a month later..

Another apology for being such unassiduous bloggers - put it down to our age (and Penny is a year nearer 60 since the last post). Malcolm made a trip to the UK in early March, and Penny practised single living in Georgetown and started a yoga class, which is run by an energetic Guyanese lady, in a circular wooden 'benab' in the grounds of the Pegasus hotel.

Penny went briefly to the Iwokrama forest field station to move the library under cover, and met a research team from Newcastle setting up river and weather monitoring equipment. She joined them for a night trip on the river, and saw snakes and caiman, and a fantastic array of stars, including the milky way.

Last weekend we were in Tobago - it's a bit of a change from Guyana; the sea is clear and blue and we went snorkelling with tropical fish, swimming with dolphins, and exploring the reefs. Everything is a bit more tourist friendly than in Guyana, including the food which is (slightly) more varied (though rather more expensive). We even did some sight-seeing - the island is dotted with beautiful little bays dominated by old forts built by the French or British depending on who was in charge at the time. But it's all very peaceful now and not yet too overrun by tourists despite the attractions, so we're likely to make it a regular weekend or holiday destination.

After Mash

hi - a short post as not much to say - we've taken out a monthly sub at Pegasus, which allows us to use their pool and gym - not badly equipped and air-conditioned, so no excuse for Penny to go to flab. It's also just up the road from the Iwokrama Georgetown offices.
We also got our shipping in last week, so good supplies of tea and marmite, and a ton of toiletries, that we could have easily bought here.. still, it was fun unpacking the boxes - which are going to recycled for Penny's archive storage - and Malcolm's appreciating a few more changes of clothes - he'd been on holiday rations until now.
Tuesday 23 February, was republic day or Mashramani, with a sort of carnival parade - not quite up to Trinidad standards but still pretty noisy and crowded. We took an old disposable camera, so photos to come, if we can get it developed. We saw some floats from government departments, which I don't think happens at Notting Hill.
We're beginning to get used to the heat; our location,on the East Coast sea-wall, means we are not too plagued by mosquitos, and we have got into the habit of walking along the sea-wall most evenings before the sundowner on the balcony, so not too bad really. And now Malcolm's making bread again - it's almost home from home... only 30 degrees hotter!

First trip to the Field Station

Sorry for lack of post last weekend - fairly quiet apart from a birdwatching tour in the Botanical Gardens with a young rasta and enthusiastic Guyanese birder, who located the 'signature' bird of the Guyanese coast, the blood-coloured woodpecker, but as it was towards 6pm by the time we saw it, it looked like a little dark blob to us non-(or in Malcolm's case, incipient)birders.
This week, we've had our first trip to the field station, on the northern edge of the Iwokrama reserve, quite an idyllic spot by the Essequibo river. It involved a fairly long and bumpy drive along a dirt road, with critical timings across the old railway bridge at Linden and a ferry across the river just before the lodge. Penny did some work including finding out about sustainable logging and monitoring activities, and reinstating a library in a 'benab', a circular structure, open to the elements and the birds, who regarded the shelves as an ideal nesting area. We managed a trip out to Turtle Mountain, 'climbing' 300m and sleeping in hammocks and eating a tasty catfish cooked over a camp-fire. Lots of macaw, toucan and some monkey sightings but no jaguar yet.

Work and Play in Georgetown

the view from our balcony

We've now had two weekends in Georgetown, and have probably exhausted its entertainment options. Today's choice, the Princess Hotel (formerly Buddy's International)by the main cricket stadium, had a good size swimming-pool, but also ghetto-blasters. On Saturday we had a fruitless search for a heavy frying-pan, along the main shopping street, and found the 'foreigners' supermarket, and a wilting but fresh cauliflower. So we are managing an approximation of home cooking and early evening walks along the seawall (though today at high-tide the sea was sloshing over). For the archivists among you, the Iwokrama archive is fairly rudimentary and has so far been treated as a library system, so some challenges there too..

Georgetown

We're settling in, more or less, in Georgetown. Some things are proving fairly easy - like finding the flat (with Atlantic views, though you can't really swim as it's full of river silt); some are a bit more difficult - like opening a bank account which we haven't managed yet. Our neighbours are mostly expats, but not European - the majority are from other Caribbean countries and work in the Caricom secretariat here. Anyway, for a while we will be more settled than in the jungle or savannah - we'll try to post some pictures of us there, looking less than settled, but at the moment the internet is resisting.

Tour of the South

We've been round most of the south of Guyana since our last post. We visited part of the Iwokrama forest where Penny is going to work and walked along their canopy walkway, seeing parrots, toucans and the like. The second time we went we were helped (or hindered) by the presence of some serious American birders; they had all the right equipment so we had a look through their telescopes at tiny spots in the distance which turned out to be Guinness like toucan. They also had numbered lists to tick off in the evening (a bit like a Chinese restaurant - "OK, we got a 179 and a 218 this morning"). We then went off to an Indian village in the savannah and had a night camping in hammocks(fairly comfortably) in the jungle, having a go at fishing (not very successful but we saw some giant otters), shooting with Indian bows etc. From there we went to the savannah in the deep south, miles away from anywhere but managed some horse-riding (again, not very successful - pix to follow, we hope) saw a giant ant eater and swam in the creeks. We're now back in Georgetown trying to install ourselves in house, job etc. After a week in the country Georgetown,which had seemed very provincial when we arrived, now seems far too big and noisy!