Just a quick note to say we are leaving Guyana in the morning heading for Suriname. We still have two updates for Guyana including some video from Marshal Falls. The internet is just too slow to post pictures and video. We will update when we get to Suriname. We are kind of sad to be leaving. When we go to town, even a larger town, we run into people we know! We ran into Elijiah today, from Fort Island, while we were in Parika. We saw and met people we knew on our trip to the capital Georgetown, yesterday. The people here are the nicest we have met, by far, in our travels. Guyana is a beautiful, amazing place and I hope we come back here some day…
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
Guyana
Continuing from our last post, we made it safely to Guyana, made our way into the Essequibo River and anchored just south of Parika at Roed-en-rust. I had read a lot about, and was looking forward to meeting Mr DeSilva, the owner of Roeden Rust Marina.
Tanya, first to make landfall in South America!
Almost There and Dea Latis at anchor in the Essequibo:
Shore party in search of Mr DeSilva:
This is Wesley, or Wesley’s back. He dropped what he was doing to help us out, which has been a common theme here. Guyanese people are the nicest people we have met in our travels.
Marina:
The DeSilva residence. Sadly we were told Mr DeSilva passed away in June. I did get to speak with his son Amir who was very helpful:
Bedford Lorry:
We called a cab to get to Parika and check in. Bluc By, our driver:
Tanya and Shena:
Pearly gates:
We went to Scotia Bank to change some money and this car was for sale out in front. Toyota Corolla, used. How ’bout those payments:
This is from the police station looking at the head of the Parika stelling, ferry terminal and ticket office:
Looking from the main intersection looking down at the stelling, ferry terminal, and ticket office:
Street vendors:
We bought our fresh food from these nice folks:
Number 32 bus from Parika to Georgetown:
You think your food is expensive. Bag of potatoes $4200:
There are Chinese and Brazilian restaurants everywhere. So our first meal in Guyana was Chinese. We had chicken fried rice, which is fried rice with four huge pieces of chicken on top, it was delicious:
“Oh lets get egg rolls” Well this is an egg <pause> roll. It’s a huge omelet filled with veggies, not what we were expecting but it was delicious:
We checked in with a delightful lady at the immigration office, walked around town, picked up a few things, ate and headed back to the boat. Later we took some fuel jugs down to the fuel dock:
Zamir, at the Big Kiss, was very friendly and helpful. His coworker Rocky was a great help also:
Fuel is a tad expensive, we paid $818 a gallon for diesel:
They were more than happy to let us tie up and walk to town:
Boats along the river:
After walking around town again we went back to Big Kiss, dropped off a couple of Cokes and some Oreos with Zamir and Rocky, and headed back to the boat:
Bauxite, I think:
More ships along the river:
From Roeden Rust we jumped a few miles up river to Fort Island. Main stelling on the island:
We were met by Elijiah, son of the school teacher, who took us on a tour of the island, fort, museum and school:
Medical clinic:
Fort Zeelandia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Zeelandia_(Guyana)
Nice flower:
Then onto The Court of Policy Hall. This link will take you to the National Trust of Guyana website, which gives a brief history of Fort Zeelandia and Court of Policy:
http://www.nationaltrust.gov.gy/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=150
Then onto the school:
Some of the 15 students that attend:
We dropped off notebooks, pens, pencils and boxes of colored chalk, met the students, and had a wonderful talk with the teacher Ms Ward. We had a fantastic visit! The next day we picked up anchor and headed up river:
It’s a little humid six degrees north of the equator. Bad for the hair:
More river traffic. Everyone waves!
Navigation:
The Essequibo can get deep, in places about 80 feet. At times we have been 50 feet from shore in 20 feet of water. Here we are about 100 feet from the river edge in 46 feet of water:
We passed this barge, they all came out to wave. Everyone is very friendly here.
Eddy Grant’s island home:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddy_Grant
http://www.eddygrant.com/site/main.html
We anchored just south of Eddie Grant’s house for the night. The next morning we pulled up anchor and headed for the city of Bartica. We are having a great time here and we have lots of pictures, which we will post when we can.
Getting to Guyana
We made it to Guyana!
Our trip from Tobago to Guyana was fairly uneventful, we ran through a couple of squalls but nothing too bad. Actually one of the squalls was terrible, horrifying, but we lived, and we’ll tell that story later. The trip took around two and a half days.
We sailed as far off the coast of Venezuela as possible but as soon as we reached the border of Guyana we turned toward land. The coast is low and the water is shallow. We got tired and decided to anchor for the night before navigating the mouth of the Essequibo River. The winds were light and the seas were fairly calm so we anchored four miles off the coast of Guyana in nine feet of water! Four miles, nine feet of water, crazy!
When we reached the 20 fathom line we started seeing local fishing boats and long fishing nets, some nets were around half a mile long. The coastal boats are open, between 30 and 40 feet long with a crew of about five. One end of the net is marked with a flag and the fishing boat is attached to the other end.
Approaching the Essequibo River the water turns brown:
About 10 miles from the mouth of the river we found these fishing piles, hundreds, with fishing nets strung across:
Land Ho, the coast of Guyana, and some crappy weather ahead:
…more muddy water:
And ships driven aground along the banks of the river, some for maintenance, others permanent icons:
Probably not going anywhere:
This one looks pretty nice:
Our first settlement, Parika:
Parika stelling, Dutch for wharf or pier:
We ran a couple miles south of Parika and anchored off of Roeden Rust. Barge passing by, they all waved at us:
Ferry, they waved too:
Dea Latis and Almost There, anchored, Roeden Rust Guyana:
Our first sunrise in South America:
We have lots more pictures but internet is intermittent so updates may take a while. Having a great time in Guyana, the people are the nicest people we have met anywhere, we mean it!
A Few Pics from Tobago
Flashback to Tobago. We left Grenada for South America with Tobago as a quick stop over. Tobago put us in a better position for the jump to Guyana. While in Tobago we anchored in the north of the island, explored the town and a bit of the island, and were able to do a little fishing.
Got around seven of these:
We departed Tobago about 2:00 in the afternoon and headed up over the top of the island. These are some of the rocky islets we passed by. The one to the left is called London Bridge:
