Lessons learned from Mom!

Lessons Learned in the Guyana Interior

Prior to my trip to visit with Missy and tour her adopted country, I read that traveling to Guyana was not a vacation but rather a life experience.  I'd have to agree.  And as with any life experience it is important to embrace those lessons learned, sometimes the hard way.  So here are the lessons I learned during our journey to the interior of Guyana. 

1. It's always wise to put the toilet seat lid down. 

2. Spiders get annoyed when you turn on the faucet when they are chilling.  A second related lesson - keep your toothbrush in its case.

3. Sleeping within a mosquito net is logistically challenging - glasses, headlamp, alarm and book are never where you want them - and forget it if you need a tissue or some such thing.  A second lesson - lights after dark (which is 6 PM year round) is a great way to need the mosquito net even more than normal. 

4. Sometimes art work on the walls moves. 

5. Water not heated by the sun, or taking a shower when you are not heated by the sun, is just plain torture. 

6. Even wild, savannah raised cats crave attention.  But then, don't we all?  Just need to ignore that this same kitty ate a bat for breakfast.

7. Adapting is the key success - playing cards in the breeze requires developing a seamless two finger technique between players to hold the cards in place.  Playing cards with no breeze requires as few movements as possible.

8. Go for the higher hammock - much easier to get out!

9. 5:00 AM is the new 8:00 AM and well worthwhile crawling out of the mosquito net! 

10. Simply prepared, local food is nothing short of awesome!

11. Bug spray is worth more than liquid gold.  Sunscreen is a close second.  Anti-itch cream is a close third.  Our four legged bug eating friends and the tree canopy can only do so much.

12. Always have an extra three men on a trip to push start the jeep.  

13. A dog can look a lot like a fox, especially if you've just seen a fox.  No, really!  (In my defense, the dog I saw was while in a moving truck and in the savannah - just saying.)

14. Always carry a cutlass (machete) for you never know when you'll need to bushwhack. 

15. Rum soaked in passion fruit + fresh lime juice + a hot, satisfying day = WONDERFUL

16. Nothing is finer, aside from rum punch mentioned above, than fresh cashews.

17. Fresh skeleton of a porcupine or caiman (alligator) is as close as I want to get to a jaguar. 

18. Time is relative for those living in the interior - "Jus now" could be most anytime in the somewhat near future but certainly not "now" so get in your hammock and relax for awhile.  And "a few weeks back" could be a few years back.  We learned about a pet Tapir at the next lodge we were going to and disappointed he died just a few weeks back.  But alas, "several weeks back" might have been more accurate.

19. The term Highway is up for interpretation.

20. Think carefully about what you eat before flying, even when there are only simple, innocent looking, white puffy clouds.  And then those scales...

Vacation with Mom!

The problem with vacationing with a Mother who is a great photographer is that you take very few pictures…  So I will post the pictures I have, and beg Mom to post hers soon!

For those of you who don’t know Mom came to visit me here in Guyana.  It had been the longest I had gone without seeing her.  But like all adventures with my Mom there was no time to sit back and reconnect.  We started out with a quick flight in a terrifyingly small plane to see Kaieteur Falls. 

View from the plane!

Mom and I!

The falls!

  The falls is the largest single drop falls in the world (I think).  It was magnificent. 

The next day we continued our journey to Guyana’s interior by boarding yet another small plane headed to Region 9, Karanambu.  Karanambu is famous for rehabilitating Giant River Otters, however there were none there now.  It was the most primitive place we stayed and probably the most fantastic. Karanambu is located in the savannas about two hours from the rain forest.  We were picked up at the airstrip by a truck and hopped in back for a 15 minute ride to the homestead.  We were the only two guest there, a theme that followed us through our journey.  Here we saw tons of animals, the most fantastic was the Giant Anteater.  The Giant Anteater is mostly a nocturnal animal so we started our journey early in the morning as the sun was rising.  We hopped into the truck with about 4 extra guys, who’s jobs we later figured out was to run after the anteater and corral it closer to us.  We ended up spotting two along with some foxes.  We spent a lot of time on the Rupununi River looking for caiman, birds, and other wildlife.  

Where the otters use to live!

The "airport"

Our room!

Our guides pushing our truck to jump start it

Anteater vs Man

After Karanambu we headed to the Iwokrama Rain Forest.  It was a spectacular place!  Our cabin looked over the Essiquibo River, right in the middle of the rain forest.  There we saw plenty of monkeys and birds!  We even got to hear a howler monkeys call for 10-15 minutes.  We also saw the famous Cock of the Rock bird.  Our best finds were when we were driving in and out of the rain forest.  While driving in we got to see a family of Giant River Otters playing.  Then on the way out we got to see a Harpy Eagle!!! 

Mom listening to the Howler Monkey

Our friend

I promise there is a Harpy Eagle in there

Otter!!

Our next location was in Annai at the Rock View Lodge.  Rockview is located in the savannah and is a beautiful little oasis.  I think the highlight of Rock View was the owner and his brother.  Collen is an expat from England, he came to Guyana as a VSO (England’s version of Peace Corps) in the 60’sand never left.  His brother just recently joined him and together they are a delightfully British duo. Our schedule for each day included tea time and drinks with the duo!  We went to Surama a neighboring town to experience Amerindian life and try to spot more wildlife.  We didn’t see much at Rockview but the experience was worth it!  

Checking in at the Annai airport

After all this we headed to New Amsterdam to show Mom my life.  Mom took pictures of me doing laundry, buying things at the market, hanging out with other volunteers, my school, interacting with the teachers ect.  So for all those people who wanted to see what my day to day life is like Mom has your pictures!  She did get to experience the joy of the wifi not working for days for no reason! 

All in all it was a great exhausting trip!  It was amazing to see my Mom and get to hang out with her.  I am eternally grateful to her for all of her support throughout my Peace Corps journey.  She is an amazing Mom and friend and I can’t wait to see her again!