Georgetown, Guyana

My main reason for going all the way to Guyana were the Kaieteur falls, a huge waterfall in central Guyana on the Potaro river, falling 226m horizontally over a sandstone cliff and than cascading some 30m more down. I either wanted to hike there overland or take a day trip in one of those tiny aircrafts.
So my first places to go where the various tour agencies, some of which I had contacted earlier by mail. Unfortunately none of them offered the overland trip and all of them asked at least 220USD for the day trip by air... I decided to push my luck a bit and try to get the price down. The next trip would be on Thursday and most agencies closed at 4-5pm, so I decided to wait some more and see what would happen...
The weather was really lovely, sunny and hot, and I took my guidebook and started to explore the town. Georgetown seems kind of a colonial museum gone favela on first look. Most buildings are 1-2 storeys only, made of wood and painted in white or light blue, light green... but unfortunately most are in a really bad state and the once tidy gardens laid out by the British are full of litter.
One of the most stunning buildings in Georgetown is the St George`s Angican Cathedral, reportedly the biggest wooden building in the world. Because of the heat I was dressed in shorts and tank top and wasn`t sure if I was allowed to enter when a sweet Guyanese lady waved me to come in. She told me it was fine and even confessed that she was eating her breakfast there in secret because it was nice and cool in there. Somehow we started talking and A let to B... we started out with Obama`s victory (she was the first person I met who was not happy about it, even though she was black, because - as she said, all black men are bullies ;-)), then she told me about her sons, her life, life in Guyana, where to get cheap food in Georgetown... And when I told her I wanted to visit the Catholic Church and the Botanical Garden she offered to take me there. I was really lucky to meet her as she knew everything about the country, historically, politically - everything! And as there are nearly no white people on the street, let alone girls, I was lucky to have her as a kind of protector, it stopped the hassle for a bit. She also took me to the local market to meet some friends of her. She used to work in the Ministry for Foreign affairs when she was younger and seemed to be really well educated. Now she is suffering from some kind of cancer, she looks as if she is pregnant and suffers from severe pains. But she never ever complained about it, neither asked me for money! She even offered me the cellphone her son had given her for emergencies when I told her I wanted to contact a friend. When I suggested to go for lunch she said she was sorry but she couldn`t go as she had no money so I invited her for lunch at `Church`s`, a kind of local KFC that she really seemed to like. She told me she went there every sunday night as a special treat whenever she could afford it.
By 3pm I wanted to meet fellow Couchsurfer and PeaceCorps Volunteer Rhiannon and decided to give the Agencies another chance to go down with their price - but untill now, negative. I started to worry a bit but sticked to the plan to try my luck some more...
At one of the Agencies I met a group of Bavarians on their way to the Kaieteur falls. They had come to Guyana on a luxury yacht and where somewhat shocked to see me there and asked me `how on earth did you get here`? I told them about the bus and they where even more shocked. One of the man said, `but the city is so dangerous at night`. Well, not only at night. It is dangerous at all times because our funny friends from the island have taught the Guyanese people to drive on the wrong side! I really had to take care not to get hit over. For the rest you will hear a lot of funny comments on your legs, behind, whatever (when you are a girl, at least) but also meet many nice people. As there are nearly no tourists around people are just curious and want to know where you`re coming from, what you`re doing there - and what do you think about Obama ;-)
At 5pm I got back to the hostel pretty sad... thinking I had to give up on my plan to see the great falls of Guyana. But then Mrs Nellie from the Guesthouse told me that someone from Wonderland Tours had called for me and was willing to negotiate - finally. We called them back... and guess what, she had one place left in the aircraft and was willing to take me on on a price that would cover the costs. The original price being USD 220 she offered USD 200... and I got her down to USD 160!!! :-)