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Published: June 28th 2006
They say getting there is half the fun right? So my adventure to Guyana started about 16 hours before my flight even left for various reasons. I wanted to go to the festivities welcoming back the soccer team from the world cup and it wasn't a really good idea to travel at night to get my flight at four in the morning. So I was nice and sweaty and just lugged my bag all around town. All went well until I underestimated the length to the airport and instead of getting a taxi walked a good mile and a half with my bags. in the dark. but no worries the pepper spray was in hand, and I smelled so bad I don't think anyone would want to step near me. So even after that fun detour I still had 9 hours to kill in an airport that has nothing but 3 different fried chicken fast food restaurants and about 100 yards of ticket counters. Silly me thought I would be able to sleep...and somehow for the whole 30 minutes I was sleeping all the security guards apparently managed to watch me. Which was only a little creepy, but they offered marriage
The soca warriors!
They are each getting a million Trinidad dollars. And that was without even scoring a goal.after they told me they were watching me so I suppose that just comes with the territory. It was freezing...obviously punishment for all my complaining about heat, so having no shame I whipped out my little sleeping bag and climbed right in.
So Guyana! I know, another seemingly random country. But it's just an hour flight from Trinidad so I thought why pass up the chance to go to South America? It's also the only English speaking country in South America which was pretty convenient. So I arrived 6 am on a Sunday morning with 30 minutes of sleep under my belt, to be informed that the hotel I was planning on staying at didn't have my reservation and was full, that I couldn't get any money from the ATMs and that the new much more expensive yet grungier hotel accepted only cash...something I had none of. So only a minor breakdown followed...but what good trip doesn't start like that? I literally crashed for a 30 minute power nap before my tour for the day came to pick me up.
One of the main reasons I wanted to go to Guyana was to see Kaiteur...the biggest single drop
waterfall in the world. So sunday was the day of waterfalls, first Kaiteur then Oriduik, another waterfall on the border of Brazil. They don't call Guyana 'the land of many waters' for no reason. Both are so remote that the only real way to get to them is by flying. Flying on planes so little that you have to step up and get weighed before you can get on. Thank god they don't yell your weight out to the whole airport when you normally fly. Our little 8 seater fit just our group...with no space to spare. It was pretty exciting for me to finally meet other people traveling. We had to wait awhile for the weather to clear, which was more than okay with me, and then we got on our way. Unfortunately the first 20 minutes were spent almost entirely in a storm cloud where you could literally see nothing. Meaning the pilot could also see nothing. I was wishing I'd popped some dramamine, but then I would have surely slept through the entire trip. At this point it seemed pretty handy that one of the people in our group was a nun. Luckily it got much better
The little airplane that flew us about for the day
After flying on that, no flight will bother me again. And this was the big plane after that first little bit, and the views were amazing. The guy sitting next to me kept saying how it looked like we were flying over tons of broccoli...which was pretty much right on.
Once on the ground we were taken for a couple hours of hiking to see the falls from 5 different places, each getting a little bit closer until we were standing inches away from the top. Our guide failed to mention the attack ants that completely lined the narrow trail we took to the first lookout point. He of course was wearing combat boots so his feet didn't suffer quite like my feet in chacos did. So that was a pretty painful experience since once they latch on they don't want to let go. I was so concerned about the ants biting that I fell on the way back down, a for a second thought I would die from being covered in these ants. But luckily I made it up before they had time to cover me, and the view of the waterfall made it all worth it.
By our fifth lookout we literally were standing at the top. We could wash our face
Rainbow from the airplane
There were so many rainbows! in the falls and one wrong step and we were done for. Because of all the recent rains they said this was the fullest they had seen the falls in over 12 years, so for once I was in the right place at the right time. You could really just sit and be in awe of this waterfall all day.
But we had places to go. So we hiked back for a delicious lunch before getting back on the plane to fly to our next waterfall. This one, Orinduik had nothing on the height of Kaiteur, but was equally impressive because of its fullness and width. Even the tourist pictures they show, show this as just two little trickles- but it was the whole river. We were supposed to be able to swim here, but the water was so strong that there was no calm pool to swim in. So since Erica wasn't there to rescue me from the water, I settled for sitting on a rock and getting covered in the mist. And getting a really great farmers tan/burn.
The city I was staying in, Georgetown ended up being much less than desirable. I think a lot
of it was a bit exaggerated by the other travelers I was with, because Guyana is really similar to Trinidad in so many ways, but still I wasn't going to risk it. So having just $20 US and not wanting to venture out after dark, I bought Chinese food one night...and spent both nights being a hermit in my hotel room, eating said Chinese food and catching up on whatever random TV they decided to show on the two channels I had.
Monday I went to an Amerindian village and a nature resort for the day. Both of those were different than what I expected...but it was an enjoyable day. I was really excited about the Amerindian village...but we ended up just getting off the boat and staring at this village. I really didn't like the idea that we were just sort of staring at these people like a zoo. And since I still didn't have any money to speak of, the craft shop was a little pointless. It seems odd that native South Americans would be a rare thing, but most of Guyana is East Indian and African like Trinidad so I guess the South Americans were pushed
Kaiteur Falls
That is actually redundant since 'teur' means falls, since it was named for a Amerindian chief named Kai who canoed down the falls to resolve tribal fights. So literally, Kai Fell. out of the way. I thought we were going to actually interact, or spend significant time there, but oh well. We got back on our boat to head down the river to Arrowpoint Nature Resort. It was sort of a summer camp type place just with amazing food. So the rest of the afternoon was spent on a nature hike that we kayaked back through mangrove forests, sleeping in hammocks and eating really good Indian food. I remembered how much I loved kayaking, and one of the girls in the tour was celebratig a birthday so I even got some cake out of it. The little boys who lived at the place tried unsucessfully to teach me how to play cricket...but after dumbing it down a lot I started to catch on.
So all in all it was a pretty enjoyable trip. One of the guys I met on Sunday was on my flight back to Trinidad yesterday, so it was nice to have somebody to kill the time with and split the taxi fare. Although the conversation did awkwardly die once he figured out I was 20. So while the company was excellent...meeting somebody within a decade of
It's a biggun
i'll try not to put all 20 some pictures on here. my age has still been a rarity. In a not so nice welcome home gift, I realized that my Ipod had been stolen out of my hotel room, which makes me mad, but I'm somewhat happy I didn't realize it until last night; because there would have been nothing I could do about it either way, and at least it didn't ruin my trip while I was there. So I don't think I would spend much more time around Guyana than I did, but it is a really gorgeous country if you get away from the cities, and now I've been to South America! (And I didn't drink any of the Koolaid, Mom)
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susan kroupa
non-member comment
great pictures
Ah to be young-such resilencywith all the obstacles you encounter! Thanks for sharing!