out of the city. We were finally on our way to what would become an amazing base camp. But first we would have to make a stop. In Costa Rica I brought along a pair of "water shoes" - mesh nylon shoes great for kayaking or river crossings, etc. We had discovered during our earlier work around Parbo and the north of Suriname that Andrew had ONLY brought similar footwear and that they had already served him poorly. I couldn't imagine not packing at least one pair of good hikers. I had two pairs of my favorite Keen hiking boots in my duffel bag so I'd have a backup, plus a pair of Keen sandals and some flip flops. But Andrew now had a desperate need for shoes. The southern outskirts of Parbo had many shops and we began stopping at each in search of hikers. There was no chance. Andrew eventually settled on a pair of white gym shoes (what my mates would call "trainers") that were sort of a faux hip hop artist style. If you watched my Finding the Goliath Tarantula in the Wild video linked in my last TFTF you will have seen Andrew sitting along the roadside wearing these unfit for the jungle shoes with his trousers tucked into his socks. I get a wry smile every time I watch it. But I was happy he found anything in his size and wouldn't have to wear his sandals or the crap water shoes for the rest of our trip. So we were off...

We were very surprised at how good the paved highway south was and made much better time to Babunhol than we expected. Sadly, the reason for the good road is that the area near Babunhol and Brownsberg and the nearby Brokopondo Reservoir are heavily mined so trucks needed suitable conduits to travel from mine to city. The backbone of the economy of Suriname is the export of aluminum oxide and small amounts of aluminum produced from bauxite mined in the country. There is also extensive gold mining and it is based between Babunhol and Brownsberg (Rosebel Gold Mine). Upon arrival at Babunhol we were surprised to find a beach and many people and motorbikes. There was quite the party going on. Our smiles turned to frowns. However, our apprehension was short-lived as we remembered that it was a national holiday and we would soon find the place deserted except for us and the staff during our ten night stay. The grounds were dotted with thatched roofs that served as pavilions for people to sling their hammocks beneath. There were people barbecuing and camping at each one when we got there. There also was a long building that had our two latrines and showers as well as a handful of single rooms for additional guests. However, the staff led us to the accommodation we had chosen, which was an open-air house with front porch and rear kitchen called the Pitiko House. Before our trip I had seen photos of it on Babunhol's website so I knew what to expect. In addition to the large covered porch at the front and the kitchen it had two single bed rooms and a third with bunk beds. My mates are always kind enough to give the big American the largest bed so I had a private room with a queen bed, Andrew took up residence in the other single room with a single bed and Guy and Paul occupied the last room with its two bunk beds. They stored their gear on one and slept on the other. The staff had greeted us and the two girls that would look after cleaning up after us brought us clean linens. It was hot and humid, but Guy and Paul went straight to hanging mosquito nets on the bunk they would use. The "mossie nets" would prove unnecessary and it was sweaty work that could have been spared.

The front view of our Pitiko House. The porch had a nice table and outdoor couch.
© Michael Jacobi

Our kitchen at the back of the house with propane burner.
© Michael Jacobi

The interior of our house. Guy in the doorway of the bunk bed room he shared with Paul.
Paul is standing with our kitchen to his left and my room to his right. The window at right is Andy's room.

The view from our front porch over the south end of New Babunhol River Resort
© Michael Jacobi

You can see a long roof in the bottom right of the above image. This was the concession area that would be open on the weekends to people getting away from the city. We had arranged to hire the Javanese cook who ran it to cook us dinner each night and also keep a cooler stocked with beer. He had a gorgeous young daughter that would serve us our meals, which were interesting, if not always delicious. But they were very accommodating. In the photo before that you can see our kitchen. Suriname has many little stores that are typically run by Chinese descendants of early contract workers. Thus, they are called "Chinese shops". We would get additional beer and some groceries from these. Each morning we would cook our own breakfast and make instant coffee. Being a Starbucks junkie I had brought packets of Via from the US. If I was going to be forced to drink instant coffee at least it was going to be Starbucks. Our lunches would be taken trailside in the jungle and usually consist of canned sardines and/or tuna on crackers, chips and coconut water, "gatorade" and bottled water.

We had arrived mid-afternoon and after unpacking a bit we headed down to the "restaurant" area to see about our evening meal and a beer. The Javanese cook and the "resort manager" who would come each morning to check on us both spoke good enough English for us to get our points across.

Team shot at our first meal at Babunhol.
Fortunately the Bavaria beer was soon replaced by the far superior Parbo Bier.
© Michael Jacobi

As we had driven into Babunhol we had noticed some nice embankments on the red dirt road. The first image showed our car stopped along the way into the resort. Tarantula hunters are eager and we didn't even wait to first arrive at the resort before we were jumping out of the car in search of spiders. We discovered that the road embankment did contain burrows and we shined our "torches" into the holes of our first of many Ephebopus murinus we would find at Babunhol. We marked each burrow so we could return at dark.

Andrew photographs an Ephebopus murinus burrow as Guy returns from locating others.
© Paul Carpenter

Juvenile Ephebopus murinus tickled from its embankment burrow at night
© Michael Jacobi

At night our Pitiko house would come alive with insects and the geckos and frogs that hunted them.

We found a number of Ephebopus murinus that night, but most that were in the roadside embankment were juvenile to subadult. SPOILER ALERT! We later would find adult females in burrows in the jungle floor. That first night after having our fun along the road with the "skeleton tarantulas" we returned to our little open-air house for some cold beer. As I mentioned, we would eventually develop a routine of having dinner and a beer down at the restaurant and then walk back up the hill to our house to write our field notes with a beer and a shot of Borgoe rum. Then we often would retire to folding chairs out on the grass in front of the house, which sat atop a hill, and watch Game of Thrones. However, when we returned to the house the first night and turned on the lights we were astonished by how many moths, other nocturnal insects, geckos and tree frogs were in our house, especially the kitchen where the primary light was. There was no electricity at Babunhol, but each night the groundskeeper would turn on a generator that would run for a few hours (7-10 pm). This would allow us to recharge our electronics, eat dinner under light and have a little light in our house before bedtime. Once the generator ceased we would be watching GOT and then crash hard.

The first night is the one I'll most remember though. We had a few beers to celebrate our arrival and our success finding Ephebopus murinus along the entrance road. The bottle of rum was passed around. Eventually we tired and made our way to our beds. Despite having a cold shower before retiring I laid on top of the sheets and wondered how I would possibly sleep in such stifling heat and humidity. We had begun our stay in Suriname at Oxygen Resort, which was very nice and air-conditioned. I actually stayed my first night in Suriname in a swank Hilton in the tourist zone. Now we were deep in the forest along the Suriname River and didn't even have electricity. I laid sweating in my bed. I heard noise in my room and grabbed my flashlight to investigate. There were a pair of huge Rhinella (Bufo) marina aka cane toads hopping on my "bedroom" floor. I went outside to relocate them. Then I returned to rest upon my sweat-soaked sheets. Before long there was a greater commotion and I felt the air moving above me. Once again the flashlight was lit and I saw the bat that was circling above my bed. It was another creature to chase out of my room! Babunhol certainly was teeming with life and some of it wanted to share my lodging. After shooing the bat out of the room with my Tilly hat I decided that I would shut my door and window. That lasted five minutes before I was overcome by even greater heat. I knew the night would eventually cool a bit and opened everything back up. As long as I was out of bed I made my way to the latrine for a "waz" and found it alive with tree frogs. This was my kind of place. I had a smile on my face as I returned to the dank room and drifted to sleep.

Until next time ... MJ