Georgetown, Guyana

Guyana and Suriname are the only two South American countries to drive on the left. Suriname is the smallest country in South America because although French Guiana has a smaller land mass, it's not a country in its own right since it technically belongs to France.

We had one full day in Georgetown to get our flights organized for Kaieteur Falls and for Glen to get his Suriname visa sorted out. First up were the flights - we got a taxi driver to take us to the tour office and paid USD$240 each for return flights from Ogle airport the following day. I'd been emailing with a guy called Frank Singh at Rainforest Tours and he made sure we had our seats reserved well in advance and made the whole process easy. Next stop wasn't quite as easy. The Suriname Embassy in Georgetown has a dress code - no shorts and no slippers (flip-flops) - we were both in shorts and sandals. Curiously though my shorts were long enough and my sandals deemed passable but Glen was prohibited from going inside the embassy. They let Glen fill in all the paperwork in the taxi and I took them inside to hand over and pay the fee - pickup later in the afternoon. Comical but excellent. Next stop the cricket ground.

Brickdam St near Stabroek

Stabroek market

The Bourda Cricket Ground in Georgetown is legendary for New Zealand cricket fans. It's here where Glenn Turner scored a then New Zealand record 259 and together with Terry Jarvis put on 387 which at the time was the second highest in test history for any country. A few things struck me about the place; it was really run down and not nearly as imposing as I had imagined, the drainage was awful, it had rained the night before and the outfield was flooded, but the people was so welcoming and again we made our way to the members lounge for drinks.

Glen & I at the Bourda ground in Georgetown, Guyana

Saturday November 23day was the day this whole trip was planned around - a day trip to Kaieteur falls in the Guyanese interior, purportedly the worlds biggest single drop waterfall. Thankfully the day dawned bright and the one hour flight from Ogle airport was smooth and picturesque as we flew south over the marshy plains and dense rain forest to the tiny landing strip next to the falls.

Kaieteur falls in the Guyanese interior

Me at Kaieteur falls

We spent about 20 minutes at each of the three photo stops en route, each stop offering a different angle and uncovering more of the falls character. It was one of those eerily surreal experiences being deep in the jungle with only a dozen people for company. Kaieteur Falls is amazing and I'll add it to my RWV list (Rivers, Waterfalls & Volcanoes).

The plane that took us to Kaieteur falls

About two hours later we headed back to Georgetown in the same plane and landed at about 5pm. I promised our taxi driver in Georgetown that I'd buy him a beer when we saw him again so he stopped at the nearest bar. One beer turned into four and before we knew what had happened we were back at the International Guesthouse. I don't recommend buying your taxi driver anything to drink before he's delivered you safely to your destination but this is Guyana and things are a little different here.

Tomorrow we head East, to Suriname. Dutch Guyana.