Blogs from Lethem, Guyana, South America

Orange, Green and Blue. Orange ground, blue skies, and green jungle ties them together. Oh, and I forgot golden rivers. Going bananas in the Guyanas It is definitely not an ideal country for backpacking, but perhaps exactly that attracted me to visit... and Kaietuer Falls too of course. Being on a limited entry visa I was in a rush so this is the first rule when coming to Guyana - no rush, because here Time is in the hand of God. It is funny to say that - after being travelling for more than 9 months when coming to Guyana - and even funnier after coming from the jungles of Brazil and Peru. Perhaps it was me facing a limited time, or maybe indeed there was something in the vibe, for me however, the locals appeared ... read more

I experienced Lethem at a time when it is, probably, nothing like a Lethem that the locals know: Rodeo time. Lethem is so far from Georgetown it's practically Brazilian. The shop signs are in Portugese and English, there is a Brazilian restaurant and many people speak Portugese. Lethem's roads (tracks) are all red. Anywhere you walk you get covered in red dust. And you have to walk a lot because everything is extremely spread out in Lethem, and there is no public transport. I have been informed that people normally hitch lifts in trucks, but obviously not at rodeo time. I saw lots of horses and bulls, painfully throwing their riders into the dust. I drank lots of beer, rum, strange Brazilian cocktails, and ate lots and lots of meat on sticks, something very rare for ... read more

As I'm cruising at 28,000 ft, I thought I'd indulge in some light reading on Georgetown (the capital of Guyana) before I landed. The first paragraph of the Lonely Planet reads: "Georgetown is dangerous. Period. Street crime, often violent, is common. Never go anywhere alone..... Never go out after dark...". Marvellous. These things tend to be overblown, just to cover their own backs, but its a bit unfair of Lonely Planet to be so extreme. Georgetown is no Greendale, but neither it is any worse than any other city in this area. When I arrived it was too late at night, even for me, to take the public bus to town. I stuck closely to a rich-looking English bloke in the queue for a cab and shared a ride with him. He paid. Marvellous. Guyana was ... read more

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday. Mrs. Foo cooked breakfast and we headed to the hospital. Because it is a normal working day here I lost my desk by all the windows and got stuck in a little room with half a desk and few windows. It was a little stuffy, but bearable overall. I saw about 30 people. Some were just picking up the results from their last test and some were new patients, which is always good. One thing I had to do today that I didn’t do yesterday was fold and staple result sheets. It took a good chunk of my day to get those done even with some help from Dad, Bill, and Christine. They had to be separated into the different sub-regions of region 9, the region we ... read more

Georgetown to LethemGeorgetown to LethemGeorgetown To LethemBecky We took a taxi to Ogle Airport to leave for Lethem. We checked in at 9 a.m. and our flight left a little after 10. It was the smallest plane I have ever flown in. There were 4 rows of 3 seats and only 1 pilot whom we could see the entire time. From the air we saw only rainforest until we were eventually over the savannahs and landed in Lethem. Lethem is completely different from Georgetown. It is a lot cleaner, trash wise, but all the roads are sand and dirt. It has the feel of an old western town. John Wayne riding in on horseback to catch the outlaws or stop at the saloon… something like that. Terrence picked us up at the “airport” and had our ... read more