Day 2 - Shopping in G/town

Having had a luxurious sleep in the Sleep Hotel for the first night in Guyana the group of 9 was ready to start the looong day ahead! Everyone had to wake up and be ready by 9:30 to have the complimentry breakfast; a plantain roti, toast, pineapple jam, microwave sausage and tea breakfast may sound pretty disgusting to you Brits having your Tesco dinners, but this simple dish (which at first looked like hell) was a life saver!

By 11:00 the group split into 3; one food group (myself, Emz and Ester), the hardware group (John mark, Alex and Ed) and the admin group (Tosh and Steph). dressed in inappropriate gear we all stuck out like soar thumbs, against the chocolate background the 9 whities looked somewhat out of place, through the whole day it seemed as though we were the only tourists in Guyana! our pink ladden princess Em was bombarded but lustful jeers, "Barbie Girl have you got a boyfriend?", and our arian god Mark was taunted with the likes of "Hey Ruddy, get out here look at how white this man is!". But the two shopping groups had no problems getting around town. It strikes me that despite the squalor and poverty (with leprosy and beggars scattered about the rat infested dirt roads)everyone in this wonderful country seems curious and friendly towards the encroaching aliens; all the people here have the time of day to hear about your trip and all seem genuinely amazed at the level of commitment in our trip.

We each had a small list of stuff to buy, as part of the food group I can only elaborate on the food stuffs, we managed to buy potatoes (of which were some what squashed and rotten), a lot of rice, odd spices and a vampire slaying amount of garlic, etc. the haggling in the market ios quite fun but is scarily stressful, while we were able to reduce prices by the equvalent of pennies I couldn't help but think that this strange haggling was stressing ou the marketeers more than it was us; by the end of the day we weren't even bothering to haggle. The food buys were so heavy that they warranted a taxi ride of which the kind taxi driver seemed surpringly shcocked when he attempted to lift the bags we had carried for so long. Our highlights among our group apart from the constant perched lips of oggling Ema adorers was Em falling unsuspectingly into a massive crater in the road, while quietly chuckling her foot was coated with an undescribable floor mess, thankfully she was able to recover from her fall and embarrassment.

Fairing slightly better than us the hardware group were able to buy near enough all of the Guyanese equip[ment on their list in 2-3 shops; this allowed them to siesta in the sun with coconut drinks.

The admin group were dealing with much worse news; appently the Environment Protection Agency ermit we need to stay in the jungle messed up along the way. This team met up with our ever so helpful contact Trevor and managed to make contact with the people at Iwokrama. Steph having not put any insect repellent on her uncvered lower legs was thus sattacked and annihaleted by mosquitoes loving her white blood.Unfortunatly the cockup is forcing Steph and Toshi to stay a few more days in Georgetown while the whole mess gets sorted out; the rest of the team however will venture on as per usual into Iwokrama tomorrow night. If all goes to plan though, plan B will conclude with the 9 junglateers camping it up by wednesday!

Just so you know, everyone is still alive and kicking and as of yet we aren't at each others throats, but only time can tell. As a rather enthused local told me today "keep it real, peace out white boy!"

CT