On our last night in Manaus we met a Peace Corp worker who gave us a lot of tips for visiting Guyana as she had spend several months working there.
We caught a night bus to Boa Vista and checked into a business hotel at 11am. The receptionist wanted some extra money if we wanted to go to our room as check in was not until noon. We said we would wait and after consulting the owner we were allowed to check in to our cell like room and cool off in the air conditioning.
It was a Monday and a swelteringly hot day. We searched for a restaurant to get something to eat but they were all closed. We found a store that sold bulk items and managed to find something to eat for breakfast. At the hotel was a flier for takeaways so we got the receptionist to order us a lasagne for dinner. It arrived by motorbike 20 minutes later.
In the morning we caught up on our laundry and were told off by the receptionist for hanging it on the hotel clothes line. There is nothing to see or do in Boa Vista so we used the time to catch up on emails and the blog before catching a bus the two hours to the town of Bonfim and the Guyana border.
At the small border we met a couple of young women from Guyana and shared a taxi with them over the border to the Guyana border town of Lethem where we had our vaccination certificates checked for yellow fever and got a 30 day visa. It was back into another taxi and a change to the other side of the road for the driver as Guyana was a British colony and drive on the left.
We were booked into the Iwokrama River Lodge and as part of our deal with them they were to organise our transport and include it in our package. Once at the minibus depot we were told the bus had gone an hour before we arrived even though we understood we would have to hang around until midnight for our reserved seats. Within an hour we had gathered enough people wanting a minibus to Georgetown so we all piled in and headed off to be checked over again by the police before leaving the small border town. We had hoped to be able to get out some cash from the local bank for Guyana during our long wait but headed off without much local money. John was able to change our last Brazilian Reals for some loose change. We are carrying American dollars and it seems it is easy to use them if needed.
The roads in Guyana are unsealed, potholed and narrow with small rough sawn wooden plank bridges over the creeks, so the trip is slow and rough. We drove through the savannah lands and saw several savannah foxes on the road as well as a couple of peccary. The Toyota Hiace was jam-packed with everyone's gear stuffed into every crevice and after about three and a bit hours we got out to have dinner at a restaurant bar. There was a small menu of chicken and chips and chicken chow mien as well as some pies. Locals were watching cricket on a big screen while four men were playing dominoes and drinking beer.
The driver hurried us along and after a 15 minute drive we pulled up to a place that had two shelters with people in hammocks. We queued to hire a hammock and were told to quickly get set up as another minibus had arrived and there would not be enough space or hammocks for everyone. We couldn't really understand what was happening but Rannila and her friend tried their best to update us. John joined the snorers and I tossed and turned in my too small hammock next to some men who yakked on all night.
At 3.30 we were woken and taken a short drive to a police check point where five other minivans were also waiting. Rannila told us the road is closed to traffic from 4pm to 4am so vehicles did not hit the wildlife from the forest reserves but we were later told the road was closed to stop poachers taking the animals during the night. After another police passport and vaccination certificate check we all continued on our way. Us to Iwokrama and the rest to Georgetown.
We were picked up by a driver from Iwokrama and after a shower we had breakfast and spent the rest of the day resting.
Iwokrama Forest Reserve is a 460 square kilometre rain forest and home to 474 species of birds, 130 different mammals, 420 types of fish and 132 species of reptiles. The lodge is on the banks of the Essequibo river. As well as organising river trips and walks it is used by scientists for research. There was a group of students from Guyana, UK and USA on our first day here.
We did an evening boat ride on the river and saw an iguana resting on a branch above the river. Our guide, Teechi said it rests there so it can leap into the river from danger. A black caiman lurked in the shallows but we were only able to see its glittering eyes. Red rump agoutis romped under the cabins and a few nightjar birds huddled amongst the leaves for the night.
The next day we drove 90 minutes to a canopy walk where we had a different guide and were the only guests there. It is coming to the end of the rainy season so there are not many guests. September is when the place is really popular.
The canopy was built a Canadian engineer and recently a third of it collapsed when a tree blew over in the wind and brought some of the walkway down. We saw a troop of howler monkeys come through. They stopped at some fruiting trees and spat out the seeds which were then picked up by huge curasow birds on the forest floor. We saw about a dozen different birds and are getting better at picking them out in the tops of the trees.
When we arrived back at the lodge there was a huge group of 60 Dutchies. They had shipped vehicles to Suriname and were driving to Rio. Some were going to the Olympic Games while others were visiting other places before shipping the vehicles back from Rio. It didn't take them long to empty the fridge of cold beers. They were up at 4am after a night of thunder, lightning and heavy rain and caught the car ferry across the river and headed for Lethem. A company organises the trips and some of them went from Usuhaia in Tierra del Fuego to Alaska last year.
After they left we did a boat ride around a nearby island and saw more howler monkeys and lots of new birds; bat falcons, black necked aracari, white throated toucan, herons, swallows and swifts. We came back for breakfast and then headed to climb Turtle mountain a 300 metre hill.
When we got to the top we had a great forest view and below us were spider monkeys drying out after last night's rain.
On the way down Teechi and I stepped over a poisonous fer-de-lance or lancehead snake (according to Wikipedia it is also known as 'the ultimate pit viper'), while John spotted it curled up flickering its tongue.
Teechi's well trained eyes spotted a tiny frog no bigger than my thumb nail.
We disturbed a couple of red and green macaws and red fan parrots.
A shy capuchin monkey scurried away when we heard it rustling leaves. Teechi told us about the uses of the different forest trees including one that was used to poison arrowheads. On the boat ride back we saw turtles resting on dead logs just above the water but they toppled is as we approached. After dinner we went upstream to see some 6000-8000 year old petroglyphs on the river rocks and got to see some squirrel monkeys nearby.
We had booked the minibus to pick us up at the checkpoint at 6am to continue onto Georgetown but when it arrived it was full and the driver knew nothing about our reservation. This meant we had to hang around the lodge all day and stay another night and hopefully it will all work out the next day as we have reserved accommodation in Georgetown.
We caught a night bus to Boa Vista and checked into a business hotel at 11am. The receptionist wanted some extra money if we wanted to go to our room as check in was not until noon. We said we would wait and after consulting the owner we were allowed to check in to our cell like room and cool off in the air conditioning.
It was a Monday and a swelteringly hot day. We searched for a restaurant to get something to eat but they were all closed. We found a store that sold bulk items and managed to find something to eat for breakfast. At the hotel was a flier for takeaways so we got the receptionist to order us a lasagne for dinner. It arrived by motorbike 20 minutes later.
In the morning we caught up on our laundry and were told off by the receptionist for hanging it on the hotel clothes line. There is nothing to see or do in Boa Vista so we used the time to catch up on emails and the blog before catching a bus the two hours to the town of Bonfim and the Guyana border.
At the small border we met a couple of young women from Guyana and shared a taxi with them over the border to the Guyana border town of Lethem where we had our vaccination certificates checked for yellow fever and got a 30 day visa. It was back into another taxi and a change to the other side of the road for the driver as Guyana was a British colony and drive on the left.
We were booked into the Iwokrama River Lodge and as part of our deal with them they were to organise our transport and include it in our package. Once at the minibus depot we were told the bus had gone an hour before we arrived even though we understood we would have to hang around until midnight for our reserved seats. Within an hour we had gathered enough people wanting a minibus to Georgetown so we all piled in and headed off to be checked over again by the police before leaving the small border town. We had hoped to be able to get out some cash from the local bank for Guyana during our long wait but headed off without much local money. John was able to change our last Brazilian Reals for some loose change. We are carrying American dollars and it seems it is easy to use them if needed.
The roads in Guyana are unsealed, potholed and narrow with small rough sawn wooden plank bridges over the creeks, so the trip is slow and rough. We drove through the savannah lands and saw several savannah foxes on the road as well as a couple of peccary. The Toyota Hiace was jam-packed with everyone's gear stuffed into every crevice and after about three and a bit hours we got out to have dinner at a restaurant bar. There was a small menu of chicken and chips and chicken chow mien as well as some pies. Locals were watching cricket on a big screen while four men were playing dominoes and drinking beer.
The driver hurried us along and after a 15 minute drive we pulled up to a place that had two shelters with people in hammocks. We queued to hire a hammock and were told to quickly get set up as another minibus had arrived and there would not be enough space or hammocks for everyone. We couldn't really understand what was happening but Rannila and her friend tried their best to update us. John joined the snorers and I tossed and turned in my too small hammock next to some men who yakked on all night.
At 3.30 we were woken and taken a short drive to a police check point where five other minivans were also waiting. Rannila told us the road is closed to traffic from 4pm to 4am so vehicles did not hit the wildlife from the forest reserves but we were later told the road was closed to stop poachers taking the animals during the night. After another police passport and vaccination certificate check we all continued on our way. Us to Iwokrama and the rest to Georgetown.
We were picked up by a driver from Iwokrama and after a shower we had breakfast and spent the rest of the day resting.
 |
Dining room and offices |
 |
Our lodge |
We did an evening boat ride on the river and saw an iguana resting on a branch above the river. Our guide, Teechi said it rests there so it can leap into the river from danger. A black caiman lurked in the shallows but we were only able to see its glittering eyes. Red rump agoutis romped under the cabins and a few nightjar birds huddled amongst the leaves for the night.
The next day we drove 90 minutes to a canopy walk where we had a different guide and were the only guests there. It is coming to the end of the rainy season so there are not many guests. September is when the place is really popular.
The canopy was built a Canadian engineer and recently a third of it collapsed when a tree blew over in the wind and brought some of the walkway down. We saw a troop of howler monkeys come through. They stopped at some fruiting trees and spat out the seeds which were then picked up by huge curasow birds on the forest floor. We saw about a dozen different birds and are getting better at picking them out in the tops of the trees.
 |
| A walking palm |
 |
| Rose flower |
When we arrived back at the lodge there was a huge group of 60 Dutchies. They had shipped vehicles to Suriname and were driving to Rio. Some were going to the Olympic Games while others were visiting other places before shipping the vehicles back from Rio. It didn't take them long to empty the fridge of cold beers. They were up at 4am after a night of thunder, lightning and heavy rain and caught the car ferry across the river and headed for Lethem. A company organises the trips and some of them went from Usuhaia in Tierra del Fuego to Alaska last year.
 |
The Dutchies |
After they left we did a boat ride around a nearby island and saw more howler monkeys and lots of new birds; bat falcons, black necked aracari, white throated toucan, herons, swallows and swifts. We came back for breakfast and then headed to climb Turtle mountain a 300 metre hill.
 |
| Spider monkey |
On the way down Teechi and I stepped over a poisonous fer-de-lance or lancehead snake (according to Wikipedia it is also known as 'the ultimate pit viper'), while John spotted it curled up flickering its tongue.
 |
| Leaf cutter ants' nest |
We disturbed a couple of red and green macaws and red fan parrots.
 |
| Bat falcon |
We had booked the minibus to pick us up at the checkpoint at 6am to continue onto Georgetown but when it arrived it was full and the driver knew nothing about our reservation. This meant we had to hang around the lodge all day and stay another night and hopefully it will all work out the next day as we have reserved accommodation in Georgetown.
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