Columbia, Guyana, and Suriname

We are back-- again. This time from Northern South America.

As we planned, we spent midnight Christmas eve in a new and interesting place. We were at 35000 ft above the Eastern Venezuela jungle. We had a flight leaving Bogota at 11:00 PM arriving in Georgetown Guyana at 3:00 AM. We have noticed at lot of what you might call "odd hour" flights outside the US. It makes sense, the Western world (West Europe, US, etc.) connects with these flights. It makes sense to schedule flights as "connecting".

On our initial flight from Atlanta to Miami one of the passengers seemed to have been arrested when we landed. We don't know the details, but it was noteworthy and a minor inconvenience. Subsequent segments took us to Bogota, Georgetown, and Paramaribo. We decided to go back to Georgetown from Paramaribo overland. looking at the maps and globes over the years it always seemed like an interesting place to experience. There is exactly one road East-West across these two countries. The trip took about 12 hours in 5 different mini buses and a ferry across the Courantyne River which serves at the country border as well. Overland border crossings are always where the stories are and often long uncomfortable waits and processes. The immigration process only took about an hour. The ferry ride was about another hour. One of the minibuses broke down, but hardly delayed us. We were treated as VIPs and one of the driver's friends picked us up. Maybe 45 minutes after we got in the new fresh minibus, I saw our broke-down bus pass us. They drive quite aggressively. It can be pretty alarming at times when they are passing especially in the dark. We saw several wrecked vehicles that had experienced head-on crashes. My thought was usually-- "that was fatal".

We were almost robbed in Bogota. We hired a city guide for our 9 hour layover. Between the verbal/nonverbal messaging from our guide and myself the robber decided to move on where I saw him rob some people about 300 feet up the street. Bogota smelled like the tropics and Marijuana. I noticed a number of people smoking weed. Our guide specifically told us not to take a picture of anything unless he said OK. Of course, I couldn't help myself and nearly got in trouble with the police since I took some pics before we secured permission (which our guide got for us). The military also made some rounds on foot as well in addition to the decent amount of police presence. But it was easy to tell there weren't enough. It was Christmas eve and our guide seemed to have a past of hooliganism, and was very on guard.

Guyana was (of course) interesting. About 600,000 total inhabitants in the whole country. Primarily black folks, but very significant ethnic presence of Indians and mixed race. We felt relatively safe walking after dark in Georgetown on unlit streets and in the main square. English is the official language and lingua franca. Although, there was a mix of Jamaican, Spanish and Suriname in the vibe. We were yelled at in Spanish at the airport for putting our shoes on an outside bench. Weird. We took a minibus to the Essequibo river. Then a wood speed boat across. That was a bit troubling. The speed and the waves literally rattled the brain inside the skull and the thoughts of whether the boat would crash into something or just break apart made it nerve-racking. We took the slow ferry back across from Essequibo. That was relaxing. There was maybe 20 people for the crossing. The boat could easily hold hundreds. It was a pleasant 2 or 3 hour cruise. Venezuela has claimed all the land west of the Essequibo. We had to see that for ourselves. It is clear the Guyanese will hold the Essequibo lands. Its all about teh new found oil reserves off the coast. 

The Paramaribo boat ride was fun. I hailed a boat and we had a nice 30 minute tour getting us dropped off at the main market. The old rusty boat wreck in the middle had a story. It was a German boat sunk in WW2. The Netherlands fell to the Nazis and the Nazis figured that would be entitled to the Dutch colony of Suriname. They were wrong. The Germans never occupied Suriname. The locals defeated them. The language is Dutch in Suriname, but just as in the Netherlands you are hard pressed to find someone that doesn't speak English as well. Drinking seemed to be an important past time.