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Day
One
Mini-bus
to Mahdia - 5 hours (laterite road from Linden is bumpy and dusty), 4x4
to Pamela Landing - 1.5 hours (rough track with big potholes!), Speedboat
to Amatuk Falls - 2 hours (camp at Amatuk).
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| Friday,
March 29th, 2002 - 7:30 am we meet at the Hotel Tower where our guide (Frank)
from Rainforest Tours was ready and waiting for us to climb into the minibus.
I'd
been excited about this trip for weeks and the night before I'd been on
the phone with my little sister Stephanie talking until 2am. Despite the
fact that I was a bit tired, I was still excited enough to make rabbit
ears on Travis (the PCV who organized this trip). Yup, those are my fingers.
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| To
be honest, I was a little worried that morning because it'd been raining
all the night before our departure. In fact, that morning it was still pouring
rain and I wasn't looking forward to trekking through the forest in it.
Despite
the still pouring rain, Frank and our driver packed all our gear and us
into one minibus. For the first time since I've been in Guyana, we actually
leave exactly on time!
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The
first day is really rather anti-climatic since you're all excited to take
off on a great adventure but what you spend most of the day doing is sitting
on a minibus and waiting for ferries or boats. Honestly, my butt was flat
by the end of the first day. I had to shift from one buttock to the other
to ensure proper blood flow. |
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The
laterite road you see in the above picture is used by the big mining trucks.
Every time one passes, you have to close all the windows of your air-condition
less vehicle. Luckily, all passengers were "so fresh and so clean."
The minibus conversation ranged from favorite books to largest mountain
climbed. |
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Once
at Pamela landing, we spent our time getting to know each other. Many of
us are stationed in different towns and are from different groups (Guy-8
vs. Guy-9) and so weren't well acquainted with each other. This trip gave
us the opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed environment. |
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By
the time the boat came to take us to Amatuk Falls where we would set up
camp for the night, it had stopped raining and we enjoyed a bit of sunshine
on our scenic ride into the bush. |
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There
hasn't been a time that I haven't been overwhelmed by the scenery of Guyana.
FYI:
'tuk' is the Amerindian word for falls so the falls are actually named
Ama. This of course means that saying Amatuk Falls is redundant.
Towards
dusk we approach Amatuk Falls. It was approximately 5:30 pm and we'd been
traveling by minibus, ferry, and speedboat since 7:30 am. We were all
hungry, tired, and ready to set up camp.
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Our
camp was on a tiny inlet to the right of the falls. On the other side, there
was a mining camp and low and behold - a satellite dish! Technology is amazing.
There are no bathrooms or showers but by god, there MUST be TV!
Once
we set up and transferred our gear from the speedboats, we all changed
into bathing suits for our evening bath before dinner. Yup, we bathed
in the river.
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Unbeknownst
to me it was going to be the last time that I was nearly dry the whole
trip. That evening after dinner, it started to rain and pour. The picture
to the bottom right shows our makeshift sleeping accommodations.
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I
was unfortunately sleeping in the hammock to the far front where the rain
was coming in sideways. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep that
night.
However,
I did win the coolest hammock competition. I'd borrowed a New Kids on
the Block hammock from a VSO I know. I slept on Joey's face every night
of the trip
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