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.