Georgetown, Guyana

There was the same white noise machine in the room that we have at home, so we had a good sleep even though we were facing the rather noisy Rupert Craig Highway.

We had breakfast (they had excellent pancakes!) and then organized our taxi rides for the rest of our stay. For today, we booked a taxi and driver/guide for a couple hours to tour around Georgetown.

First stop was along the seawall. It’s recently been restored, with mangroves planted to protect from erosion. Our driver said the seawall gets pretty busy on the weekend, with families and friends out for a stroll.

Next we drove to St George’s Cathedral, which at 43.5m is one of the tallest wooden churches in the world. ^{[citation needed]} Walked around the perimeter and took our pics. Unfortunately it wasn’t open, as the interior is supposedly just as stunning, with the sun streaming through the stained glass windows. My friend Ram (who’s from Guyana) said he’s never see it open.

Drove by city hall, another example Gothic Revival architecture. There’s some really beautiful buildings in the centre of Georgetown. Parked outside Stabroek market, took a pic of the famous clock tower, and then wandered around the bustling market for a bit.

Our last stop was Bourda Market, a fruit and vegetable market. Took a million pics - the markets are really photogenic. I think it’s cause the vendors take a lot of care to arrange their fruits and vegetables in colourful baskets.

Ram had suggested we try guinep, which is a bit like a lychee. It wasn’t in season, so instead had a coconut. Our driver walked us over to a popular coconut vendor. He asked if we wanted it with jelly. We weren’t sure what that meant, but gave it a go. The vendor used his machete to slice off the top of the coconut and we sipped the coconut water. Then he split the shell into thirds, carved out a small triangle piece, which we used to scoop out the coconut flesh, aka jelly. We hadn’t seen that step in other parts of the world! It might depend on the type of coconut and how scoopable the flesh is, I guess. It was really refreshing, for 300 GYD each (about 1.50 CAD).

We walked back to the car, and drove back to the hotel. Along the way we stopped at a roadside stall to pick up some doubles for lunch. Grabbed a coke at the bar, and then ate in our room. It hit the spot.

We then got a WhatsApp from the agency about our Kaituer excursion - the Kaiteur airpspace was being closed to all flights on Saturday and so all the excursions were cancelled :( We figured it was for some VIP - later we read in the paper that France had just opened their embassy, and it was probably closed for the French delegation to visit. Our agency people suspected the same. Oh well, at least we were able to get a good tour of downtown Georgetown today.

Looked at other things to do on Saturday, but we were feeling a bit lazy, plus the Jays had their first ALDS game scheduled.

Just relaxed the rest of the afternoon. Went down to the bar and had a virgin mojito which was excellent. (We had read good things about the bar staff here). Later we had dinner - it was pretty busy in the restaurant, our hotel is a local hotspot.