The talent we discovered, an interesting scene, in French Guiana.

In French Guiana, at the top of South America, we stopped in small town called Roura and discovered this very interesting scene. Occasionally you hear the chirp of the monkey or a small child in the background, but the rest of the sounds are coming from that one guy ... whose name we think is Germain. There is no-one else doing the the beats sounds, just his voicebox!  We think think he's wonderfully talented... but that talent doesn't seem to be going anywhere at the moment, just fishing.

The scene itself is interesting. The music man. The sleeping guy. The pet monkey. 

This is my first ever blog video upload, and it wouldn't work first time, so now I've reduced the file size. But, all those elements are still there. Here's hoping it works!

Enjoy!

Lost in Guyana

We liked Guyana. Despite the consistent warnings of Guyana being a bad and dangerous place, we never once felt threatened or had a bad experience. However, our maps and information weren't good, and we were consistently lost or confused. 

Of course, being lost can lead to some wonderfully serendipitous experiences, and that's how our final day in Guyana was. 

Our first confusion was in Guyanas capital: Georgetown. We arrived on a Sunday. Our GPS didn't have a specific Guyana map, and the Garmin South America map seemed to have nothing to do with reality. Pegasus Hotel is recommended as a place for overlanders to 'pamp', but we couldn't find it until I asked a young boy (about 10yrs). "There" he said, pointing. We were so close, it was almost embarrassing!

The next day, Monday, we walked into the city centre. It was dead, nothing was open. Apparently it was a public holiday, for a Muslim celebration. Guyana is a country of multiple faiths and they have holidays for all of these religions, which makes for a lot of holidays. 

With everything closed it only took us about an hour to explore the centre on foot. We thought the old timber buildings were quiet charming and there was a scenic mix of renovated buildings and buildings needing repair. (Honestly, I think they should be fixing a few of of major buildings before its too late). 

With nothing else to do in Georgetown, we left. Or, we tried too. We couldn't t find the road out. We needed to first drive to Linden, but our GPS didn't have a clue and we never saw a single sign pointing us in the right way. Eventually a taxi lead us to the right path. (Free, he was going that way). 

From Linden onwards there were signs to Lethem (the next major destination), but ironically, there was also only one road to take. Lethem is the border town, next stop Brazil. 

Along the way to Lethem I thought it'd be nice to visit a place famous for River Otters. But, once again, there were no signs. We never found the turn off. 

Finally we saw a turn off for a list of places (nothing we'd heard of) and a picture of a river otter on that same sign. So, we turned off. This is a part of the world  called the 'Rupununi', and it's quiet spectacular. Mostly its open country but we reached a path though forest impossible for our vehicle height. We turned back. But, there were dirt tracks everywhere and at one point H accidentally took a different path to that on which we'd come. 

It was late in the day when we reached an Amerindian village called Nappi. We decided to stop for the night and we pulled up beside a shelter at the sports field. 

After a few hours a man came to see us, he was the village 'captain', and he informed us that to drive through an Amerindian village we should first get permission, and to stay we also needed permission and to pay. It was all okay, he gave us permission and we paid $1000 (local dollars, or $US5). He then stayed and answered all my questions about Amerindian life. 

In the morning, trying to go from Nappi to Lethem, we got even more lost and found ourselves at another village. (These villages are very scattered with houses not very close). At the school I found some people and asked for help. A man told us to wait as he was leaving (on motorbike) soon and we could follow him. We are very lucky this happened... With simple directions we might still be wandering around Guyana's Rupununi!

Getting lost allowed us to see some beautiful countryside, and learn a bit about Amerindian life too. I'm glad we wandered off the beaten track and got lost for a day. 

Feeding insects in Suriname

The first thing I am doing each morning here in Suriname is showering and then coating myself with insect repellent. There are mosquitoes everywhere, and plenty of other biting insects too. From the mosquitoes you could get malaria or dengue, but neither of these is as prevalent at the moment as a sickness called chikungunya. It's being described as worse than Dengue (malaria is often said to be not as bad as dengue but it can kill you), with fever and aching bones, and although the fever will probably last less than a week you might get stuck with the aching bones for months or years. So, we are trying not to get bitten. Of course, completely not getting bitten is next to impossible, and not every mosquito carries a problem. Also, when I looked it up I found that we also get Chikungunya in Australia (but, I hadn't heard of it).

Of course Suriname has plenty of biting insects. It's tropical and wet. It used to be a Dutch colony and it seems the Dutch are good at turning wetlands into farmland divided by channels of water. 

I currently have 3 annoying bites from other insects, maybe wasps or spiders, but I don't know. The bite on my leg weeps clear fluid, and on my left ring finger I have 2 bites, one swelling my knuckle and the other giving me a bumpy welt on my fingerprint that starts to itch each evening. I got them both 3 days ago. 

We are pamped (can I make a new word?, we don't camp as we stay in the vehicle and have toilet and shower too, so we just park, but it's more than that... I think pamped sounds good) at a guesthouse that belongs to some Dutch overlanders that we met in Brazil. They currently have Dutch friends (Suriname residents) looking after things while they are away so we've become friends with them too. The place is lovely, there's even a swimming pool (and the biting insects don't bite me there!). 

Suriname is a former Dutch colony, so they speak Dutch. Before being Dutch it was British, so they drive on the left side if the road. The British and Dutch traded New York (formally New Amsterdam) for this piece of land. 

Being that this country speaks Dutch I am trying to learn some Dutch. It seems easy enough, but I don't think I have an ear for it. Also, many locals speak Surinaams and that just confuses me when I think they are speaking Dutch.  But, I can now say a couple of words if I think long and hard enough about what to say. It's a start!

Planning a route

I got bored with tidying things today and so I started looking at guidebooks and maps for where we will go next. This is just a vague kind of planning, we have a direction and there will be a few 'must-sees', but many things will be made up along the way. 

Currently we a staying with friends in a town between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. From here our basic direction will first be to the Pantanal. 

The Pantanal is a massive wetland area that mostly lies in Brazil, but also with parts in Bolivia and Paraguay. It floods every year in summer (ie, the Southern Hemisphere summer). The best time to visit is May to September, but it's recommended to still go whenever you can. Why? Because although the Amazon is world famous, this is a much better place to see wildlife (apparently there's plenty of wildlife to see in the amazon... If only the jungle wasn't blocking the view). So we're hoping to see a Jaguar (although we missed its peak season by one month) and lots of other animals. 

From the Pantanal we're heading North, and East, to the Guyanas. 'The Guyanas' is a collective term for the countries at the top of South America, ie, French Guyana, Suriname, and Guyana. These countries aren't often visited by overlanders and in general they seem to be unknown even to the people of the other countries of South America. 

I haven't yet researched what we'll discover up there in the Guyanas. Being that one speaks French, the next Dutch and the other English I'm expecting some cultural difference, which, for me, is part of the joy of travel. 

Anyway, like they used to say on a commercial for travel to the Northern Territory (of Australia): Ya never never know if ya never never go.