So 20 hours after setting off from Georgetown we had arrived in Lethem for Rodeo weekend. Lethem is probably my favorite part of Guyana. It is so beautiful and open, all wide savannas and dark green mountains. The earth is not sandy like it is here on the coast but a rich terra cotta colored clay. We stayed on the secondary school compound with another PC volunteer named Antoine, who is in the group before mine. We all strung up our hammocks and got ready to go out. Only 4 of the 7 of us wanted to go out to the bar where the Rodeo pageant/talent show was being held, seeing as though we just got off a 20 hour bus ride. I'm not sure where I found the energy after getting literally no sleep but for some reason a cold beer and a cowboy talent show sounded like the perfect plan :)
June, Chelsea, Meghan and myself, as well as Antoine and Dan, another volunteer, all piled into cars in the pouring rain and headed for the Takutu hotel and bar where the pageant was supposed to be held. Of course, when we got there we discovered it had been canceled because of the rain but we managed to console ourselves with a few beers and some cowboy-people watching. Fun Rodeo fact #1: All the Guyanese cowboys wear the same thing: jeans, boots, a hat, and a navy blue plaid shit. All the Brazilian cowboy where the same thing too: boots, hat, jeans, and a black shirt. We stayed until around 11:30, at which point we were pretty much asleep on our feet. I wish I could say that I finally got a well deserved good nights sleep but, since my hammock was by the window which didn't shut all the way and it was still pouring, I slept fitfully in my poncho wrapped in a towel.
The next day we woke up early and went over to Brazil for the morning. The border town of Bonfim is small and quaint and infinitely more developed than most of Guyana, even though its still relatively poor. We drove around for a quick tour, walked around for a little, and bought some delicious Brazilian beer. After Brazil, we headed over to Rodeo for the afternoon. Rodeo was awesome. There were stands with crafts and games, food stalls selling grilled wild meat and cassava and plenty Brazilian beer and a Brazilian rum drink called a caiparinia. And, of course, they were playing American country music. We walked around, did some shopping, and got some meat and cassava and a caiparinia for lunch. The rodeo events were in the afternoon: bucking bronco riding and bull riding. Both of these were hilarious and fun and we all sat in the stands, screaming and cheering for the riders while drinking a lot of caiparinias. I have some funny videos of a few of the riders, including one where the bull charged the fence we were standing behind and you can see my camera go all crazy as we all try to back away and another where the bull suddenly just stopped bucking and wanted to sit down. It was such a fun afternoon and we stayed until it got dark. Later that night we came back to the Rodeo grounds where there was now a huge dance party going on. We danced and drank Brazilian beer until almost 2 in the morning.
On Sunday we were up early again for the trip out to Moco Moco falls, which is about 30 minutes from Lethem. The bus took us out to the falls where we got to hike and swim for a bit. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Moco Moco falls is in stages, not a straight drop. So theres a little bit of the falls, then a pool to swim in, then more falls, then another pool, and so on and so forth all the way down the mountain. It was so much fun to hike up the falls and swim in the various pools. We spent all afternoon there and then spent the evening at Antoine's relaxing and playing cards until the bus picked us up at 10pm for the trip back home.
The trip back to Georgetown was less eventful than the trip to Lethem, it only took us 17 hours (I got a window seat this time around, which was very exciting) and we only got stuck a few times, but never as bad as when we were going. We got lost when we first started out, for about a hour and a half, but surprisingly that didn't make us lose anytime. We got back to Georgetown at around 5pm and I was home by 8pm. I had ever been so happy to be back at my apartment.
Overall, it was an amazing and memorable weekend full of good times, good food and good friends. There wasn't one moment when I wasn't smiling or laughing or having fun. I would do the whole thing over again in a heartbeat. Below is a link to just some of the 400 pictures I took over the weekend. Videos will be posted soon. Enjoy!!
Sounds like an awesome time! Reminds me of my crazy 9 hr bus trip across TZ (although that was about half of the time of your trip). Good times! Us Perlman's have wondering car/traveling stories! Never a dull moment :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to seeing your videos!!
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Guyana? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Guyana in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez