Guyana

September 12, 2015

Departed Prickly Bay, Grenada after much catching up with old cruising buddies, such as the intrepid Gavroches.

Destination: Guyana, South America!

Crew: John, Lucy, Ruth, Adam, me and newest addition Luca a traveler from Italy. 

Sailing in company with Sasquatch!

4 nights later we arrive in Roed-en-Rut, Guyana.

The passage was fine, easy sailing really, well, it was more motor sailing upwind than just sailing. With exception to a very grumpy Adam and a scare when we thought we had run out of fuel, oh, and when the container ship was on a collision course with us and failed to respond to our VHF hails, the passage was uneventful. Though we did get to see this beautiful water spout as we waited to enter the Esquibo River in Guyana.

So, it is now September 19^th and we are in Bartika having just spend a wonderful morning with Bhagwandas, from Delta 2 Tours, shooting the Moorison rapids and hiking to the Moorison falls, seeing the quarrying industry, first Dutch settlement, prison an lots of lovely jungle! It was such a fabulous morning.

Large insects abound

Waiting on the dock to head to town to clear in

Drinking the rainfall as we head up river to Barika

Luca and Adam taking us up the river. Luca is a lovely Italian we met in Grenada who was looking for more sailing experience and willing to travel with our zoo down and back to the Caribbean. He has certainly made life very easy for us.

The jail where the inmates are aloud to go out and grow their own food in the jungle and even sell the food they grow to prison guards or other inmates and staff. They seemed to have a lot of freedom at this jail. 

Adam thinking about how fast we are going.

The first Dutch fort in Guyana

Here we go through the rapids!

John needed a good scrub:)

Coming back to the boat

Our martin friends

After our tour with Delta 2 Tours we headed up river with Sasquatch and two other boats who had arrived before us, Almost There and Dea Latis, to anchor off of the Resort Bagnara. A nice quiet place with lots of shade and a bar with occasional wifi. `We have been trying to organize a trip to the Kakatu Falls, but it is just too expensive for the 4 and a half of us. The itinerary sounds fine, take off from the hotel two hours to the see the falls, take us to a second falls and through in lunch and a little hike with a guide, but we are living on the boat, this is not our only holiday of the year so we had to miss it out. 

The ability to access other parts of Guyana has been very disappointing. We were able to take the bus to Georgetown, which was fun, but we could not access the interior of the country without being on a tour of some kind, which always ups the cost.


Purportedly the tallest wooden structure in the world. Still a pretty wooden church.


The inside was quite spectacular


Queen Victoria made her mark here


Their government house

So, enough relaxing on the river, it is time to head down river to Suriname, with a short stop at Fort Island.

Sunset as we head to Suriname