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The tour guide, Silva, is nice enough but he committed a few egregious acts which put a damper on the whole experience. For starters, he provided some false facts during the tour. For example, he insisted that the official language of Suriname was Spanish despite the fact that it is Dutch. As a teacher, I pride myself on telling my students to share their knowledge but also admit their limitations. And so I find it inexcusable when a tour guide, who is another type of educator, insists on providing incorrect information just so he can save face. It’s not difficult to say “You know what, I’m not sure. Let me check” and then do a quick google search. But sharing false facts makes one lose complete trust in a teacher and a guide. At the end, I gave a fair tip for this type of tour but, in front of everyone, he insisted that I pay him more money. Classy. Anyways, this is not a pay-what-you-feel tour at all. I’d recommend you skip the tour, take an Uber to the starting point of the hike, do it yourself, and save yourself a day of lies and lost wages. I only did this tour because I was worried about safety issues but I saw a lot of hikers, including foreigners, doing it on their own. Wish I had done the same.
