Still In…

…Guyana.

We are in Bartica, about 40 miles from the mouth of the Essequibo River. We left Fort Island on a Wednesday, anchored for a couple of nights along the way, and made it to Bartica on a Friday afternoon. We went in to town, took care of some necessities and then headed a few miles further up river to anchor for the weekend.

Necessities like going to Digicel for phone and internet. My awesome Google phone that I have had for years finally melted down, so we had to buy a new one:

After taking care of the phone we walked around town a bit. We found James’ BBQ which was fantastic:

Front Street, Bartica. Bartica is a mining town or mining support town. Almost everything here is geared toward the inland mining and harvesting of gold, diamonds, bauxite, and timber. One of the larger hardware stores has guards at each door, armed with automatic weapons. Didn’t get a picture of them…

Trucks for hire, if you need to go into the interior:

Power Company:

“Nobody starves in Guyana” we were told. Fresh food is so plentiful and relatively cheap. We have been feasting on fresh food, eggplant, string beans that are 18 inches long, carrots, plantains, sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, oranges, bananas, passion fruit, water melon, and more! The other night we made eggplant parmesan on the grill, it was amazing:

Sunrise, Bartica anchorage:

First light on the east shore of Bartica. The building on the left with the green roof is a huge indoor veggie, fruit, meat, and fish market. I tried taking pictures inside but it’s too dark, and too busy. We quickly found a great vendor, Mr Barker, who sells great stuff, at a great price.

Mmmmmm veggie market:

Bartica waterfront:

Fuel dock:

Competition 100 feet away:

Cool Breeze stelling (wharf). Cool Breeze is a small open air bar and hangout for the water taxi drivers. Everyone was really nice there too:

The main government stelling in Bartica:

There is a big prison on the far west shore across from Bartica:

Once done with business in Bartica we headed a few miles further inland to spend the weekend at The Baganara Island Resort. Our buddy boat, Almost There, anchored:

These little birds seemed to like our boat:

We are just a few degrees north of the equator so the heat and humidity here is best described as…”special”. Similar to the involuntary action of blinking your eyes, we find ourselves randomly blurting out “omg it’s hot” several times during the mid day. The heat index is usually at 100 degrees by 8:00am and by 11:00 it’s 115:

Dea Latis anchored in front of Baganara Island:

The resort:

 

We met Stuart, his family has owned the island for 60 years, and Paul, his PR guy. Actually they got on their jetski and came out to greet us. They were both very nice and offered the use of the facilities. We were excited to finally get here:

Dea Latis:

Tanya had a birthday this month so I spoke with the staff to see if we could have a little celebration. Kenola, the chef, told me she would take care of everything. She did a fantastic job, everyone did a great job, decorations, amazing meal, and cake!!! And the best part is our new phone takes the worst pictures so most of these are blurry…

Celebrating Tanya’s birthday with Almost There:

The food was so good we finished before I remembered to take a picture. We had a delicious Guyanese soup and chicken alfredo with fresh vegetables. Then out comes the cake! Chef Kenola came out to light the candles herself:

Then the singing:

What a fantastic night! Left to right, Dolly, Colis, and Kenola:

Random resort photos:

Shena (Almost There), Kenola, Dolly, Tanya:

Ping Pong match between Robert (Almost There) and Colis the bartender:

Tanya and I took the dinghy about 12 miles further inland.

This is lunch island, yes we ate lunch here under a tree. Did I mention the heat?

The one and only marker we found anywhere on the river:

Timber operation:

Water so still it was like a mirror:

Random river shots:

Then we found this little side river. It was almost low tide so we only got about a mile in, but we were able to find a family of monkeys swinging through the tree tops on their way somewhere. They were gone before I could get the camera out:

 

We went back that afternoon with Almost There, searching for monkeys. Didn’t see them again but the tide was high so we were able to go quite a way up river:

One afternoon we all jumped on their boat for a run to Bartica, only to find out it was a holiday and everything was closed. I got to drive their big ass catamaran, that was fun!

Walked around town again:

Ate lunch at this Brazilian restaurant:

Went back to the resort. Pizza night on Dea Latis:

Random shot of the north side of the main stelling in Bartica where we tied up the dinghy to visit the town:

Our rough plan is go tour the Mazaruni River, head back down the river over the weekend, visit Georgetown, tour the rum factory, then point toward Suriname.

We provisioned and fueled up today. We bought five gallons of gas, a five gallon pail of oil, and 40 gallons of diesel…$50,520.00