I spent 10 days in Guyana, my first country on the continent of South America! But like my couchsurfing-host Gordon said, the island is a mentality, so it did still feel quite Caribbean to me. There is also a big Indian community here, as well as a lot of Amerindian tribes so the culture seemed very diverse and it was a very interesting stay for me! It is nice to see how well all the different people get along and it is not unusual to see a church next to a mosque and an hindu temple on the same street.
I ended up staying with my couchsurfing hosts the whole time, and was therefore in the capital of Georgetown and just took little daytrips from there. To venture further inland requires quite a lot of time, organisation and money, which I did not have or did not have the energy to do.
(Photos: Gordon's House and Karaoke with his friends)
I really enjoyed Guyana, but I only started to feel more confident about travelling around by myself towards the end of my trip when I had kind of run out of time to do a bigger trip into the interior, but I would like to come back and see more!
Georgetown was nice, a lot of wooden colonial building left by the British and Dutch. I was especially fond of one of the national dishes, Roti, as it is mostly eaten with Indian curries which I love.
(Photos: buildings, national library, St.George's Cathedral, Starbroek market and a well ventialted building)
I also took a daytrip up the river to the town of Bartica, where I got to after a 1h speedboat ride up the Essequibo river, surrounded by thick rainforest. The town itself was not amazing, but the trip there made up for it by a lot!
(Photos: Speedboat trip to Bartica, traffic on the river and the rainforest!, views in Bartica and a sunset on the river)
On the weekend we went to a smaller creek near Georgetown once with a friend who had a car and participated in the typical Guyanese picnic-and-beer-by-the-creek weekend activity, which was a lot of fun.
Everything was also very green and since the country is below sea level, there are channels everywhere and in Georgetown there is a big seawall, separating the town from the Atlantic ocean.
(Photos: the seawall, one of the channels blocked off by a lock, botanical garden and backyard)
I also spent a day with another couchsurfing host along the east coast of Guyana, in a region called Berbice. I got invited to an Indian Birthday party and we took the puppy to the beach. All in all it was very good day!
(Photos: views in and around Berbice, birthday-buffet and the Atlantic coast with my host Ambikha and her nephew)
Flying out of Guyana, I had to catch 3 flights to get to Colombia. My flight from Curacao to Bogota ended up being cancelled so the airline paid for a night in a hotel. Luckily, I ended up at the Marriot right by the beach and a 50USD voucher for dinner! I also bumped into Simon, whom I’d met couchsurfing in Grenada, and he was on the same cancelled flight so we had some more time to catch up again before flying out to Colombia the following day.
(Photos: the edge of Georgetown where the Essequibo River enters the Antlantic, views over Curacao and grubby backpackers in a fancy hotel)
