Grooving into Guyana

The first impressions of Guyana were slightly amusing. Lots of stuffy looking black chaps in immigration, dressed as if the Brits had never left. But on the plus side the language was English. If with a slightly weird creole lilt. I was asked how long I wanted to stay. I said a week and the nice chap gave me a whole 10 days. Obviously they don't want people overstaying their welcome. Then a bored customs lady wanted to inspect my backpack. She had a quick look in and was obviously repelled by the odours eminating from within as she said ¨Thank you, that's enough¨ seconds after opening it.

In Lethem I sat around a minibus office for about an hour before being told that the bus had actually left... Did it not strike them to tell me this earlier? Or were they just reluctant to upset me after my 18 bus ride from Venezuela? I asked them were there any other busses. ¨No¨. She said I could sleep in the office, I politely declined and asked if there was a hotel in town. ¨No¨ she said. Perhaps an ATM? ¨No¨. She was a right bundle of laughs. I asked her which way the town centre was (we were sitting in a field with a couple of houses around us). She said ¨This is the town centre¨ . Guyana and me were off to a troubled start. Reassesing her office floor I finally got a ¨yes¨ when I asked if there was internet access somewhere.

I logged on and googled ¨Lethem Bus¨ and ¨Lethem hotel¨. There were indeed 2 hotels and apparently a night bus at 9. Fantastic! I nearly went back to minibus lady and blew a raspberry in her face. I found my way to the bus ¨terminal¨ at 6 only to be told that the ticket seller was closed. I riposted with ultimate logic that the bus wasn't leaving till 9, a whole 3 hours of time for me to obtain a ticket. ¨No, it's closed¨ explained the lady as if I were an imbicile. So despite the fact that the bus was probably half empty I left sans ticket and checked into the Kakuru hotel which proved quite decent.

Things started looking up even more over dinner where my hostess with the mostess kept taking the mickey out of me at every opportunity. She was laughing to herself as she told me my white face glowed in the dark. It was good clean banter and I had a couple of beers and laughed away with her. Guyana and myself were geting to know and like each other.

The next morning I managed to get my ticket and waited for the bus which turned up only an hour or so late. The journey was 12 hours long and was quite spectacular - from the pampa like plains to the south of Guyana we gradually transgressed into the deepest, darkest rainforest you have ever seen. The main ¨road¨ to Georgetown was a mud track cut right through the middle of the forest. At most the road was 4 meters wide. At one stage the bus had to get on a ferry to cross a river. Whilst we were waiting for the ferry (which was obviously in no hurry) macaws flew by and even a Toucan made an appearance. It was just like you picture a rainforest, complete with weird sounds coming from deep within the trees. We drove for at least 5 hours through the forest, which just got more and more dense. Ocassionaly we would pass by a military check point where we would all have to leave the bus, show our passports and get back on again. The whole day we passed a sum total of 6 cars and finally around 10pm we exited the jungle and soon hit a main road and were in Georgetown in jig time, where I crashed into bed in the lovely Rima Guesthouse.

Yes, Guyana and myself were definitely now getting it on.