Hell, along with karaoke singing realtors, the smell of roofing tar and freshly gutted chickens and the ubiquitous inferno like conditions would certainly also have kabuora flies there to further plague you for your sins. Having just returned from the Rupununi Savannah (home to thousands of these nasties) and despite the repeated plastering of my skin with smelly crab oil and Australian 50% deet spray (Thanks Kane!) and much time spent in and under mosquito nets I still managed to get bit exactly 24 times. This may not seem like a lot, but each bite is a swollen itchy painful rock hard lump the size of a pea and after six days they show no sign of abating any of these symptoms. I even got stung by a wasp and it was better than the fly bites. They also apparently often leave scars as they heal....Nice!!
Otherwise my time in the Hinterlands was fabulous....In Region nine where at least 20 VSO’s and Peace Core converged for the long weekend, we hiked the 1000 steps trail on Easter Sunday, swam in waterfall fed pools, visited Moco Moco Nature Park, trekked to Brazil on foot, ate meat on a stick, went to a old fashioned wild west rodeo, drove around in the back of a pickup truck standing up holding the roll bar, saw the Miss Rodeo and Mr Rodeo pageant and break dance competition outdoors under the most amazing star filled sky I have perhaps ever seen and spent much time walking, talking, eating and shopping. Six of us all bunked with our host Sonja who was such a good sport to have her lovely house completely invaded by such chaos. Sonja has perhaps the best hammock set up I have ever encountered, two aside under a lazy wooden awning with a perfect breeze always blowing, and with a view of iguana filled trees. In five days I managed to read 3 whole books while lounging for hours in a hammock, plus of course I also got to sleep there. I have mastered the art of getting in, out and comfortable in a large South American hammock and there is nothing like the gentle rocking to lull you to sleep, in fact I am now buying one to install wherever I may end up living in the future I am so captivated by their comfort. Life in the Rupununi is slow paced with a little attitude thrown in, a frontier style town if you will, where the dust is red, the insects and sunsets are spectacular, ant hills dot the landscape like modern sculpture, and the epic vistas are haunting and defy postcards, the air smells fresh and is tinged with the foreign languages of Amerindian and Portuguese, the water is clean, the food is meat, the main sport is drinking and the bus rides to get here are gruelling epic journeys of 15 – 34hrs depending...and maybe if I am lucky in life I will be back someday!
In my other trip to Mabarumba in the Region one hinterlands I went one day before my work due to flight schedules and was overwhelmed by the natural beauty of the jungle valleys. This is Jonestown country and you can sort of see why a crazy cult leader might choose this lush area to set up a remote intentional community. By the way the Guyanese have let Jonestown simply return to the jungle and I really respect that they have chosen to not make it a tourist attraction at all, although some crazy tourists do still apparently ask to get taken there, apparently to mostly huge disappointment. I was instead taken by motor bike to see two outlying Amerindian villages and it was surreal, the ride through beautiful long lost junglescapes that faded into a purple haze that at first I thought there were oceans, but were in fact more pristine jungle and upon arrival at the first village it was just like stepping back in time to an era of hunter gathers. The two VSO’s in Region one have done amazing work with these very remote and poor villages. It was quite impressive to see what they have accomplished: a water system, a wash house, a kitchen and community house, a plant nursery, a poultry and kitchen garden per family and an aqua culture facility have all been set up in their tenure. Region one as promised had tarantulas and vampire bats. The VSO’s there live with the bats and spiders inside their HOUSE!! I was encouraged to take pictures of the tarantulas as they looked for the big one for my photgrapic pleasure...hah! I was glad to be staying in my power optional guest house which was great other than they forgot my meals for two days straight which meant I basically lived on the few packs of crackers and instant coffee I had the foresight to bring with me! While working at the hospital I was informed that the week before someone died from a snake bite there, I asked where she was bitten and was told walking on the road in broad daylight right out front of the guesthouse where I was staying. Yikes and more yikes, I hadn’t really been nervous about snakes until then, so this did nothing to instil confidence in me for my long walk back to the guest house. I am getting in touch with the less aesthetic creatures in life it seems as I have encountered bats, rats, toads, lizards, frogs, cockroaches, spiders and been bitten by all kind of insects in the past week. In Guyana you are up close and personal with all fauna!
On my last night in the wilds of Region nine I slept inside as all of the other guests had gone, and was warned I might hear the rats in the night. I was a bit worried about what I might do upon such an encounter and warned Sonja that if I saw one I would probably scream and wake her up. She nicely said that was fine. Sure enough I woke up in the night and went to get a drink of water and right there on the kitchen counter was a fat scurrying rat, maybe I was far enough away, or have just been desensitized enough by my exposure to so many vile creatures on the planet this past few weeks and months that instead of screaming my default reaction was to forget the drink of water and to quickly bolt outside to sleep in the safety of the hammock instead! My first ever non screaming vermin encounter folks! Progress surely.
Proudly I have now been to all 10 Regions of Guyana and survived, with a mere 24 kaboura fly bites as souvenirs!
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