Going Borderline

After a relaxed and nice day with CouchSurfer Lice, her friends and family (thanks so much for everything!) I took the bus from Boa Vista to Georgetown on Monday afternoon 2pm. They lady from the ticket office in Boa Vista said it was a direct connection, I just had to change the bus in Bomfim, the last Brazilian village before the Guyanese border... so far it seemed all easy and the bus left Boa Vista on time.

In Bomfim we all had to leave the bus and go to the Federal Police station to `check-out` of Brazil. Nobody actually knew what to do then and a little guy with a kind of cowboy outfit and a row of gold teeth loaded our baggage on his pickup. He told us that he had a restaurant on the other side of the river, which is also the frontier, where we could change money, have lunch and wait for the other bus which would leave around 9pm. The guys had to walk but the ladies, 5 of us, where allowed to squeeze into his pick up. At the river we had to unload our baggage from the pick up, get into a small boat and cross the river. On the other side a rasta with a rusty and dusty car offered to take us to the restaurant for 5 Reals each. As nobody knew what to do we accepted. The restaurant turned out to be the central waiting area for everybody going to Georgetown as nothing else was opened at that time. We got hot and sweet coffee, refreshed and then somebody with a van took us to the Guyanese police station to do the check in. By then, a little group had formed: a golddigger from Mato Grosso who made fun of the `alema` all the time, a girl with big boobs (which she showed to me in the bathroom, explaining that she was still breast feeding) and a woman wearing a `Jesus Christ` shirt and carrying a `Mademoiselle - visit our sex shop` shopping bag. As none of us was really sure what to do and where to go we just followed the crowd. The immigration officer seemed to be really strict and was causing a problem because I didn`t have an address to stay in Georgetown. I then just copied one from my guidebook and he was happy. After dinner another van took us to the bus station - airport - main square... you name it. It is a place with a shack (the waiting room for air or bus passengers) and a place selling food and drinks. Here we had to wait another 3-4 hours.. thank God from somewhere there was some reggae music playing and the golddigger entertained us with stories from his complicated love live. At around 9:30pm the check-in process started... everybody had to present his passport and got weighed - the bags and the passengers. (I really gained some weight - but thats a different story!). At 10:30pm we finally took off in an old bus without air condition and without toilet - a huge difference to the comfortable long distance busses in Brazil! And, after a couple of minutes I had to realize that not only in Lethem but all the way to Georgetown the roads would be not paved and full of pot holes! A bumpy night awaited us... Funny enough, our little group got seats next to each other and the golddigger not only provided us with funny stories but also with fried bananas, sweets and mangoes. A couple of times the bus stopped at night but I was too tired to got out. At 6:00 in the morning we got to a river which we had to cross by ferry. Everybody profited from this opportunity to brush the teeth and refresh a bit in the river. There was quite a traffic going on and it took some time untill all vehicles where on the ferry and we could cross over. A couple of miles further on we stopped to have breakfast at a shack in the middle of the jungle. There was even a monkey jumping around trying to steal bread. When later the Jesus Christ Sex Shop Lady got a bit sick the golddigger started joking that the milk in her coffee was monkey milk or that the monkey had.. well, made his business in the coffee ;-) By that time he had also found out about my boyfriend in Rio and started to call me `Carioca Alema`. And Carioca Alema had eaten monkey tapioca, of course... even though we where on the road for more than 12 hrs now I didn`t get borning. The road was stil a dirth track full of pot wholes through the jungle and one time we had to get pulled out of the sand by a truck. Thank God there was one near - otherwise we might still be there!
Around 3pm we finally arrived into Georgetown and I was very lucky, the address I had picked for my immigration form by chance - Rimas Guesthouse - was just one corner from the bus stop and had free rooms :-) So here I am now, exploring cute little Georgetown and aranging some trips for the coming days!
Even though the trip by bus was really long and exhausting and left me and my baggage full of red dust- I would do it again any time. The night sky over Guyana (I have never seen so many stars before), the road through the jungle (saw huge blue butteflies) and the funny company made the trip unforgettable!