The morning after the night before!

Yesterday was our first day off here in Guyana and we certainly did it in style! We started with a relaxed morning, and then Laura and Heather went to get water and juice, whilst Hannah and I went to supermarket and the fruit stall, and Nikki stayed at home and played housewife! We all made it back safely and bearing goods, (probably something due to the fact Laura and I were not together) much to mummy Nikki’s relief. We had lunch in the Guyanese style – jam sandwiches and crisps! Then it was time to begin our explorations! Not being entirely sure about which minibus goes where, we went into town, to be told by a quite scary lady that the bus to the sea wall was the one we’d just got off. So dutifully we got back on and did a return journey of the one we’d just done and then further on to the sea wall. It was quite good because we got our bearings a bit more round town but of course the sea wall runs the entire coast of Guyana so if you aren’t specific about which part it’s a bit hit and miss! As it was the minibus stopped at traffic lights to drop us off in the middle of the road which was kind of near the sea wall, the bit which Nikki hadn’t been before but was all was well because I broke the bus accidentally as I stepped out so we returned the unhelpful favour!

We made our way to the sea wall where the Atlantic Ocean stretched out into the distance before us and mangroves trees littered the area next to the wall. We had a fairly long walk in the sun but also in a nice breeze to the bandstand and to a nice-ish bit of beach where we drew in the sand and took some lovely pictures! We also got to see the Umana Yana which is an Amerinidian hut as a monument for the Conference of Non-Aligned nations. By this time it was getting quite late so we headed to the Pegasus Hotel, for a nice drink to cool us down. Luckily for us, there was a really nice bar and grill serving cocktails so we of course had to give one a go, especially as we didn’t get any in Trinidad. They were amazing, and the bar staff were so lovely and kind – we even got a picture of them with Tash (the bear)! We stayed for dinner which was so appreciated - also really Guyanese, a burger accompanied by some great Cajun chips – and just had a lovely evening, relaxing together in comfort and feeling really full!

We got taxis back to the apartment where we had lots of fun playing Heather’s quiz – even if some of the questions were on the theme of ‘Which street in London am I thinking of?’ causing much complaining from both teams alike. Nikki and Hannah won (much to Laura and I’s chagrin) even if just by 4 points (and some of those points were somewhat arguable!).

This morning was an interesting one though as during the night the electricity went off meaning no fans and being very hot! Another interesting occurrence was brown water started coming out of the taps and whilst poor Heather was in the shower. Nikki just said ‘Maybe we need some rain’ when the heavens opened and torrential rain hit, so we are waiting to see if this has any effect on the colour of the water…

This afternoon we are going swimming with one of Guyanese girls, Ashley, who is taking us to Buddies, which we think is at the Princess Hotel. Should be lovely and just in time as a good place  to have showers where the water isn’t brown! 

Lots of GOLD love

Team Guyana 2012