You see that wheelchair meant to transport people with ambulatory difficulties sitting in the middle of the corridor? Actually it is not sitting there. It is moving. You can see one more behind it – following it.

It is an autonomous, robotic wheelchair! It was amazing to watch it negotiate the traffic. I guess, after autonomous vacuum cleaner, cars, food delivery carts, I should have guessed this was coming!

This is in Miami International airport.

One of the best play on words – and ad placement – I have ever seen was in JFK airport many years back while going thru customs and immigration. As you come out after wrapping up your formalities and start walking down the long corridor to exit – there was an Amex ad that said “If you had a green card, you would not need a visa!!” To get this, you have to remember that in the old days, Amex cards used to have an iconic green color.

Coming out of the flight from Atlanta today, as I started walking down the corridors of Miami airport, I looked up a saw the Amex Centurion lounge. And right there was this lovely play on words for folks who are tired of their delayed flights…

Amex: You are a Member when you seize the delay !

Almost looks like a Boeing 747 went thru an Airbus Beluga. You can see the windows in the front and then above it the cockpit. So, has to be at least three stories high and consequently, a humongous cargo plane.

Taking full advantage of Sharmila being in India and the long weekend, I am venturing out to check out another small country. Guyana.

Why Guyana, you ask? I don’t know. Two years back when I flew to India to surprise Sharmila, my cover for that travel was a trumped up story that I was visiting Suriname. I loved the name of their capital – sounds like a Bengali word – Paramaribo.

Guyana is an even smaller country right next to it. Got fairly good tickets. (In Bengali, দামটাও দেখে নিলাম “গায়ে না” লাগে !). So, here I am.

Found out that 40% of Guyanese are of Indian origin (like Fiji) and one in three are Hindus. Apparently it is sparsely populated (only more than 4 other countries are more sparse) but GDP per capita is pretty high. In the Americas, only USA, Canada and the Bahamas beat it. However, there is tremendous inequality of income. Nearly half the people are below the poverty line.

Time to explore now!!

Lots of construction going on. Apparently China is investing a lot in Guyana. That muddy river you see on the side – that is Demerara river bringing in a boat load of silt from the Amazon rainforest.

The force of Demerara river is so high that it dumps all the silt it brings as far as 3 miles into the sea. In fact, if you see the Guyana coast in Google satellite picture, you will see how the muddy waters extend for miles followed by some turquoise water (the contrast is jarring) followed by the deep blue Atlantic ocean.

Right in the middle of the hotel lobby is this show case with multiple bats carrying signatures of cricketers from Guyana.

Leaving a lot of yucky mud around. One thing about the beaches here – nobody gets into the water, for obvious reasons…

There are streets named after him too!

Reminded me a lot about India with some exceptions… barely anybody walks on the streets, not many motorcycle or scooters and traffic was fairly orderly without any traffic policeman around.

Guyana has its biggest festival – Mashramani – exactly a week from now. I am going to miss it. But as a run up to that, everyday seems to be a festival day. Every Friday till “Mash Day”, this half mile long strip on Main Street becomes a carnival of loud, live music, beer and dancing. I went there before it became too crowded.

There was total festivities everywhere. Today is Valentine’s Day. So, all the women and girls were in red. And these Guyanese folks know where the Volume Up button in their loud speakers is. I was almost getting blown away by the bass notes. The local beer company Banks sponsors the event and beer is flowing everywhere.

Should see the 70 something and 80 something grandmothers dance. Not a care in life.

As it should be.

You cannot get into the water. But there are lots of people on the beach. A long boardwalk has been built after constructing a seawall with rocks for people to enjoy. It is a lovely walk with the constant breeze. There is this obligatory photo spot that Nelson (my driver and guide) insisted I take a picture with.

The heart is colored like the flag of Guyana. A very interesting fact about the flag – It is one of the flags with lot of colors – five to be precise. Black, White, Red, Green and Yellow/Gold. Surprisingly, for a country with so many rivers and a long coastline, there is no blue color to represent water.

Or that is what I thought. Then, I learnt that the white color actually stands for water!! I have never come across that. White for water. Given the amount of silt in the waters here, admittedly, white is a closer representation than blue!!

This is the one thing that makes even the heat fairly bearable.

Well, not straight up but in a mojito. Any guess why I have two mojitos in my hand?

So, I got myself some Guyanese coffee. It was actually, quite a chore to get it. While Guyana does produce some coffee deep in the Amazon Rainforest, most of it is actually imported. With some help from the barista in the hotel and my friend Nelson, we were able to get some locally grown and packaged coffee beans. That will be my 23rd country from where I have gotten coffee…

“Sir, are you a Bengali?”

I looked up and saw this young gentleman standing in front of me. I was enjoying a nice glass of red wine sitting on the terrace of the Executive club in the Marriott enjoying the strong breeze outside. Had just finished chatting with Sharmila when it started raining and I had to move in. I caught up on a few more phone calls and was catching up on messages for the day, when this gentleman asked me if I was a Bengali.

I kept looking at him wondering now he might have guessed it.

“How did you guess?”

“I thought I heard you speak in Bengali”

I tried remembering the calls.

“Indeed, now I remember. I was talking to my best friend in Australia – Avijit – in Bengali”.

And that is how our friendship started. Mahmudul is from Bangladesh (Dhaka to be precise) and moved to Canada for studies and work. But has ever since moved to Guayana and wants to live here and work here! The temperatures, the cricket, the soccer… everything suits his lifestyle.

We talked for quite some time till it was time for him to get back to his work. Hope to run into this enterprising young gentleman again!

Wherever I have gone, people have been friendly in general. At the risk of over generalization, my life experience has been that
(i) in poorer countries, people are much more comfortable approaching each other for small talk; in richer countries, people tend to keep to themselves
(ii) in warmer countries – think tropical – people are more likely to approach strangers and talk; in colder countries, they again tend to keep to themselves or their groups

Guyana is absolutely the most friendly country I have so far been to. Complete strangers have walked up to me and talked at length. At first, it is a bit jarring (usually, I am the one doing it). Especially, on the roads, you do not know if there is any other motive. But soon you realize, this is the way they are.

The only difficulty is I have to ask them many times to repeat themselves. Their English and mine are very different. It is like we are one people divided by the same language!

By now, I have forgotten most of the names of so many new friends I have made.

But not Shalini !

Met her in the Marriott and we talked for about half an hour. Loved her life story and her perspectives in life. Made a few notes for myself on how to lead life. We are empty nesters now – but I totally related to her stories – the fun and the challenges of raising two almost-teenagers.

Next time, I hope to meet her kids too. I am sure I have a few puzzles to keep them busy!

Reputed to be one of the most powerful falls in the world – given its height and volume of water, Kaieteur Falls is way inside the Amazon rainforest a few miles away from the Brazilian border.

You have to stack up five Niagara Falls on top of the other to match the height!

That is our target today. Whether we can make it or not depends upon the weather there. The last ten days it has been raining up there and flights have had to turn back.

Let’s see what is in store for us today!

My boarding pass in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan was a simple blank card. It was a normal boarding card except nothing was written. I had to just show the blank card. In Dalanzadgad, Mongolia, at least they had written my name by hand.

Jumping on the 43rd airlines of my life, this is all I got as a boarding pass. A small chit of paper with the flight number and equipment number written on it!!

I do not do well with small, confined places. But sure as heck am hoping that we are not turned back. Having come all the way here, it would be a shame not to see the falls.

This is the smaller airport.

The grey building with the pool visible is the hotel I am staying in.

It is actually a floating bridge and opens up to let large ships pass. Built in 1978, it was designed to last ten years. It is still operational today although a new, modern one is being built next to it.

As far as the eyes go, it is just green and green. You can see how the mountains have vertical cliffs – looking like tables. But they are wrapped all around with green, verdant trees. In fact, the only break in the green canopy are the rivers that flow like silver ribbons thru the green carpet.

As seen from the single prop plane on our way to the Kaieteur Falls

We are still in the plane. This is how majestic it looked from the aerial view.

We sped past the edge of the waterfall to align to the runway. We are in luck. We can alight!!

I get to be one of them today!!

Our hike started by crossing the runway!! Have you ever crossed a runway by foot? Do you look left, right and then left again? I am reminded of Wile E. Coyote in the Disney cartoons. Nothing to see as far as the eyes can go and moment he steps his foot on to the road, gets run over by the Roadrunner!!

This is clean water flowing – and yet it has that brownish color. The locals said it is all about the colors from the sediments and leaves in the rainforest the water picks up. Some suggest iron. Has to be some minerals – but cannot be just iron – I have not seen any stains left anywhere.

There are website that suggest that the water in Guyana has a lot of tannins – the same stuff that makes your red wine red.

Cheers, I guess?

Yes, total waste of money. I even went to the supermarket yesterday to buy a bugspray.

I am in the Amazon rainforest. And yet, not a bug to be found!

Turns out these sundew plants are all over this area. They are carnivores. They trap all the insects and eat them up!!

Our hike has three stops. This is the first stop. The hike thru the trees suddenly opened up to an area which gave an impressive view of the Falls. Looks daunting from here.

The view from here was even more impressive. We could not take enough pictures.

This is the closest we can get to the Falls.

Near the waterfall, you can hear loud noises from time to time. If you carefully follow the noise to its source, you will be surprised! These are tiny golden rocket frogs. And they really have an amped up throat!!!

I wish I had my mirrorless camera with me. It was difficult to get too close to the frogs to take a picture.

Beautiful, bright orange birds – the Guyanese cock a rock bird – all over, but cannot take good shots of them from a distance thru all the branches and twigs. Miss my camera!

Kaieteur National Park Airport

… we flew off in clear weather – over the Amazonian rainforest one more time and landed in Ogle airport without any hiccups.

It was Sunday 5 am! I got up and could hear loud noise outside. Pulled the curtains back and it looked like a full festival was in swing on the beach. It was a 5K race.

The day I had checked into the hotel there was a stall in the lobby to collect your 5K race bibs. I went and asked them if I could register. They politely told me that the registration was closed. I asked if I could do race day registration. They told me no. I tried one last time explaining that I am a tourist and this was my first Guayana trip. No cigar!

It would have been really cool if I could have been down there warming up for the race. I have run races in two countries only outside the USA.

Having failed in that – I settled for the next best thing – bicycling!

He and his wife Carolyn love cycling. When they go out on vacation, they try to do bicycle tours. Given that my 5K race attempt did not pan out, tried the bicycling route myself. Found out a cycle tour company (the only one, in fact) and rented a bike. I was the only guest – so, the tour guide and I did a 10K ride all over the city by ourselves. Learnt a lot about Guyanese history and culture.

Apparently, he had led a slave rebellion successfully. And then infighting and renewed reinforcements from Dutch soldiers defeated the movement.

It is a structure of 3 arches built on 6 pillars at the bottom. The 3 arches stand for the three original counties that made up Guyana – Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice (now the country is divided into 10 regions) and the six pillars stand for the six races in the country – Amerindians, East Indians, Africans, Europeans, Portuguese and Chinese.

Horse drawn carriage merrily plodding along in front of a large Coca Cola hoarding

Cherry-Ann and I went to the Bourda market on our bikes. Reminded me much about the Indian markets. It was crowded enough that we could not ride. We got off the bike and started weaving thru the melee of people. In between, a car would inch along. Funnily enough, somebody would get down from the car and start shopping. And all this time the car would be sitting there with all traffic behind would be stuck. Nobody honked!! They knew what they were bargaining for when they drove into that street.

There were shops of all kinds there – mostly focusing on vegetables and fruits and such. We stopped at a spot to grab a drink and snacks. I had the sugarcane juice!

In Bengal, we used to call this “jhnyata”. In Guyana, it is referred to as a pointed broom.

In Bengal, it used to be pointed all right. Often used as a threatening device for corporal punishment, many a Bengali expletives would be bereft of its core essence and emotion without a liberal use of this word. Why its cousin “baa-ron” never earned the same status, I will never know.

Seems like this might have some other significance too in Guyana. As you will see in the picture, one of carvings of the first president of the country had the pointed broom also carved in. I have no idea why.

Found a street named after the famous cricketer Shivnaraine Chanderpaul. And on that street was the stadium where India played West Indies in the World T20 series a few months back!

You might have seen from one of my earlier posts, a picture of Georgetown from my hotel. In that, you would have seen the lighthouse close to the hotel that you see here.

On our bike ride, we eventually went past our Marriott hotel. I finally got my curiosity question out… “Cherry-Ann, why is there that lighthouse looking structure on my hotel?”

I am glad I asked! Found out the full story behind it.

When the hotel was built, the beacon was built there since the building was going to obstruct the view of the original lighthouse!

This is built by the Amerindians – the original people in this country

In many ways, I was glad I was the only guest today. Other than getting to pepper my guide with thousands of curiosity questions (including what is the pointed broom doing in the carving of the president – which she has promised to find out for me), it also gave me a chance to get to know her life history.

And it is a fascinating story. She is an avid bicyclist. Loved biking everywhere all her life. After losing her job and then getting hit by Covid years, she decided to merge her love and business together.

She was often discouraged by others about the viability of the business. But she stuck on. As she pointed out, the initial years were tough.

Interestingly, she has spent time in various cities in USA to study biking habits and how to better her product step by step.

Amazed by her hard work and entrepreneurial spirit.

And yes, like every Guyanese person I have met so far, she is very very friendly!

Highly recommend her if you like biking and find yourself in Georgetown.

In Bourda market, Cherry-Ann bought me this fruit – apparently called “Mamey” locally. I absolutely did not recognize the fruit.

“Do you drink alcohol?” she asked me

“Yes. Why?”

“Well, the story goes, you should not drink alcohol after having this fruit. You will die.”

“Well, I am going to try it today and let you know if there is any truth to that story!”

Back in the hotel, I tried the fruit. Sweet, but unlike any other fruit I had.

The wine after that tasted the same!! 🙂

Did not know these things existed. Apparently Guyana has rented it.

Get out in the water. Catch the sunset. And possibly see some birds.

There is our ride waiting for us!

The number of lifejackets the captain has loaded up in the boat for only four passengers is a bit unnerving…

There is only one family other than me on the boat. The family is originally from Trinidad. The young lady lives with her mother in Toronto. Her father returned to Trinidad upon retiring where he built a house and lives there.

This is a special trip for him. Fifty years back, he used to be in Georgetown for work. His daughter is fulfilling his wish to see Georgetown one more time to see how the country has changed!!

From his commentary, it would appear a whole lot has indeed changed!!

(also known as I am kicking myself for bringing my camera)

I learnt from the Trinidad family that indeed this is their national bird. The baby ones are gray. But just like the flamingoes, they gain their color over time from the food they eat.

I had seen it from land and then air. Now, from the water.

You see all those green trees? You will soon see how they will get overcome by all sorts of birds. The first huge round of egrets are already hovering over us.

Once again, I can’t believe I did not get my camera 🙁

There are the scarlet ibis of course on the top. And numerous (white) egrets – snowy egrets, great egrets and cattle egrets – all over.

Can you see the black birds? Most of them are cormorants.

We also saw a few herons – tricolored herons and little blue herons fly above us and park themselves in the trees.

Lesson learnt well… always pack your camera when you go to tropical countries.

True to my track record, the gentleman who picked me up from the airport became my guide for the rest of the trip. In the process, I learnt about the country as well as Nelson. That is how he goes, although the full name is Conrad Nelson.

Very interesting young gentleman. He purposely works thru the night so that he an spend time with his two young kids during the day. Having grown up without dad caring for him, he decided he is going to treat his kids differently. When he sleeps, I do not know.

He was great company throughout my trip in Guyana. If you folks ever land up in Guyana, let me know. I know a guy who can keep you safe as well as give you tips about the country.

Airport #178 – Cheddi Jaggan Airport in Georgetown

Ought to spend some time in Terminal D in Miami International Airport…

We are half way to the tarmac from the gate when the plane came to a stop and the pilot announced that there is a weight balance problem in the plane. This is not a small plane mind you – it is an Airbus 319.

I have no idea how you get into weight balance problem in these planes and how we realized that half way to the runway…