Bigi Pan

In Suriname's rice-growing far west, the coast dissolves into Bigi Pan - a huge, shallow brackish lagoon system where mudflats, mangroves and open water host one of the Guianas' great bird gatherings: scarlet ibis by the hundreds glowing against the green, egrets, spoonbills, ospreys and flamingo visitors among well over a hundred species. The Bigi Pan reserve, named after the central lagoon, covers about 68,000 hectares and is the third largest in the country. The visit's form is settled tradition: boat out from the Nickerie landings, sleep in a stilted lodge standing in the open water, fish for your dinner if inclined, and wait for the evening flights - ibis streaming home in ribbons of impossible red while the sunset does the backdrop.

What's there

• The scarlet ibis flights - red ribbons homing at dusk.
• The stilt lodges - sleeping over open water in the lagoon.
• The mudflat waders - spoonbills, egrets and osprey patrols.
• Caiman nights - eyeshine tours after dark.

When to go

Drier months for comfortable boating; the ibis perform year round with dry-season concentrations easiest to find. Full moon nights trade eyeshine for silver lagoon panoramas.

Practical notes

Lodges are basic stilt platforms - bucket showers, generator hours, hammocks or simple beds; the setting is the luxury. Sun and glare on open water are fierce - cover up. Mosquitoes attend the mangrove edges. It is far from everywhere: pair with the west's rice country rather than dashing from Paramaribo.

Nearby

Nieuw Nickerie's rice-port town and the Corantijn border river.

Key facts