Baganara

We spent last weekend, which saw some fairly British-style rain, and fittingly commemorated our wedding anniversary (the only day it rained in the summer of 1976), at Baganara, an island resort on the Essequibo river, another big river running in from the coast (Georgetown is on the Demarara). Getting there was quite a trek - most travelling in Guyana is fairly complicated - involving a taxi ride to Parika, a crowded speedboat down the Essequibo to Bartica, and a smaller boat across to the island. The rivers are really enormous and muddy, like lakes, and quite reminiscent of the Finnish lakes we saw last autumn (apart from the temperature), with trees and mangroves down to the shore. We passed ourselves off as 'experienced' canoeists, and kayaked round Baganara island a couple of times, in between the showers, seeing lots of birds and a howler monkey, and avoiding the large groups of day-trippers brought in to celebrate Father's Day on Sunday. The food, to be fair, was pretty good, compared to what is on offer in the eco-resorts, but given this is considered luxurious living in Guyana, it didn't really represent value for money in western terms. We came back on the firm's boat, open to some fairly heavy rain, and saw Eddie Grant's (of 'Baby Come Back' fame) abandoned house in the middle of the river, where Mick Jagger stayed when he visited to see the cricket.

Penny's project is progressing slowly but in danger of hitting the buffers with the Catch 22 of reluctance to 'build capacity' ie get some decent training, because any skilled people leave for better salary and conditions abroad.
UK visits planned over next month, so hope to see some of you then.

Water, Water everywhere

A long gap as we spent the best part of May outside Guyana, mostly in the USA, for nephew, Martin's wedding and in Penny's case getting up to the snow in Yosemite. June has been pretty wet but not noticeably cooler. Luckily most of the rain, which can be very heavy, occurs at night and occasionally wakes us up, as it is also very noisy on the corrugated tin roof (the usual roofing material here). Georgetown was beautifully laid out by the Dutch, with plots (a few acres each) separated by canals and drainage channels. On the outskirts they have been colonised by enormous lilies (the pads are used as plates - like banana leaves - at Hindu celebrations), so defeating their purpose, but becoming rather beautiful. That, and the cows and goats grazing on the verges, gives the area around us a very countryfied feel, more so as there are some houses with chickens and cows in their back yards, in a mainly residential area, with posh villas besides shacks that look like allotment huts, nearly all on stilts, the traditional method of building to cope with the floods. They did dredge out some of the channels after the first bout of heavy rain in April, but the vegetation has grown back within weeks.

As with a lot of things in Guyana, there are some upsides to the inefficiencies and lack-lustre economy. In many ways the rainforest is safer with no pressure of population and near impossibility of getting to it, It's a pity that the Guyanese lose out in order to keep it that way