Long time...no blog

I can't believe that it is a month since I last wrote but as I only do soon weekends when I can get to the Oasis cafe and as we have been away for three weekends in a row it is not surprising. As the countdown speeds up we are trying to see as much of Guyana as we can and travelling here is tiring and expensive but definitely worthwhile. getting out of the city is wonderful, like going to another country almost. Here's briefly what we have been up to. Like many developing countries Guyana is quite religeous and there are three main religeons, Muslim, Christian and Hindu and they all have their feast days and holidays. The weekend of Phagwa, which celebrates the rite of Spring and people throw coloured powder and coloured water on each other (it's a weekend for old clothes) we went to Moruca which is across several rivers from Georgetown. We saw several people in Charity with very purple and red faces but managed to avoid getting 'cleansed' ourselves. This is a photo of Mick in Charity outside his very own snackette while we
waited for the boat to take us onwards.
That day we crossed the Demerara, the Essiquibo, the Pomeroon the Atlantic (just along the coast) and the Moruca rivers. Each of them different and equally interesting as we made our way to Santa Rosa Mission- an Amerindian village in Region 1, or is it 2, I'll have to check when I get home.
This picture (hopefully on the right) is especially for Fleur who loaned me Three Singles to Adventure by Gerald Durrell before I left for Guyana. This is the main road into ADVENTURE just to show that I have been there. I wanted the picture to include the lovely sign but the driver, who was kind enough to stop for me, could not understand my need to include the sign and went a bit too far along for me to get it in but this IS adventure and we certainly did have an adventure this weekend.
We went by speedboat which sometimes had to crawl down the rivers with the roots of the mangrove trees almost touching us and the vines brushing our faces. It felt really like we were going into the heart of the country. The birds especially the kingfishers darting in front of us and seeing no daylight as the captain wound his way through the river avoiding the logs and roots which could tip us up as the river was so low. He said that when the river is full he makes much better time cutting at least a half hour or more off the 90 minute ride. I was pleased we went in 'dry'season I must say especially on our way back when we left at dawn and had the most wonderful sunrise with birds and local people pulled into the side (to avoid being tipped by us) in their dugout canoes (carioles) on their way to market.....or they could have been part of the drug trade for all I know. Their canoes were certainly laden with something in sacks and it was very silent and dark along there!!!. Here's a picture of a family canoeing along the Moruca River just in front of our guest house. We had a very relaxing weekend walking around the island and reading and chatting to the people there. The journey back was exciting in that the crossings were rough and I wondered if I would make it in one piece. I took a while to recover and as usual the event is better in the remembering. It was however market day in Charity so we were able to dry out as we breakfasted in the sun and reviewed our adventure.