Georgetown

Apologies to all our avid readers for the lack of blogging activity.  This could be due to the activity packed social life which prevents us from getting anywhere near a computer during waking hours -  or to the fact that we are normally in a zombie state by 7pm (unfortunate for the Spanish class at the Venezuelan Institute which ends at 7.30pm!)


Anyway, we are still here in Georgetown, in the relatively safe and up market area of Queenstown. We have settled into our flat and a domestic routine, and even learned to cook rotis - flat Indian bread.

Our nice flat, though, has turned out to be situated in a block with drain problems - the sewage refuses to depart and floats about in an open drain.  If the wind is in the wrong direction, the smell is well... not nice.


We have complained to the landlady who claims it is the Ministry of something or other which maintains the sewers and it's impossible to get them to do anything quickly (or at all?)  She did hire a septic tank firm to suck out the inspection pit and drain.

This helped until someone flushed a toilet or two and now we are back with the pong.  The smell is bad enough but Halina has not been feeling too well recently with a recurrence of her Syrian tummy or something like it.


You can tell that Halina was not feeling well as she actually went to see a doctor at a nearby hospital.  He's given her antibiotics and anti-cramp pills, though it is not clear what the matter is yet.  Of course, the whole business of attending hospital is accompanied by various Guyanese drive-you-bonkers systems of seeing different people for different bits of paper with queues for each one in a number of waiting rooms with a variety of unclear waiting proceedures. Volunteers who work in the hospitals strongly advise not getting ill!  Still, Halina's doctor seemed very competent and had trained in France, so was much more interested in her French relatives than her insides.
(Big crash of thunder! Halina might be better off coming home by taxi!)


Despite the drains we live on a very nice street  - New Garden Street - which on some maps is called Shivnarine Chanderpaul Drive, between Forshaw and Lance Gibbs St - also on some maps as Almond St - so now you can find us on Google maps. It even has some pavements! The street has trees with lots of bird life - noisy green yellowheaded parrots, lovely yellow and brown kisskadees, and lots of other exotic birds that we haven't yet identified or photographed.

There are two cricket grounds on the street, the Demerara Cricket Ground and the Bourda Cricket Ground, home of the Georgetown Cricket Club.  The Bourda was Guyana's test match ground until they built the new stadium for the Cricket World Cup.  It has a capacity of around 22,000, opened in 1884 making it the oldest ground in the Caribbean, and has seen Test cricket since 1930. It is the only stadium in the world to be situated below sea level, and has a moat round it to protect the pitch from flooding.


It is unfortunately now showing its age, though events are still held there and last week the cantilever stands were full of screaming schoolchildren - I couldn't see what they were screaming about.

We went for a cycle ride out to the University of Guyana along the railway embankment road - they pulled up the railway track after independence and built a road instead.  Guyana could really do with a railway now! The University has a lily pond with the local giant Victoria waterlilies and the fascinating wattled jacana  bird, which has such long slender feet that it can walk on the lily pads.  This is another bird that very hard to photograph.

The University was a bit deserted as it was a Sunday but they have one or two interesting departments.

The ride back was along the sea wall.  They have lots of advertising painted on it but also encouraging slogans.

Sadly, you can make out the mountains of rubbish deposited over on the beach.


The sea wall has a series of sluice gates to control the water in the many canals and drainage ditiches criss-crossing Georgetown and the whole coastal strip of Guyana. It is quite an engeineering feat, though the system does not completely prevent serious flooding, as happened a few years ago.

One of the nicest things to do on a hot and humid day is to swim in the Pegasus Hotel pool - we can't sometime believe that it is already time for Autumnwatch in the UK.