Blogs from Kaiteur Falls, Guyana, South America
August 19th 2009
DAY 1: I forgot to setback my watch when I crossed from Suriname and hence woke up an hour earlier than I should, I sat in the front desk area of the hotel reading all the local papers trying to kill time. I get to encounter English words we don't normally use in the USA. Frank arrived to pick me up at 6am Guyana time, Ashley(from Delaware) and Emily and Tad(West Virginia) were already in the 4WD truck, they will be my trekking buddies for the next 5 days, the girls are Peace Corps Response volunteers and Tad is here to visit his sister. The roads were good up to Linden, we saw Bauxite processing plants in the area, raw materials for aluminum. The rough roads started after that, dirt, gravel road, not so bad the ... read more
March 12th 2009
Six dark figures approached me on the jungle path. Five of them were carrying machetes. Hotel Rwanda? Long sleeves or short sleeves? Would this be my end? Music emanated from the approaching men. The sixth figure was carrying a boom box. I breathed a sigh of relief. The men were pork knockers on their way back from a long days work. Since the world diamond price had dropped, they were in need of a new source of income. There be gold in them there hills! The switch had left its consequences. Battery casings lay everywhere, mercury polluted the rivers. People were sick, there nerves at an end. Relief coming from puffs of ganja. Rodney had owned a guesthouse until gambling left him pork knocking the tiny stream behind the village. A karat of small, low quality ... read more
September 25th 2007
I did a five day trek to Kaiteur Falls, the world's highest single drop waterfal, in Guyana. This was with Rainforest Tours and ran with only two of us on the trip! Day 1 was a drive in 4x4 to Mahdia, then boat trip up the Potaro River to Amatuk Island to camp the night. Day 2 was a mix between boat trips down the river and hiking alongside the river in virgin rainforest with the help of Tony, our Amerinidan guide. We camped at Waratuk Falls in the warden's house. Day 3 was a short boat trip followed by a long hike in rainforest to the campside at Tuket, the base of the Kaiteur Falls trail. Day 4 was the challenging day! We took the whole morning to climb to the top of the Kaiteur ... read more
