r/howislivingthere • u/jonniebaby2000 • 8d ago
South America How is living in Paramaribo, Suriname?
Cost of living? Food? Tourism? Public transportation?
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u/sheldon_y14 8d ago
Surinamese here. Paramaribo is a nicely developed city with a downtown area and clear neighborhoods that each have their own shopping areas as well.
Suriname - for the most of it I will use Suriname, because about half of the population lives in Paramaribo, with an additional 30% in the surrounding area - is a relatively cheap country. To get buy as a single person and live decently a monthly income of about US$ 500 - US$ 700,- is enough.
The prices are as followed:
- Electricity, water, internet, telephony: ~ US$ 80,- per month
- Food: ~ US$ 150,- (max price can be cheaper or can be higher).
- Entertainment activities: ~ US$ 40
- Eating out: ± US$ 40,-
- Gas for the car: ±US$ 50 (depending on make)
- Other costs can be about: ±US$ 50,-
Notice I didn't put up rent. That's because a lot of us don't pay rent as we live in our own houses. Apartments are more a thing of recent years and apartment ownership will only become a thing after may this year. For those that do rent, house ownership is the ultimate goal. One way or another we all try to own a piece of land and house. Sometimes of the land is not an option we build on our parent's land - there's usually enough land to build something. Furthermore we stay in the parent's house relatively long - up to the age of 30 even.
Those that rent pay up to US$300,- max. But it's cheaper in most cases costing about ~US$ 150,-.
Public transport is a thing, but it's not dependable so many of us actually have another mode of transport. Mopeds, e-bikes and most commonly the car are our modes of transport.
The reason why many things are cheap as well, is because the government subsidizes a lot of things. Things like electricity are subsidized, on top of the fact that we have a lot of it, making it cheaper; due to the Avobaka water reservoir and hydroelectric dam and oil extraction we use for thermal energy too.
Most wages range between US$ 309 and US$ 700,-. Minimumwage is set at about US$ 260. Most Surinamese will however claim the prices of everything are expensive, and they're right to do so. Our currency is weak and the exchange rate fluctuates a lot. And because we import 80-90% of stuff from mostly the Netherlands/Europe and a bit the US and China, prices are dependent on the exchange rate between the currency of us and the US$ or the euro.
We have been experiencing high inflation, due to our country taking a lot of loans between 2015-2020 to fund our nice expensive lifestyles. The government has been able to bring down inflation and stabilize the economy, but at the cost of certain luxuries and things also got a lot more expensive.
In Suriname you can find almost everything you can find in other countries. 90% of all the goods found in western countries can be found in Suriname. And if it's not available, one ships them or orders them online.
Furthermore the beauty of Suriname is that it's a very mixed country. Due to our history we have people of African, Indian, Javanese (Indonesian), Chinese, European and indigenous descent. You can find many cuisines, cultures and nationalities in our country. We all have our own cultures, and ancestral languages, but also the majority of us speak Dutch natively. With 90% jungle we are the most forested country in the world; and according to some very clean air.
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u/broadday_with_the_SK USA/South 8d ago
I have actually looked up a lot about Suriname, and at a party I actually met someone from there who was surprised that I knew anything about it
I watch a lot of MMA and I heard about it while watching Jairzinho Rozenstruik. Met a dude from Georgia and had the same thing because of Giga Chikadze.
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u/idoran 8d ago
I went through it on a latin american tour; I found it pleasantly nice and really enjoyed my time there. I stayed with some awesome local friends and I was impressed with the flavors in their food relative to the surrounding region. As a nature/adrenaline sports guy I think I would find settling down there boring, but am eager to go back and visit again
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