Proper Tourism

Said in the inimitable Bristolian way!


We have visited the Kaieteur Falls, Guyana's most spectacular sight, though few people actually get there. It is 226 meters (741 ft) in a single drop, which combined with the amount of water flowing over it has given the falls the title of "largest single drop" waterfall in the world . This doesn't quite make it the biggest, but it is about five times higher than the more well known Niagra Falls.  And it is on Guyana's banknotes so...


There are only two ways to get to see the falls:
1  Fly in to the tiny airport then fly out again
2  Go by bus, ferry, truck, boats, walk and climb, then fly back
We intrepid explorers chose the latter option, though we did opt for the three day trip rather than the four day (which adds an extra day of trekking through the rainforest and did require a previous party to swim across an eel infested swamp in the dark).


The party consisted of seven Brits and Canadians - we were some of the youngest.


Whilst waiting for the departure date: Al pulled a muscle in his back and thought he'd triggered an old back injury so wouldn't be able to go;  we found out that Candas had broken her leg in the previous year so wasn't sure she could walk very far; Peter had had a pacemaker fitted and had been advised by his doctor not to do anything strenuous; and we all know how good Halina's going up stairs legs have been!  Off we went!


Starting off at 6 am to catch a minibus from Stabroek Market, there followed the usual Guyanian wait around for passengers and luggage, including the reassuring spare tyre lashed to the roof.  Luckily, the bus wasn't completely full so we were able to stretch our legs a bit.  We eventually set off up the airport road along the banks of the Demerera river.  As one of only two roads into Georgetown it gets a lot of traffic at rush hour so this bit was a bit slow and tedious.  In 5 years time Georgetown will be completely gridlocked if the car culture continues.


Then you're on to the Lethem highway and this is a proper road - with edges! This means that the speed limit is 100kph and is happily broken.  This road also goes up hill at times - this is a real first for us in Guyana as everywhere we've been has been within 20 ft of sea level!  Lethem is the centre for bauxite mining in Guyana and has suffered with the decline in that industry.  Here we had our first police check, where the driver hands over a list of his passengers and you identify yourself to a stern policewoman who ticks you off the list.  What happens to this information? Who knows?


The road from Lethem is not surfaced, it is red earth which has been flattened and graded but is subject to odd bits of erosion caused by streams/rivers crossing it. This part of the journey was enlivened by a race with another bus which involved both flying along in parallel on opposite sides of the road with the occasional blind corner to bring hearts into mouths as there are some very large lorries coming in the opposite direction.  Anyway our bus got ahead and we made it to the "service station" first.  Monika had been this way before and made the mistake of not having any refreshments, only to find that this was the only stop for hours.  So we duly ate, drank and relieved.


The bus, showing a typical road surface:

:

Then we were on the road again, this time to Mahdia.


There was another police check, presumably on leaving Region 10.  The border controls are clearly very strict:

The road became narrower, bumpier, bendier and less well maintained but we had to hurry on to make the ferry crossing.  Which we did. Halina on the ferry:

There was a gold dredger working the opposite bank:

Well at least you can see some nice trees and clouds!


At Mahdia, they were getting ready for the national elections:

and we had to change transport modes to a 4x4 pickup:

which was a little cramped.  Fortunately the driver took it very steadily as we rocked and rolled our way along a jungle track to the next river.

Here we set off in our own boat.  It did rain a little:

But not a proper Guyana rainstorm, and there was plenty of sun, allowing us to observe the rainforest:

and the destructive effects of mining:

Eventually we could go no further up the river because of rapids:

 So we unloaded the boat and made our way up the bank to the small settlement where we were to spend the night.  The view from the village:

The shelter where we hung our hammocks:

this wasn't very roomy so we were a bit closely packed when swinging.  


Two toucans flew across the clearing into the nearby Cashew Tree - bird highlight of the trip!


We ate an evening meal cooked by one of the families in the settlement - Nescafe instant coffee has never tasted as good.   During the night, the blankets which other volunteers had insisted we bring were a life saver - this was the first time since arriving in Guyana that we were in the least bit cool!  Breakfast was "floats" (like savoury doughnuts) with a smokey aubergine sauce, very like baba ghanouj in Syria. 


Next was another boat trip in an even smaller vessel - we were very glad that the party was split in two for this stage of the journey as we would surely have sunk had we all gone together.

Halina and Monika waiting for the boat to return to pick us up.

Tony, our Amerindian guide, looking more cheerful after a couple of vodkas.


Another set of rapids necessitated another change of boat, this one had an outboard motor which periodically cut out (not sure we had a paddle!), and required continuous bailing to keep the water level inside down to two inches of so.  But we eventually arrived at the start of the hike:

There had been precious few sightings of bird or animal life but we were visited here by the beautiful huge blue morpho butterfly and this leaf insect:

The trail was supposed to take about 4 hours and involved about 1000 ft of ascent.


The easy beginning bit:

Some work has been done at various times to make it more easily navigable, eg the odd bridge:

Note the walking pole, hand made by Tony (using his trusty machete) as we went along (everybody got one).  There were lots of trees and streams (No!):

At one point we spotted a family of red howler monkeys high up in the treetops (too far away for photos).  They spent some time watching us, perhaps because Steve and Al were wearing orange shirts.


Eventually, completely saturated with perspiration we made it to the top of the climb:

 The rest of the party were not much less the worse for wear:

An easy level path then took us to our first view of the falls:

The water is stained brown from tannin.  A closer vantage point:

Note the lack of safety rails!
Looking back down the valley:

We stayed the night in the tourist hut.  Tony kindly volunteered to go and get supplies from the nearby village and returned some while later, a little the worse for wear, with a couple of bottles of the excellent El Dorado 5 year rum. Tony told of his time as local chief during negotiations about National Parks, and the world was put to rights as the bottles emptied!


Next morning we hoped to spend time viewing the falls, here we are at the top:

The local plant life is unique to this environment, eg the giant tank bromeliads:

their leaves catch water and are home to the tiny yellow frog (Colostethus beebei) related to the poison dart frog.  Tony did actually find one to show us.



We hoped to see the place where the Cock-of-the-Rock birds nest, (library picture!)

but the plane to take us back to Georgetown arrived early because they were worried about the weather deteriorating.  So we had to hurry to the airstrip to catch our 8-seater plane.  One last glimpse of the falls from the plane:

Then mile after mile of jungle which looks just like broccoli from the air, marred from time to time by the mine work's scars:

Back to Ogle airport:

and a rest!

Tourists!

We've been indulging in some tourism activities of late.  All work and no play makes ..... us alcoholics.
First off was another trip to the Botanical Gardens and zoo, on bikes this time, calling in at the statue of Cuffy the leader of Guyana's first slave rebellion, so a bit of a hero round here:

This could be a very nice fountain if there was any water in it - Guyana, land of many rivers, no fountains!

On to the Botanical Gardens, which are a bit of a disappointment florally.  However they do have some fine examples of the Victoria Lily, supposedly the largest in the world:

though without a scale....  These are about 4 feet across.

We visited the zoo again (70p to get in). Still dilapidated, still a bit depressing, but the animals seem reasonably healthy and it's not so long ago that we locked up animals in similar fashion.

This guy was very interested in Halina's camera (the tapir not the old man in orange).

The toucan with no wires in front (see later).

Ditto, the ocelot.

Because of the importing of indentured labourers from the East Indies, a large proportion of the population celebrate Diwali and there is a big parade of illuminated floats to mark the occasion.  Crowds line the route and candy floss and glowsticks are peddled up and down the road.  Fireworks are let off randomly and it is quite scary to see young children wandering around the crowd carrying two foot long roman candles firing their flaming blobs.

We found a "cafe" table on route and were able to drink beer and eat chips while waiting for the parade to come by:

whilst being serenaded by very loud "chutney" music (don't ask). This is Steve with Janice, another VSO from the UK.

Eventually the floats arrived, people in Somerset would appreciate them.

There was a day's holiday for Diwali, so we took advantage of the quiet roads to make a tour of the city - with camera.

Here's Halina at the monument to celebrate Walter Rodney, the Guyanese socialist who wrote several books analysing the effects of colonialism on Africa and the Caribbean.  He was assassinated in 1980 whilst running for office in the elections - see later.

This is the catholic church of the Immaculate Conception nearby.

Here is the clock tower at Stabroek Market.  All the minibuses leave from around here in a great melee with young men encouraging (dragging) people on to their buses (they get about 5p per passenger they collect) and others touting furiously for taxi fares, hence the rather distant shot.

Queen Victoria (without nose) in front of the High Court on the Avenue of the Republic.  She is joined further along by an ancient steam roller - not sure what that says about the Guyanese attitude to the British monarchy.

The old City Hall on the next block shows the French influence on the city. 

This is St Georges Anglican Cathedral, reputed to be the tallest wooden building in the world.  No doubt further views of this will appear in future blogs.

 Moving on down Main Street we find the remains of the railway sheds.  Guyana once had a coastal railway with a bridge across the Demerara River.  The tracks were pulled up after independence and the bridge torn down.  Now little remains except some traces of track, the bridges on the embankment road, some road names (eg Station Road) and these rotting sheds.  Everyone says it was a big mistake, and don't we all love Dr Beeching.

This house on Main Street has been renovated whilst we have been here and it is looking splendid - shows what can be done.

At the end of Main Street is the huge Umana Yana benab (Amerindian meeting house) which is used for events, conferences and interminable speeches.  Just beyond this is the Pegasus hotel pool where all good journeys terminate.

The Republic of Guyana is holding a general election - voting takes place on 28th November - and there are polling stations opening everywhere. This one is in a very remote collection of shops and cafes that is a kind of service station used by gold miners en route to even remoter locations in the rainforest around Kaieteur National Park. There has been some civil unrest at elections in the past, and VSO Guyana have issued detailed instructions for our safety, which includes not attending political meetings or even having discussions about politics. Should the situation escalate, we will move to safe houses or even leave the country! We'll keep you posted - from somewhere.