Georgetown, capital of Guyana

Georgetown, capital of Guyana

After all the all night celebrations of the last few days, it was Hang Over Sunday and a day to recover before returning to normal on Monday morning. I expected the city to be quiet and certainly the previous night's revellers were still in bed but not everyone had had a late night and certainly not parents with young children.

I walked down Vlissengen Road, one of the main roads and the route of the parade and it wasn't a lie in for hundreds of council workers and volunteers who were clearing up the debris left over from the night before and judging by the mountains of empty plastic bottles and beer bottles, cans, fast food trays and all sorts of other litter, it would take some time to clean up the place.

I was on my way to the Botanical Gardens. Thee are meant to be manatees here but the manatee pools were quiet, full of algae and floating plants and not a ripple on the surface.

 The Kissing Bridge in the Botanical Gardens.

 Several different types of habitats found in Guyana are represented such as upland areas, mangroves, seasonal flooded areas, savannah and so on. This is a photo of one of the many drainage channels all around the city including in the gardens, taken to show the pink flowers of a water plant.

 The Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

 The Palace of Justice, two views of this impressive wooden building.

 The Stabroek Market, made by the Edgemoor Iron Co in Delaware, USA and shipped here and completed in 1881, made from iron, steel and corrugated iron sheeting.

 A close up of the tower. It doesn't have a distinct architecture style but is reminiscent of Victorian era  Gothic style with the clock tower having more than a passing resemblance to St Stephens Tower of the Houses of Parliament which houses Big Ben.

 Just one of many interesting colonial era buildings.

 Government House.

 City Hall although it needs a little work and see paint. The Republics 50th anniversary is next year so I am hoping to see some changes over the next year.

 A side view of St Georges Cathedral.

 A view of the east facade.

 The Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology which was high on my list of places to see but it was closed.

 The Prime Misters Official Residence.

 I just happened to pass this and it wasn't on my list of places to see but it is the Court of Appeal but it looks more like any other large residential house.

 The light house which stands on the site of an earlier light house built by the Dutch in 1813 but this was built b the British in 1830 and stands 103 feet high. It used to send a light more than 30kms out to sea but ships more use electronic beacons. Just as well as today there is a ten story Marriott Hotel between it and the sea.

 The sea wall built by the Dutch which protects the city which is largely two metres below sea level.

And lastly at the National Park, I saw manatees but the water was murky and there was little to see. This is the head of a manatee with the nostrils and eyes.

But often all you see are the nostrils as they stay submerged and only expose their nose to breath and to eat the weeds and vegetation floating on the surface.

Guyana Republic Day

Guyana Republic Day

Guyana used to be a British colony but it became a republic n 23rd February 1970 and it celebrates it in style with three months of events and climaxing with a formal parade and a flag raising ceremony in front of the president and prime minister at midnight. The military and high ranking officials probably go to bed but for many it is the start of a big party with street food, stalls selling all kinds of goods and informal bars selling cold drinks out of insulated and iced chill boxes. There is also a paint throwing contest on a stretch of waste ground on the outskirts of town and you are warned to go in old clothes even if you are not going to participate as paint gets everywhere.

Then there is a lull as celebrations move on to a big parade that starts at midday and continues well into the evening. It is commonly called Mash, short for Mashramani, a mixture of local Amerindian and Guyanese Creole words meaning 'celebration after cooperative work'. Probably the worst job for a policemen on Mash Day is crowd control as many people came to town for the celebrations from all over the country which also means that hotels are all full up and increase their prices.

Just one of many floats.

There is lots of loud music from the stalls as well as from the bands on the floats such as this steel band.

One of the government floats with large green thing above the mans head is an outline of the country with two colourful toucans on each side.

A contraption on wheels pulled by a single person representing the world surrounded by olive branches and a white dove symbolising world peace.

A Chinese red dragon representing hope and luck.

Some of the many walking followers behind one of the floats.

A man on stilts walking in front of his float.

A float in the form of a digger representing one of the construction companies taking part in the parade.

Kaieteur National Park

Kaieteur National Park and Kaieteur, the highest single drop waterfall in the world.

My first trip in the capital, Georgetown, Guiana was not in the city but to go to Kaieteur, the largest single drop waterfall in the world at a height of 251m although the drop to a shelf near the bottom is only 226m but with on average 663 cubic metres of water per second plunges over the edge to drop more than four times the height of Niagara and twice the height of Victoria Falls. Other waterfalls are higher but not with a large volume of water falling in a single drop. But to get to see it requires a flight in a small airplane over thick jungle for more than an hour.

 We took off and had some great views of the city.

 Plus the mouth of the river and the corner of Georgetown that abuts the estuary with a light house near the corner.

  Then from the plane there was a view of the long bridge across the Essequiro River, built on pontoons that are anchored in the riverbed by huge chains to equally huge anchors to counter the strong tides and floods.

 Flying ove rate  jungle we saw several mining sites such as this bauxite mine...

 and this mine sieving through the sand and gravels of the river looking for diamonds and gold that are found in this area.

 A selfie of me in the cabin of the twelve seater plane.

 And then we flew over the falls themselves and the pilot flew two circles over the falls so both sides of the plane got a view.

 And then we touched down on a jungle airstrip to stretch our legs and have a walk into the jungle to some viewing points over looking the falls.

 The main visitors centre.

 On the walk down to the falls, several plants where pointed out such as this carnivorous plant that attacks mosquitos so we all wanted to pot some as whilst the scenery is nice, it is spoiled by the clouds of mosquitoes that bite both day and night.

 A view from Scout Boys Lookout.

 But always look around because whilst people were getting the best photo of the falls, I spotted this Golden Frog, not larger than a thumb nail that lives in the pools that form at the base of the leaves of the giant bromeliads that grow in these mountain areas.

 And another but this one with some of the water at the base of the falls to give context to the height. There were also some rainbows to be seen but my position near the edge and timing it with the parting of the clouds to get a photo of the falls and the rainbow never materialised.

 And my second selfie of the day.

 A more oblique view of the falls.

 And on our way back to the aircraft for the return flight, we saw this Cock of the Rocks, a quiet but colourful bird and I was in the perfect position.

Suriname

Suriname 

The last day in Paramaribo on the coast I went dolphin watching on a small boat in the estuary of the river. The dolphins came into the fresh water as there are more fish here and they are easier to catch but don't stay too long as they are seawater creatures but will tolerate some brackish water for food.

 The dolphins were always too quick for me so I ended up taking a lot of photos of just swirling water but these were my best two but not very good photos.

 Then we drove into the interior and past a giant dam at Brondoponto built in the 1960's to provide power to the city but also power for the local aluminium company to smelt bauxite ore into aluminium.

 A view across the reservoir behind the dam.

 A view of the road across the top of the dam with the turbine hall seen in the earlier photo just a white smudge at the base of the dam in the distance.

 Then it was further up river to go to an eco lodge to experience some jungle up close. The road stopped at Atjoni and the rest of the journey was done by boat.

 With no roads in the jungle, the main thoroughfare was the river and there were local boats on the river as well as ourselves.

The jungle was so thick that we saw no animals and we heard plenty of birds but they were just dark hopes against the bright sky. Several plants were pointed out with medicinal uses and others that could be eaten but nothing of unusual colour or shape. We also visited the local village who had huts to rent built in the traditional style.

 Inside the cabin.

 One of several local boats made from a hollowed out tree trunk.

 This was a difficult shot to take but this is a sloth but it didn't move so I couldn't get a better view.

 Most of the villagers are Christian but some 20% still follow traditional African religions. This is a Vinti shrine in the village.