Well – I watched both semi-finals at the Windies Sports Bar in the Windies. And both times regretted telling people which team I supported, as both times my preferred team lost. Dumb. Made myself feel better after the 2nd game by commissioning a homeless guy to write a poem for me. Phil Collins continuously preaching to me to “Stop, think twice” finally had an effect, I guess. Don’t have my notebook with me, so can’t publish a copy of the poem just now.
26 AprilÂ
Yesterday – went to Kaieteur Falls, the tallest single-drop waterfall in the WORLD! Unfortunately, there had been a plane crash the previous night, and all the planes were involved in a air search. So, myself – who figured that hunting for their workmate & friend was probably a little more important than a tourist flight - and a group of americans (guess what their reaction was), left for our trip about 2.5 hours late. As such, it was a very abbreviated visit. Ten minutes from one vantage point – usually one spends two hours walking around – getting to see the falls from about 5 different spots. That would have been good – even from the one spot, this waterfall was awesome. Good waterfall. But – decided to take the abbreviated option, so we could still visit Orinduik Falls, where one can swim. And some people said were better than Kaieteur. Those people were crazy. For my ’swim’ – I wasn’t allowed past the area where the water was at most 2cm deep. The ’swim’ was actually just standing/sitting in one spot where you could get underneath part of the waterfall. Nice enough – and served as a long-awaited shower/massage – but…
Turns out that the crashed plane had been discovered while we were there, 4 fatalities, and we flew directly over the crash site on the way back to Georgetown. Possibly explains the pilot’s not so forgiving attitude on the tenth time he had to explain to the americans that if we didn’t leave Orinduik by 4pm, we couldn’t – as the plane wasn’t certified for night flying over bush. Trying to hurry along stupid young seppos, when you’ve just found out that one of your co-workers/friends is dead, and you’re about to fly over the site.
Anyway…. that night I went along to the Sidewalk Cafe & Jazz Club – and enjoyed live jazz while drinking El Dorado 15 year old, apparently the best rum in the WORLD! While there, some other folk I’d met at the Windies over the last couple of days turned up. Turned into rather a late night. And when I left, I went to a pool bar, and had drunken conversation (ie: listening and nodding) with local. Got to the guesthouse about 2am. Landlady scolded me this morning for walking home late by myself. Fair enough, I guess – the drunk guy at pool bar was telling me his friend had been murdered nearby last week.
But – either Guyanese really are extremely friendly, or the government’s campaign to convince people to treat foreigners well for the World Cup has worked extremely well. Every block I walk, one or two strangers ask me if “everything good mon?” or similar. At bars, locals insist, really insist, on buying me beer, even while talking about how poor a country Guyana is.