Guyana

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We travelled from Nieuw Nickerie (Suriname) to the capital of Guyana - Georgetown. The villages we passed through as we followed the coastline were full of wooden houses on stilts with water trenches running around the base, connected to a network of ‘open drains’ running down the street. As we got to Georgetown we found the capital with similar infrastructure and got the chance of a ‘whiff’ of these ‘trenches’. We had a look around but quickly realised Georgetown didn’t have a lot to offer. The older, colonial buildings were in disrepair and not really that interesting. The piles of rubbish and the lingering smell of trench didn’t do anything to help Georgetown as a ‘destination’ for me. The people weren’t really that friendly either. In fact the most enjoyable part of my day was talking to the English bird watcher from our hotel. He had spent two years travelling around South America spotting birds, he wasn’t far off the record of most bird spots for a single person - something mad like 2000 birds! That wasn’t why he was interesting mind, it was the stories; he was someone who was slightly insane but also had a lot of experiences and, hence, stories to tell.
It’s actually a shame we haven’t got any more time in Guyana. OK Georgetown isn’t worth visiting but the surrounding pristine Amazon rainforest, small mountainous areas and secluded northern beaches would have made excellent trips. Any time spent ill will always come back to haunt.....
We ended up leaving quite quickly via a night bus to Brazil. The journey would see us head south in an uncomfortable, un-air conditioned bus over rubbish roads ridden with checkpoints and 5-hour layovers at the riverbank. A journey that we were told would take 12 hours ended up taking 19, and had us spitting bricks in the uncomfortable climates of the Amazon jungle. The only plus point of this journey was that we did get to see the pristine rainforest that we were missing out on! Actually that’s a lie, the river crossing had our eyebrows fully raised. How on earth they got all those cars/lorry/bus onboard is beyond me.
Ultimately we would reach our destination of Lethem. We then managed to get a transport to Bonfim and on to Boa Vista, where we rested for the night. The next day we bussed our way back north and into Venezuela. After two days of long travel we would arrive in Cuidad Bolivar, about a week late.
Full Photos on Flickr

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Comments

[Sunina]

this photo is so beautiful
Wow this photo makes me feel like just to leave every thing behind and go back home I love guyana

[anonymous]

guyana is a beautiful country

[Mykel Board]

Georgetown is for limin'...
Great blog entry, but I've got to disagree about Georgetown. There's not much to see during the day, but it's a great place for the night. More bars and restaurants than in Paramaribo, a city of twice its size. The great Buttsey's where you'll meet and hang (lime) with friends, and awful disco called GRAVITY. Great late night eating: cook-ups. It's a city to hang out in... not much live music, but a very nice atmosphere.