More on Georgetown, Guyana

I have just posted the photos, now here are the words to go with them.  I am still mastering getting them all in one post! I think by next time I will have got it right!

The wooden buildings of Georgetown are quite magnificent.  Some are well kept up or restored but others are pretty dilapidated.  But then we have been in places that are beautiful inside but are purposefully kept looking run down on the outside to discourage thieves.

A hobby here is betting on your songbird.  Wild birds of certain species are kept in cages.  The owners meet and put their cages near each other and bet on which bird will chirp a predecided number of times first.  We often see men walking around with bird cages but have yet to get close to the chirping match!  As far as I know this is a Guyana original.

I couldn’t resist a photo of the plastic palms which are floodlit at night!  I am sure anyone from Georgetown can tell you where they are, 3v of them outside a very popular Chinese restaurant.  They are quite a landmark!

Georgetown

As if we needed plastic palms!

Lots of horses and carts about

Townhall

Biggest wooden structure, St Georges Church

Men with their competitive birds in cages

Canal, students by our place

Two houses from home!

View from the VSO offices towards the sea

More Berbice

Nice place to rideShade on a hot day

A trip to Berbice

By the shore

Fishing boats by the river

Curry and roti lessons

The curry and roti gang!Grating cocoanut for the curry

Waterlilies in the Georgetown canals

 

Waterlilies up close

 

On to Guyana

Neighbours laundry from inside our grill

Note the rain water tank, washing and dish

Back verandah with hammock, chairs and washing!

We are now in Guyana spending the next 3 months talking to organizations which work with youth.  The weather is very hot and very humid.  In fact I cannot imagine being hotter!  I guess we will have to get used to sweating all the time!  We live in a middle class neighbourhood in a back house, that is the second house on a lot, one row back from the street.  The security is  good and the neighbours are  friendly and welcoming.  Last weekend,  we did a trip with a group of people we met through a friend of my sister to the southern border of the country  and that gave us a chance to see the undeveloped coastline in that area.  Like Namibia the population is small, less than a million and the diaspora is much larger than the population of the country .

Beach 63, With Suriname in the background

Beach 63 with Surinam in the background