Palmentuin

The Palmentuin — the Garden of Palms — is the public park at Grote Combeweg 6, immediately behind the Presidential Palace and adjoining Onafhankelijkheidsplein. It carries heritage status as a historic park.

Its usefulness on a walking route is positional: it sits directly between the square, the palace and Zus & Zo on the Grote Combeweg side, so it is the natural place to stop and sit in the middle of a morning in the inner city.

One caution worth taking seriously. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office names Palm Garden among the secluded spots in and around Paramaribo where incidents including robbery have occurred. Treat it as a daytime, company-preferred place rather than somewhere to wander alone at dusk.

What we cannot tell you is nearly as long as what we can. The park's size, its opening hours, whether it is gated after dark, which palm species are planted, and the frequently repeated claim about capuchin monkeys in the trees are all unverified. Its map pin should be treated as approximate: the coordinates available to us are rounded to about a kilometre of precision on longitude.