Guyana

Guyana (or rather the three Guyanas: ex-British Guyana=Guyana, Dutch Guyana=Suriname, French Guyana=French Guiana) have long held a certain attraction for me as a travel destination.

In recent years, the territorial dispute between Venezuela and Guyana escalated to the point where Venezuela threatened to take the oil-rich Essequibo region by force and Venezuela actually held a national refererendum in which voters overwhelmingly supported the annexation of the region. As a result, I put Guyana at the back of my mind. Now is the time though and Venezuela's Maduro is too preoccupied with Trump's geopolitical gymnastics in the region to force the issue right now.

I am looking forward to the food in all three countries. Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana already gives a strong indication, but I remember going to a Guyanese restaurant in New York where one item on the menu was supposed to be so spicy, that if you managed to eat it, it was free!

Flying into Guyana worked out to be easier than I had expected. I was very wary of connection in Bogota, where I have already missed a few flights. Arriving in Guyana after 2 am was something else, though. The weather was not as hot and muggy as I was lead to believe, I was very comfortable wearing a fleece. The first day there was no program; I visited the Museum of Anthropology. The driver from Book a Ride, something similar to Uber but not as refined, did not even know the museum existed. It turned out to be "allright". I did, however follow the driver's suggestion to try the restaurant Hot n' Spicy for their signature pepperpot dish. It was a good thing I did, because I ended up skipping dinner; the music in the hotel restaurant was too loud, There was a singer that did not know what normal volume could be, so that even outside the restaurant I found the noise unbearable.

Georgetown

I checked into a massive room at the Ramada around 3 am. Fortunately I did not have any program the next day.

The safe was less inspiring.

The cathedral of Georgetown is one of the largest wooden churches in the world (Paramaribo claims theirs is on emeter higher, but who knows?).

Satbroek Market was originally built as a train station, but is now the center of the market area.

Cuffy as the leader of the first slave rebellions in the Caribbean, is a national hero in Guyana.

The coast.

Egrets in the botanical garden.

House of Parliament

Kaieteur Falls

My time in Guyana is really only one day, with the hightlight being a flight to the highest direct drop falls in the world. That means it does not touch rock on the way down (226 m). It was a simple flight which did have its peculiarities.

The checkin procedure required not just the usual passport etc, but each person was weighed with their hand luggage.

I was not able to figure out this carton, that was waiting in the checkout "hall".

They had a kick-starter to put the motor in motion...

I also thought the boarding pass was quite cute.

Kaieteur Falls

This bird is called Cock-of-the-rock, one of the more brightly-colored birds.

And the Golden Rocket Frog; I have no idea what this tiny frog (avg. around 17mm) did to merit this grandiose name, which spends its whole life in one plant, and can almost only be found in Kaieteur National Park

As a Swiss, I marvel at the trust they put in tourists to not fall off the edge of the cliff, which is in no way secured.

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