Suriname is a small country on the northeastern coast of South America, formerly called Dutch Guiana. 

The coastal region between the Orinoco and Amazon rivers began in the late 16th century. The Dutch originally claimed all of Guiana (also called De wilde kust, the "Wild Coast") but—following attempts to sell it first to Bavaria and then to Hanau and the loss of sections to Portugal, Britain, and France—the section actually settled and controlled by the Netherlands became known as Dutch Guiana.

It's defined by vast swaths of tropical rainforest, Dutch colonial architecture and a melting-pot culture. On its Atlantic coast is the capital, Paramaribo, where palm gardens grow near Fort Zeelandia, a 17th-century trading post.

Paramaribo is also home to Saint Peter and Paul Basilica, a towering wood cathedral consecrated in 1885.

Just be cautious if you get a phone call from there: a ring or two, then they hang up, waiting for you to call back. The Country prefix is 597.  The old two-ring scam. 

But there are lots of phone scammers in Suriname: if you get a call beginning with 597, don’t call back, unless you actually know someone in Suriname.