Brokopondo Reservoir

The Afobaka dam closed the Suriname river in 1964 to power the bauxite smelters and flooded around fifteen hundred square kilometres of rainforest behind it, one of the largest reservoirs in the world by area, and much of the drowned canopy is still standing: grey trunks breaking the surface across huge stretches of water. Villages were resettled when it filled. Boats work between the trunks.

What you actually see

• The drowned forest - grey trunks standing out of the water across the lake.
• The scale - around fifteen hundred square kilometres of flooded ground.
• The dam - the Afobaka barrage that closed the river in 1964.
• The islands - former hilltops standing out of the reservoir.

When to go

The dry seasons, February to April and August to November, are best. Water level rises and falls with the rains and changes how much timber shows. Storms build over the lake in the wet.

Honest expectations

It is a hydro reservoir and reads as eerie rather than scenic. The dead timber makes boating hazardous outside marked channels. Facilities around the shore are limited.

Nearby

Brownsberg is west, and Paramaribo is north.