2013The Guyanas

The Kaieteur Falls in Guyana

House on stilts on the River Maroni

Police arrest smugglers on the Suriname / French Guiana border

The delapidated buildings of St Laurent du Maroni have a faded charm

Typical street in St Laurent du Maroni

Hundreds of long thin fast pirogues ply there way back and forth across the Maroni between French Guiana and Suriname

The pirogues are almost gondola like

Song bird competitions are even more popular than football. Good song birds can cost as much as a car.

Armadillo, known as Tatu, is a popular dish. Tasting like a cross between rabbit and pork, the meat is delicious

Typical house in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname

The presidential palace, Paramaribo

The town centre of Paramaribo is full of old wooden Dutch colonial buildings which are now protected as a UN World Heritage Site

.. more colonial buildings in various states of disrepair

The Paramaribo Cathedral is the tallest wooden building in South America

Black water ponds are found in the rainforests, the dark colour of the water coming from the vegetation

This bridge was built 10 years ago. Before it was opened a ship hit it and it collapsed. They haven’t been able to afford to repair it

… instead you have to cross by this primitive ferry – if it’s working

The ferry was broken so those with an urgent need to cross the river were ferried by pirogue instead

… and those with urgent business are ferried back across the river

This guy whiled away the time waiting for the ferry repair by catching piranha with a bamboo rod, a single hook and bread as bait

The broken ferry outboard

… the replacement arrives

… and is manhandled off the back of the truck

Harvesting ripe mangoes for lunch with a long bamboo pole

Meanwhile, the traffic is backing up

At last we board the ferry – 4-hours late

… and cross the river

Picnic lunch provided by Mr Twist

Black water pond

You can see how dark the water is

Mr Twist shows us a matapi in a Maroon settlement

Cashew nuts grow at the bottom of the fruit. They have to be roasted before eating, as raw they are highly poisonous

The matapi is a tube woven from wicker cane and is used to squeeze the cyanide liquid from grated cassava – the prime source of starch. The barrels are used to collect rainwater for drinking

Old Dutch colonial buildings in Paramaribo

Busy and colourful covered market place

a vegetable stall

… we weren’t sure what most of the things were

We bought a matapi each in the market as mementos of our visit

The pirogue taxi stand

Dilapidated house on wash-day

Mina2 at anchor in the Essequibo River, Guyana

These ancient Bedford trucks are still the vehicle of choice for the gold miners to ferry kerosene and supplies to their camps from Bartica

Cows roam free round the streets of Bartica

The miners have no uniform as such !

One of the many packs of stray dogs hanging out in front of “The Gold & Diamond Snackette and Bar”

Roaming cows can create driving hazards in the streets of Bartica

The amount of rubbish in the town is indescribable

Signs outside a hotel/restaurant

The Bartica power station noisily belched out acrid smoke 24 hours of the day

Bartica riverfront

The lovely home of Kit and Gem Nascimento

A monkey in a tree in the garden

A view of Mina2 in the Essequibo River

The rough road out to the airstrip

Our transport into the interior

.. and our “driver”

We were appalled to see the state of the Cessna – the seat belt came away in the DS’s hand!

6’9″ John squeezes in

The cockpit

An aerial view of the Guyanese rain forest

Safely arrived at the Kaieteur Falls airstrip

Approaching the falls which are swathed in mist

The mist lifts to give us a brief glimpse of the falls

At 741 feet – three times higher than Niagara – the Kaieteur Falls is the highest single drop waterfall in the world. We were the only people there

Inspecting a Giant Tank bromeliad

A very rare Golden Frog – spends its entire 8-year life amongst the leaves of the same plant

A distant glimpse of the magnificent Cock-of-the-rock bird

Our cabins at Iwokrama

The DS tests out the snooze bag

View of the river from the balcony

Off on a bird spotting walk

A snake overhangs the river at night

Kermit comes out for a look

Petroglyphs just lie in the river bed. These are 5,000 to 7,000 years old

Spotting giant caimans

An enormous Jabiru stork

… a magnificent sight in flight

Kingfisher perched on a twig looking for lunch

The Iwokrama canopy walk

a view of the rain forest from the canopy

The DS makes her way through the canopy

Jerry – our canopy guide

Walking through the primary rain forest

Scarlet Macaw comes out of its nest hole

A tamed wild bird tries to undo John’s shoe laces

Lunch at the Iwokrama hospitality centre

We had to take a 2-hour boat rip upriver to Karanambu Lodge

Jerry, originally from Balham, was our guide

We saw a fantastic variety of birds as we headed upriver

A tree almost buried under a termite nest

Not a river you want to fall into … the shores were lined with caimans

… including this rare Spectacled caiman

This was one of a number of Osprey that we saw …

… flying off with a tasty morsel in its talons

Lapwing

The locals use dugout canoes

… notwithstanding the patrolling caimans

Karanambu Lodge – Linda last visited here fourty years ago. It hasn’t changed

Our guest house

The canopy above the bed is to prevent the bats poo from falling on you at night

The roof is made from intricately woven palm fronds

Apart from frogs and bats, we also shared our room with this hornets’ nest

We went off to spot some Giant Anteaters. We did see one at a distance but couldn’t get our cameras out quickly enough

A Jabiru stork on its nest with three chicks

Near the house was an inlet covered with these enormous water lilies. The flowers open in the morning and then close up at night

Note the caiman head by the lily flower

Time for a nap

The flight to Georgetown was a lot more civilised than the Cessna flight

An old government builing in Georgetown (the capital of Guyana) with a statue of Queen Victoria outside (her nose had been knocked off)

The windows had boxes outside in which one put blocks of ice as a primitive air-conditioning

You tell the homes and buildings of the Hindu community …

… they all painted in bright pastel colours