Blogs from Guyana, South America - page 7

The immigration officer looked up from the Brazilian passport he was leafing thru. His eyes were still red but they registered surprise to see us back again so quickly. He had stamped us out to Brazil only three days before. Again, we got preferential treatment before the file of waiting Brazilians and while he stamped us back in into Guyana he complained about working non-stop since 7 am. It was 5 pm on a Wednesday and raining. The plan was to overnight in Lethem, explore the neighbourhood and nearby ranches all day the next day and then catch INTRASERV's 10 pm bus back to Georgetown. The officer heard our plans and said: "Ya'll better talk to dem guys outside. They say de road wash away". Our worst fears had materialized. We dreaded being stuck 600 km ... read more

WARNING: THIS IS GIANT BLOG WITH NUMEROUS PICTURES. PROCEED WITH CAUTION!! North of the equator but still in the tropics, Guyana is bordered to the east by Suriname, to the south and southwest by Brazil and to the west by Venezuela. Its vast 83,000 square-mile (214,000 km square) mass is dissected by numerous rivers, creeks and waterfalls. The main economic activities are agriculture (producing rice and Demerara sugar), bauxite mining, gold mining, timber, shrimp and minerals. Sugar is the largest export. Despite its massive and myriad resources, Guyana remains one of the poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere but certainly one of the most beautiful. And it was this beauty that we had come to explore and share. We will attempt, on this visit, to see the majesty of Kaieteur Falls (the world's highest single-drop falls) ... read more

We arrived in Guyana close on midnight. It was easy to get a taxi. US$22. It was a 45 minute ride and we arrived in 30 minutes. Our driver sped like a mad bugger. We were grateful it was late and there was nobody much to get in his way. Arriving at the Sleepin Guest House on George St we noticed the driver also received additional payment from the desk. The hotel was very new. The room was nice and had a good size bathroom. This hotel and others had been built for the March Cricket World Cup. It was US$41 per night with breakfast, not bad. After a little sleep in (get the pun?) we enjoyed a fab breaky that included peanut butter! This set us up for our first day walking around Georgetown. The ... read more

'This road is called Abortion Road', Chico said. Chico was our guide. He was a funny man in the humorous sense of the word. We laughed. We had just come from the city, up the East Bank road and were now, fifteen of us, on the bumpy, red-sand road which circumnavigated the Timehri airport. A boy in army fatigues with a gun half his height flung the gate open and, just like that, without any security check or verification we entered the headquarters of the Guyana Army Air Corp. It was Robert's 33rd birthday and so the 'fossil' and his wife, Petra, came along. Shanni wouldn't miss it for all the gold in Fort Knox. On the tarmac in front the army hangar and in the pouring rain sat our airplane - a turbo prop Harbin ... read more

5-24 Hotel: Sleep Inn International, Georgetown, Guyana, $65 The next morning Dean and I were going on the Kaieteur trip, Scott would wait around the hotel with nothing to do! They were supposed to pick us up between 9 and 9:30, but it was after 10 before they showed up. Caribbean time! We drove to the local airport (Ogle), and had to get weighed in. The other tourists were already there, all of them were Guyanese living in Canada. The plane was 100lbs overweight, so we had to eat/drink our snacks right then (how that helped the weight? it's still inside us). The plane was a 10-seater, quite cramped. We took off and got a good view out over Georgetown which was completely surrounded by sugarcane fields. The fields soon gave way to rainforest and meandering ... read more