Guyana – Georgetown to Mahdia and Amatuk Falls
We woke at 4:30 showered, packed and rushed off for the bus. It was still dark and Ali told us to take the road a block up instead of the direct path because it would be safer: it went past the police station. He said don’t talk to anyone, just ignore them. Just as we got to the bus stop a minibus pulled up. The driver was carrying a lot of parcels before he could load us up. So, we waited awhile along the sidewalk on a makeshift bench and then he loaded our bags. Then another bus and another and another bus showed up. Pretty soon there were 7 bus 72s. After a few drivers asked if we wanted to go with them, we found out that our bus was not leaving until 8 and we could hop into another one that was leaving now, at 6:30. We did jump busses and left. Our new bus had the bus drivers cohort, Nathan, me, and a bunch of cargo. About 5 min south of Georgetown we pulled to the side of the road where the driver and the other passenger jumped out. They returned with about 200 pounds of frozen chicken wrapped in black plastic. The chicken was loaded in the seat next to Nathan and off we went, through the markets and small settlements, south to Linden.
The paved road to Linden, the next and second largest town/city in Guyana, was approximately half the distance to the airport on severely warped roads. The bus driver was constantly swerving and slowing down to avoid large dips and potholes. After about two hours on the road we made it to Linden, population ~40,000. Once at Linden the driver stopped at a gas station and topped off the gas tank. Nathan made a freind and this was the last time in the next six hours that we would see a paved road.
Through mud bogs over a dozen rickety wooden bridges over streams, two police passport checkpoints, a one-way bridge over the Demera river and a ferry over the Esquibbo, and 6 hours later we reached Mahdia. The roads to Mahdia were not even on Google maps as I attempted to track our progress.
From Mahdia, the driver offered to drive us to Pamela Landing…for a fee but saving us from finding a taxi. When he dropped us off at the landing, he pointed down the road and said just walk down there. We did and found a boathouse with a guy named Johnny. Johnny said he could arrange a boat to Amatuk Falls for 20,000 GYD but it may be a little while before the boatman arrived. So we waited. After a bit, we decided to walk down to the water. This is not an active place, somewhat desolate and deserted. It was then that Godfrey George motored in on “the fasted boat on the Potaro” according to Godfrey. He offered to take us to the falls for 10,000 GYD. We grabbed our bags and off we went.
About 30 minutes later we were at the falls where we met Arol Jeffrey…Jeff. We worked a deal through Godfrey to have Jeff take us to Tukiet for 35,000 GYD. Jeff was an extremely friendly guy who had left Georgetown 8 years ago to live in this jungle camp by the Potato River. After a 10 minute hike up past the falls, we were at Jeff’s camp where we met his 6-month-old pet jungle cat. His sister in Georgetown had given Jeff the cat, Socks. This cat was even friendlier than Jeff. We played with him, scratched belly. Jeff threw him in the water where he swam back to hang out with us again.
Jeffs’s camp was surprisingly full of amenities. He had a little hut with a propane stove. He had an outhouse. There was a shower and sink (see behind Nathan in the picture below). He also had an echo chamber (plastic bottle on a stick) for his cell phone when he couldn’t hear over the rushing water from the river/falls. He also had a guest house/covered clothes drying space.
That night we slept in our hammocks under a tarp roof with no walls. It was pitch black…especially when looking through our bug netting. Overnight the rain crashed against the roof. I worried about our equipment that was strewn about under the roof, but it was too dark and too late to do anything.
