Being in Guyana.

Sooooo.....We were all set to move a little upriver on Saturday to the lovely little island of Baganara having stopped off in Bartica to buy fresh supplies en route and having spent a wonderful day on Friday visiting islands in the middle of the Essequibo and then sitting underneath a series of waterfalls at Barracarra after a mini trek through the rainforest..... Then the trouble started! First thing was the engine not starting; and it looked quite serious. Help! Suddenly we felt rather isolated as really are no "yacht" facilities here at all.

So Dick phoned Dom, the Amerindian who drives the little boat into Bartica and lives and works at the resort "Hurakabra" nearby. (Photo in earlier blog). He came straight across then taxied to Bartica to pick up his friend and mechanic, Raymond, an Indian muslim (non practising, eats pork, drinks beer!). They spent the rest of the afternoon buried inside the engine and found a problem which they fixed. Hoorah!! Except that it wasn't the whole problem and when we tried to start it up again next day, it was a no go once more. Then the wind suddenly shifted quite violently and the rain arrived in sheets and we started to drag the anchor alarmingly close to the shore.... Phone Dom again dragging him from his Sunday lunch to give us a shove downstream towards safer and deeper water!

Next day, he brought Raymond out again and having found the real problem with the engine (which was quite a big one and would have cost an absolute fortune anywhere else), it was off to Georgetown (Capital city of Guyana) for Dick and Raymond for the day via water taxis, buses, taxis and ferries to find the man, possibly the only one in Guyana (?) who could fix it...... This took all day. In the meantime, I was having a lovely time ashore doing the most enormous pile of washing (photo of facilities in last blog!) while simultaneously dousing myself in deliciously cool rainwater. Indescribable!
The man in Georgetown knew his stuff and the new parts for the engine came back. Dom and Raymond then spent the next day fitting it all back together and phew, it worked!! Then, they started on the next problem which was fixing the generator leak. This meant taking the infernal thing out of its hidey hole and dismantling it. It was at this point that we left our miracle workers on the boat and set off via water taxi to Georgetown to spend a couple of days on an organised tour of the Kaieteur Falls.
Now we're almost up to date having done the tour yesterday. The trip was rather exciting in the end and very nearly didn't happen after some lack of communication on the part of one or two people or perhaps too much communication even! There were some heated exchanges but we all eventually stuffed ourselves into an "Islander" aircraft for the one hour flight to the falls. An "interesting" trip as most of it was over dense rainforest and through heavy downpours. The falls were incredible and the photos don't do them justice. I felt quite privileged to be one of a relatively select few to have actually seen them for real.
We stayed there for a couple of hours and then had lunch before the flight back. Islanders are very noisy as any Guernseyman will know but I fell asleep for a while anyway on the way back!
We are due to leave Georgetown shortly for the hour and a half boat trip upriver back to the boats. There are eight of us on this particular trip. It is possibly the biggest gathering of yachties that Guyana has seen!
We have made our mark here it seems and have become the talk of the little town of Bartica, so much so that we have been asked to meet the Minister of Tourism on Monday to talk about our experiences here and to discuss possible future changes to make Guyana more yachtie friendly. Coo!!!
For my part, I have really enjoyed being here...the weather, apart from horrendous but short daily downpours, has been a lot more tolerable then Trinidad. The wildlife is quite simply amazing. So many colours and sounds, toucans, macaws, howler monkeys, the "ocelot on the beach" (well it was dark so I couldn't see any colours but it WAS a big cat). The people are just lovely, so friendly and helpful, at least in the little towns and settlements. I know we heard several gunshots yesterday evening while eating dinner at the hotel, but hey, you could hear that in any capital city couldn't you??!!
We are due to leave Guyana midweek and sail back to Charlotteville, Tobago. The trip back should be much shorter and pleasanter, thank goodness. After Tobago we will head north for Grenada and then west for Blanquila, an island off Venezuela. Venezuela is not considered safe anymore for small boats though this particular island seems to be OK. Will let you know.....!