Fun In The Jungle

Apparently I'm midway through my first tour in Suriname, but no one bothers keeping track.  This is one sweet gig, albeit far too short.  The daily rains have mostly subsided as the passing days carry us into a short dry season, where it's warm and comfortable, sunny and friendly.  Infrequent internet access seems to follow me everywhere I go, but we don't mind too much as there are distractions aplenty.  The rig is far enough offshore to keep everyone busy enough with flying, and one can stroll about town and find any myriad of quaint cafes and family owned restaurants, nestled into the trees, colourful birds frolicking about, musicians playing bongos, guitars or flutes, with cuisine that explodes with flavour.

I've hiked deep into the Brownburg.  It's real honest to goodness jungle but you have to go much deeper to see blue frogs and the really exotic birds and fauna, something I just can't manage with my work schedule.  Nevertheless I enjoyed the outing and saw various types of small monkeys jumping about the trees, some white faced, some looking like furry Persian cats, and heard howler monkeys off in the distance, watched a sloth move sooooo slow high up in the canopy, and spooked countless lizards in various states of shedding.

I've been doing a fair bit of SAR training, completed two more Command upgrades, and flying far more approaches in IMC than I had anticipated.  The weather is a far cry from Tanzania's forever blue skies.  These are nice birds as well, with auto-hover and air conditioning and all the bells and whistles.  I'm struggling to set up further SAR exercises with the Coast Guard, and nothing seems to happen too quickly here, but I'm racking up the hours and smiling all the while.....

Suriname Coast Guard

I rolled into Suriname in the wee hours before the sun crept up, stepping off the plane out of Miami then Aruba into damp warmth the scent of jungle.  It was almost six in the morning before I finally hauled my bags into my room along the muddy river of Paramaribo, and I slept very, very well.  My first foray into the skies of Suriname happened to be a previously organized training sortie with the Suriname Coast Guard, bouncing along happily in warm West Indies seas.  It was a tad challenging for the first time airborne since Morocco in the fall, but once offshore and located, we moved to the back of the ship as he plowed through the swells at five knots, then lowered my good friend the Rescue Technician down to the heaving deck via the hoist, backed off, lowered a highline, transferred gear back and forth for over an hour while I maintained station, either just aft or overhead to plum the line for a pick up or drop, then recovered our fearless crew member and headed back to base.  Challenging but far more fun than should be allowed.    It was a very good day.....