Wednesday, Nov 20th, Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel, French Guiana

Today, we flew back to the coast of Suriname, and boarded a motorized dugout canoe to cross the river separating Suriname from French Guiana.  The last of the trip's three places we're visiting, French Guiana is actually not a country.  It's an overseas department and region of France.   It should not be confused with Guinea, a country on the west coast of Africa.

Here's a couple of little known trick questions about France and French Guiana.   Where is the largest national park in South America?  Where is the longest border in France?  The answer is in French Guiana (the border is between Brazil and French Guiana).

Today was a long traveling day, and not many photos were taken.  We arrived at the Hotel Mercure Kourou Ariatel just in time for dinner.  No webpage exists for it, but its 4-star status is deserved.  

 

Sunday, Nov 17th, Kabalebo Resort, Suriname

 

Today, we flew from Georgetown, Guyana to the Kabalebo Resort a few hours up the Kabaleto River.  It's the only river in Suriname that doesn't host an indigenous community.  Instead, twenty-five years ago,  the ecolodge now called the Kabalebo Resort began.  Operated by descendants of the original Amerindian and African Maroons, it's a three-star resort 150 miles from the nearest road which serves both the avid fly-fisherman and travel adventurer.

Over the next three days, we'll hike through the rain forest, canoe to rapids, spot an assortment of birds, flowers, trees, and animals.  Learning from those raised in the forest about the many uses of everything around us, it brought unusually rich insight into this precious environment.

It's Wednesday night, and rather than detail each day, we're going to link to the photo albums of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to see the day's photos.  We hope they give you a sense of the wonderfully relaxing and stimulating times it provided us.

   

Saturday, Nov 16th, Georgetown, Guyana

 

Greetings!

After an early nature walk which turned out to be not early enough to hear many birds or see any animals, we had breakfast at the Lodge and boarded a boat to travel upriver.  Stopping at several places, Eugene provided us with the history and character of each.  Most were supply and access points for the gold, lumber, diamond, and other natural resource prospectors.

One of the stops was Bartica, where 70 Guyanese still live today.  We photographed the bold "One Guyana" sign symbolizing their resistance to the effort by Venezuela to annex the area north of the Essequibo River.  We walked a short way up the town beachfront, and met a delightful group of young women cricketplayers on their way upriver to a match.

On our return, we had lunch at poolside, and were met by Claude, who lives on the island.  He took us on a walk through the swampy coastal forest south of the Resort.  As a member of the Machushi tribe, who grew up in the forest, he was able to share much of the tribal lore and stories concerning the resources around us.

After the walk, Claude surprised us with a sloth he brought into the resort grounds from a nearby tree.  A pregnant female, somewhat smaller than others we have seen on other trips, but nevertheless a beautiful creature we were able to observe up close.

Late in the afternoon, we said goodbye to the Resort and took a local boat back to the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel in Georgetown. 

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Saturday, Nov 16th, Georgetown, Guyana.

Friday, Nov 15th, Kaieteur Falls, Guyana

 

Greetings!

There was not much that went right today, but this very seasoned group of travelers took it all in stride. 

 What did go right was the talk that Eugene gave on the.way to the Airport.  He showed us housing, and explained how the country turned sugar cane fields into viable low, middle, and high income homes.  Giving access to land to those with the will to work hard to improve it seems to have been a good strategy.

So after nothing planned happening on time, we flew to the Baganara Island Resort Lodge on an island in the middle of the Essequibo River (the border Venezuela claims).  We then hiked a short distance to the Kaieteur Falls, took a few photos to prove we all made it, returned to the bar and then...to the best dinner of the trip.

To see all of the photos takem, click on Friday, Nov 15th, Kaieteur Falls, Guyana.

Thursday, November 14th, Georgetown, Guyana

Greetings!

After a 12-hour set of flights from San Francico to Miami, and Miami to Georgetown, Guyana. we were met at the Cheddi Jagan international Airport on Wednesday, and driven for an hour by Dale, while Eugene provided an excellent commentary on Guyana's capital situated downriver at the mouth of the Demerara River.  We checked into the Ramada Georgetown Princess Hotel, and quickly fell asleep.

On Thursday, Nov 14th, Eugene and our tour guide (Lynn Spreadbury) hosted us on a City tour, including lunch back at our hotel, and a dinner at the Maharaja Palace, a great Indian restaurant.   

On our tour, we visited the Cheddi Jagan Research Center, where we met one of the past Presidents of Guyana (Donald Ramotar), who served. from 2001 until 2015.  Eugene, prior to becoming a local tour guide, had an illustrious career as a journalist, and was well-known to the President.  The President provided us with a very personal account of his time in office, and of the difficulty of governing the country without a majority of his party in the legislative branch.  His chief worry concerning Guyana now is its lack of electricity, and and is happy the current government is focusing on strengthening the country's infrastructure 

Georgetown has risen from a delta lowland, British plantation colony, which received its independence in 1966.  A series of canals draining the mangrove swamps nearest the mouth of three rivers, its housing communities look like, and are named to remind 18th century brits of, the homes they grew up in.  Large wooden stilted pitched roof two story homes which were designed to shed snow are everywhere, sit next to concrete, recent flat-roof structures more recently built.   The water from upriver, just before it reaches the sea, is held in ponds, and one of them serves as the home of a pod of Manatees.  With fist full of grass grown nearby, we got to serve them lunch by hand.

No Adventures Abroad tour would be complete without a visit to the local museums, and the Museum of Anthropology introduced us to Guyana's nine indigenous tribes, and the materials associated with 11,000 years of their occupation.  I was fascinated by the similarity of their pottery, and how closely it looked to that produced by those who lived in our Southwestern areas.

For an overview of our next fourteen days, and an itinerary for each day, click on our Trip Map and see it again on Google Earth.  

To see a few of the photos we took on our City tour today, click on Thursday, November 14, Georgetown, Guyana.  Limited internet access will probably prevent most of the photos from appearing regularly on this trip, as we'll be staying many nights in the forests upriver in the Amazon.  You might want to wait, and catch the entire set of photo-links after we get home.

Saturday, October 5th, Honolulu, Hawaii

Sonoma County Board of Supervisors

Taking a break from your meetings, when my wife informed me she was headed to her grandparents' Tuscan mountain village for two weeks with a girlfriend, I decided to indulge a long-standing dream of revisiting my six-year-old La Jolla Coast Shorebreak child to enjoy body-whomping in the warm Waikiki waters.  After what Pat now rightly calls a fantasy crash and burn, that six-year-old yelled at me, “What the fuck happened to you?  What part of keeping your lungs strong, and being in complete control of your body did you NOT understand?”

We used to be horrified by those who came near the waves not respecting the shear power of water hydraulics, and not preparing for it adequately.  Now I had become one.  Weak legs, no lung endurance, easily exhausted.  Trusting who I used to be to make up for who I had become. Disaster.

Exiting Kaiser Honolulu Hospital three days later with a week’s worth of Azithromycin, Paxlovid, and my first introduction to a teaspoon every six hours of Opioids (Codein-Guaifenesin), I’m now gaining a first-hand experience handing my body over to a drug that tells my brain to ignore all pain signals.  Loading up my cell phone with hourly instructions for the medicines treating Bronchitis and Covid, I'm overjoyed at how the mucus buildup in my throat so easily and painlessly becomes what we used to call “Logees” that we’d hock at our feet in the parking lots after mornings of surf.  Without the Codeine telling my brain to stop sending signals, the pain would cause my upper chest to convulse so badly those around me were asking if I had Parkinson’s.  And that’s much like it feels to be a six-year-old in a 76-six-year-old body.

So bring on Opioid Education and Services to the Behavioral Health Board!  I can’t say upgrading this Boomer’s beer-busting insights to a serious dose of codeine-induced fear of addiction to the joys of not having a brain will better prepare me for service, but it has crossed my mind that it might improve my empathy and understanding considerably. And most of all, I want that six-year-old to see that I’ve decided to take better care of what he protected next time our paths cross.


Gregory Fearon

Sunday, September 29th, Honolulu, Hawaii

Greetings!

Pat and I are a world apart.  She's with a girlfriend (Barbara Tomin) in Luca, Italy on a trip of Tuscany and Umbria.  I'm in Honolulu, Hawaii (12 hours apart).  We flew out two days ago, and fly back on October 13th.  Same Airporter bus down to SFO, same back.  A little strange to get off at Terminal 3, with her staying on to the International.  

I'm staying the full 15 days at The Beach Waikiki by ALOH (Youth Hostel), one block from Waikiki.  It didn't take long to get in the water, getting out was harder.  I'm satisfying my 4yr-old child, whose time was mostly spent in the shorebreak waves in La Jolla, loving the sand between my toes and the water caressing my body.  But what was exciting about not being in control then, is a bit terrifying now.  These 76 year-old muscles don't present the same thrill when they have to fight harder to maintain a balance and convince me that I'm safe.  A lifetime of understanding the power of the sea has passed since my first immersion, and that interferes with the childhood joy.  

When I checked into the Hostel, the desk staff mentioned that the facility had an informal rule that they would accept those from 18 to 48.  Older travelers complained about the noise at night, and uncomfortable mattresses.  I wonder what my roommates think of the midnight pee runs, and my disinterest in sharing dating tips or rooftop drinking.

Last night, I created

"Waikiki Play".  While out on a breakwater pier, enjoying the scene of young swimmers, body-boarders, and other beach-goers, I took some photos and videos.  One of the young swimmers who used the waves breaking over the rocks to her physical delight caught my attention.  It reminded me of exactly what I came here to do.  I think it will evoke the sense of free play most of us experienced as children.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Sunday, September 29th, Honolulu, Hawaii.