More Region 1 - Moruca

Leatherette in full swing

When you're zipping along at top speed in a speed boat, bumping along over the many waves, I can tell you one thing.... there is a lot of SPLASH! If you have on a cap you may lose it to the wind. And whatever you have on, you will likely be wet before getting to your destination. Henceforth and therefore... many boats present you with a "leatherette" when you get in. This you will use to cover your bag and legs, and hold handy for when you need to pull it up over your head. Hard to get a shot of this at top speed when I'm bumping out of my seat and trying not to get my camera wet too...

Nothing to see for miles... The Atlantic Ocean

Mouth of the Moruca River lined with Mangroves

But, as we left Region 2 heading down the Pomeroon River and out to the Atlantic Ocean, this is one of those times that the leatherette became necessary. When the boats head out of the river into open water, the ride experience is a little LOT different. You may have noticed my comments on this in a previous post for Shell Beach. Now, I had been there, and done that, so I knew what to expect and was fairly settled. Once I had on my life jacket, I was good to go. But... remember the two that I mentioned in the last post for Region 2??? Well, now the show would begin! It's funny how the one who expressed her fear constantly for the past week seemed to accept
the ride and settle into the inevitable. But the other.... Oh, the other... now she made Scared seem like something newly invented. She clutched, groped, screamed, held her head, wrang her fingers, she was a MESS. Seriously, I was worried for her. I was thinking we were going to need to pour a bottle of vodka into her to get her on the boat to return from Moruca. In fact, I wasn't sure if we were going to get to Moruca. Good thing everyone was consumed enough with their journey and the bumpy ride that I don't think most people noticed her. And after the 10mins out on the Atlantic, we turned into the Moruca River.

Here the river was much smaller than most we've ever travelled on. We were now heading across to Region 1 (Moruca). I gather that this is the way we could also have travelled to Kumaka in Region 1 (see previous post http://bjanice1.blogspot.com/2012/03/kumaka.html ). I'm glad I did have the experience to fly their the first time, now I've done both. :) Thanks to... well, you know yourself, Thanks!!! :)

We passed many going about their daily business including kids coming from school. The courtesy extended to these smaller boats has the bigger boats slow so they don't make so many waves, and everyone seemed to get along just fine. 

Bridge over Moruca River

A house along the river

Now, it so happens that boats only leave out of Moruca to go to Charity at 5:30a.m. So, wanting to get back in the afternoon/evening was wishful thinking on our part. Still, nothing like wishing. So we did. Because otherwise, who knows where we would spend the night, what we would wear, and what we would eat. PLUS, we were paying for a perfectly good hotel on the other side of the river. :)

Soon enough, a boat with seemingly drunk?, high? IDLERS passed by heading to Charity. Last chance. So we jumped in. Now, I heard someone in the boat say that since they'd left Kaituma this boat had been breaking down. OH BOY! I chose to ignore that. It was like a little fishing boat, not the typical speedboats we were used to. And... get this... no life jackets. I tried not to think about the worst. But, my colleagues did. Oh yes. You thought the journey was frightening coming to Moruca? This girl was sick going back. Tears. Fretful. Nervous energy. I tried not to laugh, but it was funny seeing how worried she was. I suggested she direct her energy to prayer. the guys were smoking continually - I suspect they were nervous too. LOL. The smoke did not help us, and certainly not her, but, regardless, we got back okay - thankfully.

Maybe I've had enough of Region 1 now, and should try for Region 8 or 9 next. Or maybe even a whole other country... Stay tuned.

Shell Beach

Wicked!!!  I’d heard about Shell beach, and even though I would not be able to make it there the night before to watch for turtles myself, I’m glad it got unto my list of things I did! (Or in this case, was about to do).

This trip was to be 50 mins by boat and we were expecting it would be very rough. We actually go out to sea and then come in to the beach. Pretty exciting. But here is where I was told to pack... NUFF (plenty) water, snacks, mosquito repellent, extra clothes, etc for the day. I was told not to wear my sneakers because I would have to wade from the boat out to land. Okay. Lewwi go, lewwi go!!!

Approaching anArmy base

The army base

Houses along the river bank

On the way I spot Scarlet Ibis! Never seen one before, but I did know that Guyana has lots of birdlife. So, still excited! Yay!

100 Scarlet Ibis(es?) in the trees

Now, a quick aside. Many houses are located along the river banks. Some are hidden behind the mangroves. So, how do people get around? By boat of course. The size of the boat I imagine depends on what you can afford. But, I also saw these little "dugout canoes". I can't remember what they're called here, but this is how kids get to school. Sometimes maybe 15 of them pile into a canoe to get around. 

The river is wide. Still brown, but changes brown-ness as we get closer to the sea. Then, BACK-SIDE, the boat starts to jump into the air and slap back down into the water. Not little flip flops like the other day. My behind was slamming into the bench!!! 

Brown water was splashing into my face and hair. We were wet from top heading downwards... Someone handed us a tarp to cover ourselves, and off we roared into the wind. I remember going to an amusement park in Maryland (King’s Dominion) and riding one of their new rides at the time which had the t-shirt... “I survived........” and I thought to myself, I don’t know if we’ll survive this, but NOOOO amusement park has anything over this ride. The Tower of Terror at Disney, None of the rollercoasters at Canada’s Wonderland, NONE. NONE. This was IT!!!! I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry, so I laughed. (And prayed). Man alive.

The joke is I’m watching the boat pull farther and farther away from land and I’m thinking... aren’t we supposed to go closer, not farther??? But, I realize for some reason, they must need to go hither before coming in. But this did not make it any easier. Looking in at the beach though I was amazed. The sand looked a reddish colour – almost like it was tinged with bauxite. I just wanted to get to land! Finally we got as close in as we could, I rolled up my jeans, and waded in. The ENTIRE beach was covered in shells. Nothing but shells. This stuff couldn’t even break down fast enough to become sand. Shell Beach??? Okay, I get it now...

And yes, we carried in some plantains, grains, snacks, etc for the teachers who would have to hire a boat and brave the waters to get a little food. Since they often run low on supplies, we brought a few goodies. To the left is the school with the little kitchen behind it (a hot lunch is provided for the kids). On the right is the house where the teachers live.

Cricket pitch. Lunchtime games

SHELL Beach! :)

Apparently two turtles came to shore last night. A bit disappointing that I missed that, but, wha fi do? I listen as I’m told about the monkeys running wild, the poisonous snake found under one teacher’s mattress last week and the disappearing dogs (thanks to jaguars of course). The entire community has about 100 people, with approximately 30 children in school. Great beach, looks nice. Nothing to do but movies when one neighbour has gas. And I guess go watch turtles. There is no shop here, so if you want supplies you must take a boat to the mainland. Our 75 engine took us 50 minutes in VERY rough waters. Some of these guys here have a 5 engine. Three hours or more to land? Capsizing? Is that life for me? Only to visit...

Kumaka

We walked from the guest house into town to get food.  This was to save us from the guest house prices, but I’m sure expensive is spelt the same way no matter where you are in Region 1. I was disappointed in the bbq pork, so decided I would have fried chicken the next day. But, I’m not going to talk much about the food – including the curry turtle and the deer, because I haven’t told you about the guest house yet.

Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica... tourist country. Where the Guest Houses are guest houses. But, this is Guyana, and the regions no less, so... standards are a little different.

I'm convinced this is a hilly region as everything I had to go to was up on some hill. Getting to the guest house was no less challenging...

Here is my room. With the mosquito net that doesn’t quite cover the bed.  The net that was holey enough that I woke with a bedmate my first morning. And it wasn't anything as small as a mosquito. Thankfully it wasn't a snake...

 The balcony doors which are just screen doors that pull shut.

The bathroom where if you sit on the toilet you will bang your head on the basin. (Sorry I didn't catch that in the pic, but I'm sure you get the idea).

And the shower where the shower floor is covered with the shower curtain because it’s so “long”. J

A guest house where I had to adopt spiders, beetles, moths, other unidentified bugs, houseflies and naturally, ANTS. I was afraid I would wake up one morning and the ants would be trying to lift me over the balcony wall... ANTS!!!! But, let me not get carried away with small details.

So, there is no electricity in many of the communities. Where I was living for the past few days, there was no electricity in the day. Thank goodness we did have water though. And at 5p.m. there were lights... Except for when there was a powercut at 5:15 one day – and then there was no light...                        There were four channels on the TV. One Peruvian – in Spanish, one which switched between news and a frozen pic, and a “movie” channel. But, I’m trying not to snicker. It was better than nothing at 8p.m. after my colleague had gone to bed. And because there was nought else to do... I watched...

On days when we were caught between returning from the school trips and 8p.m. – we played dominoes (just the two of us), because I’d finished my book the first day. Why hadn’t I brought more than one book? Oonu did want the plane bend under the weight??? TWENTY pounds is all I was allowed. And, you have to remember, I had to carry extra clothes – in case I got wet on the boat... More on that tomorrow.

Region 1

How excited could I be to be going to Region 1??? THIS excited. I know you probably can’t imagine how much, but let’s just say... I’m grinning from ear to ear.

So, my colleague and I got to the airport and I was duly weighed, then my bags were weighed, tickets handed in, and we took off for Mabaruma. 

Hotoquai Primary

Notice all the bags just stashed in front? WTH??

We headed straight for the Education office and made arrangements for trips to visit the national volunteer teachers in their placement schools. The first trip was to Hotoquai. Now, maybe I should stop about my experience long enough to give you some facts about Guyana.

The 10 Administrative Regions

 Guyana is divided into 10 Administrative Regions. Not parishes, not provinces, not states. Regions.  I live in Georgetown in Region 4. Everywhere else is kinda “country”. So, we refer to them as “the regions” even though they all have names. I don’t know the names, so I will just continue to tell you about my trip to Region 1. Now you do remember what the name Guyana means? Yes, previous blogs are important, and although there is no exam there will be a pop quiz every now and then.

Heading out from the boathouse

So, because of this land of many rivers, quite often travel here involves a boat. So, part of the arrangements we were making was for a boat and driver to take us to the community. Now, I remember before I got here reading blogs of previous visitors, seeing a pic of someone on a river and thinking, “bwoy, shi brave sah! I would be scared to do that”. It seems however, either I was mistaken, or the trip in the 12-seater plane for one whole hour took away all fear. It was FUN!!!  Did I spell that correctly? F-U-N!!!

 I had a blast bumping up and down in the boat as we sped along. I was particularly happy I had not really had breakfast as I remember the days with Doctors Webbers  out in the Kingston Harbour, Discovery Bay and beyond. Also remember being sick on the Dive Boat in Port Antonio one day. But, as we zig-zagged and flip-flopped (that would be how I describe the bumping over the rough waters), I had a good time, and an hour later we were climbing up unto dry land. This again of particular note as it did not remain dry for long...

As we approached the first building and I started to slow down, I noted that my colleague was still "walking strong". And I gazed further up the hill to realize we were a looooong way off from the school. Oh well. I could dream, but it wasn’t gonna help, so I kept going.

It was an interesting day, but I'll let the pics say the rest...

Lunch arriving up the hill...

Volleyball game in session. Can you see the ball?

Heading out... Looking back up the hill