Costs:
- Bus to Boa Vista 15$
- Hotel 30$
- Bus to border and 2 quick taxis 15$
- Bus from border to skipping a hotel Georgetown: 70$
- Food, sleep, drinks on the way to Georgetown during 24 hour bus: 10$
- Cafe Oasis 20$
- Bus skipping a hotel back: 70$
- Taxi to town 35$
- Hotel (same) 30$
- Food and outings 30$
- Bus to Manaus (skipping a hotel) from Boa Vista 65$
- Hotel Ideal in Boa Vista, 30$, no flushing toilet, dirty and small, good wifi and staff generally friendly
- Bus: Jumping dirty, rusty and ...
- Hamacs, only a 2 hour sleep that wasn't very refreshing. No mosquitoes at least.
Food: Freaking amazing in Brazil and didn't get sick in Guyana
Story:
Last post ended before taking the 2 floor bus, which resulted in being a pretty confortable one floor bus.
Seems like a life away.
Maybe I should've called to report the armed guardias that wanted a bribe
What woul a Venezuelian kid do with this (lowest is 20 celsius)
That street bus was filled with 30 people
Border born puppies, having a coffee
Oh yeah, food in Brazil
The moon is still around the earth which will turn around the sun for the 14th time since I left. 2 weeks flew by, time that flows in the sea of the universe. Every day blooms and my hearts feels the excitement of the unknown. It's not always a good thing, but so it's waking up, snoozing 5 times, toileting, coffeeing and numbing away the same quantity of earth spins.
By now, someone is installed in my office, getting through his access demands to be able to make ETL jobs from scratch. He's probably reading a ton of documents that he won't remember and since the rest of the team is busy, he's surfing away looking busy. Welcome to my world. I do miss everyone there and it's probably the first team where we have each other cell phones. Wish you all the best, will probably see you in June and if it wouldn't be for the money, I would never get back. Instead I would invite everyone to have a crazy ride to Guyana and back..it would be more like having a fresh coconut in a hamac in the shade.
Let me paint it for you guys so you know that it's not always that nice to be a traveller.
I was happy last Monday because I finished the last post and I'd like to post once a week my adventures.
I like to think that my standards are pretty low as to travel accomodations and food. So after hearing a couple of bad things about transport, violence and accomodation in the 3 Guyanas, I decided to try my luck too. I mean, how bad can it be? The answer will follow...
Quiet Boa Vista
Yellow church? why not
Pictures_20140211_20140212_BoaVista_Brazil
Since planes are strangely expensive between neighbouring countries, I decided to take a bus from Boa Vista to Georgetown after reading a bit. Slept one night in quiet Boa Vista and took the omnibus(bus) to the border. I pass both borders without problems following another young Brazilian called Walace that was a great travel partner and facilitator. On the other side 2 indian looking guys are waiting to bring us to an agency.
Here go some stats:
Guyana population seems to be divided in at least 3 main parts, black africans, indian(from India) and latino looking indios(from the Amazon). Most of the country is filled with jungle and lots of gold. Traficking that gold seems to be mostly done by Indians, at least on the Guyana side(because there's also gold on the Venezuela side, where other trafickers enjoy smugling the contry's possesions. Brazilians are the one with the knowledge and will to spend years in mines to come back with enough money to satisfy their initial dreams(buiyng a house and a big flashy car is Walace dream).
Back to the story:
10USD and 1 kilometer later we get to a farm with tables where I meet this gentle looking lady that lives sometimes in Toronto. She accepts to change my money(at a shitty rate) and she's in charge of the bus company. Since I was there at 10AM and the bus only left at 18h, me and Walace had to wait.
The Toronto Guyana smuggling bus company
During that time, lots of very shady people went by, bringing huge amount of money tightly wrapped in scotch tape and everything was done in plein sight. I also learned that there aren't many prisons, so cops prefer being bribed which makes it very difficult to respect any law. We get in the bus and thanks to Walace, we have quality seats, but don't get excited, it has nothing to do with any car seat in North America(could compare to Cambodia, Ecuator).
For seeing a jail from the outside, while the driver was cursing and paying his respects to the law, it looks like a sauna box and through the tiny window, I could see at least one face full of tears.
Fueled the spaceship to Hell
We're 8 people in a sardine box that starts speeding while the sun sets. Eventually the cement road leaves the place to sand and the driver starts swearing that police is following us(at this point I'm thinking: So what?). He wasn't thinking the same and starts speeding the sardine box through sand dunes in the darkening night...
Thanks you Walace, for being such an inspiration with his calmness which meant it wasn't the first time and I just grabed to something resistent. 5 long minutes later, it was a motorcycle that speeds by us giving us a friendly horn. The driver relaxes, but still keeps over 60km/h through sand dunes making the passengers aware of their rusty environment. This is only 10 minutes, but the ride went on for 18 hours to a full 24 hours including stops.
The main source of enlightment
The full moon was lovely and gave more light than usual making our driver confident. We went through jungle, dirt roads, sand, mud, everything but asphalt for 15 of the 18 hours, flying with great dexterity with our special cargo that took lots of bribing. We also had 2 flats and the alternator belt broke. While fixing that, the passenger in front of me went for a walk in the jungle. Just when I completely forgot he existed from the exhaustion, we hear shots. Funny how everyone just stood up while the shots got closer. Walace didn't even blink. The gone passenger was back laughing saying something "I busted a shot in the road" and I'm thinking "Why?". No need to know anyways, so just made a joke about thunder. Another passenger was a lovely Venezuelian woman that said she was married to a computer engineer and Walace said she was in fact a prostitute trying to get a "refill" with miners.
I forgot to say that Walace, is a short gentle and quiet guy with short hair and sad brown eyes. From the little portuguese I know, he said he had a lovely 3 years old, but got into a fight with his wife recently and his sad eyes actually shed tears in front of me. He decided to work on a mine for a year, far from them to return, buy a house, a car and win her heart back. It was the 3rd time he went there and I'm glad our paths crossed.
The infamous HellMobile
He told me between other things, that everything costed a lot near the mines, since it was far in the jungle and prostitutes was one of the articles. Apparently they bathe naked in the river to attract their wallets fulfillers.
The poof that there's love everywhere
Pictures_20140212_20140215_Guyana
Also, since I was with Walace the next day for Valentines, he actually worked out a huge smile after talking with his dear wife. Apparently the same recuring trust issues were bothering his couple also. Funny how he was ready for anything for her, unless she had an affair, as if one night of curiosness mutates the person into ... hey screw that nasty bit... or then again, how many halfs does an orange have?...been there on both sides of the inner battle and eventually I found forgiveness more soothing, aldo the lack of trust will always remain present. If I can't trust myself in her situation, why would I trust her :)
Anyways, back to jumping around in smelly, rusty and filled with mud sardine boxes. The cool thing is that no one abused me on the way there, because my body would have given out without a single fight...yeyeye
I also got to sleep in a hamack for 5USD for 2.5 hours, which seemed like a scam, but I would have paid 100USD to get 5 minutes on the way back, when the driver went on for almost for 15 hours straight, besides bribing cops. Another cool part was that I could've carried anything, since no one checked my bag, EVER. If you're white, smuggle US dollars to Venezuela, then buy jewels and gold there to smuggle them further, then go into Guyana and enjoy the rides, just to smuggle even more gold. You'll be a rich broken man. Obviously it's wrong and personally I prefer to enjoy my current sexual orientation outside of a crappy jail.
Around 6AM, mandatory "Ferry" stop...and police bribing
Talking about crappy places to sleep, the jungle had amazing commodities, probably to attract miners, but once in Georgetown, houses were about to fall and toilets keep getting stuck. Eventually we arrived 24hours later and sun was coming down. I had no more money, because the 30USD exchanged to that Guyana-Toronto lady was gone in food, hamacs and coffee. Nobody exchanged money and my host was nowhere to find. Eventually a Brazilian lady in a cute Brazilian restaurant near the bus stop accepted to take my "reals"(Brazilian money).
Dirt was transported by rivers of sweats down my body, the surrounding infrastrutures were falling appart. I was camouflaged into my surrounding, everything was smelly and dirty. There where armed people everywhere and Walace proposed to sleep in his room.
Good things happen in horrible places. Great tasting fruits that is
He's an amazing guy and I wish him the best. Eventually my host arrived with a brand new car and wanted to invite me to eat...too late, but at least I had a place to sleep, a nice comfy couch where my bones finally relaxed under hundreds of mosquito bites. And Internet...at least...such an addictive thing, I could finally see puppies and inspiring pictures on FB after answering my emails. While my host was working on a project, I looked at the few expensive ways to continue my way as planned and took the decision of getting out of there cutting expenses short and not fulfilling my initial goal of 80 countries.
Proud to be Guyanese
After mopping my host house, because the toilet overflow for 2 hours...reminds me of FB funny pictures that say "When you see it you'll shit bricks"...apparently I saw "it" and now the toilet was blocked. Another small event was seeing the guy go to the bathroom with his door open.... Eventually he exchange me some money and left me where he picked me up where a very well guarded bus operator (7 guys with machine guns, shotguns and knives) shook my hand happy to see my money.
Selling house, perfect condition, some small scratches
I was so happy to find Walace again, who laughed at my stories and said that it was all normal. I chilled with him in his room for the rest of the day before another speedy adventure of 16 hours(only an hour of stops, with kerosene inside and a drunk miner passenger playing around with a huge sword he just acquired). Another thing that I forgot it's that since there's no police and probably even less in the mines, pretty much every miner is armed. They also start having addictions to alcohol and drugs since they have money....I'll keep my job for now.
More goodies
Yesterday, after arriving and getting screwed once again at the border for a taxi, I decided to go see the local nightlife and I must admit that I loved it, but there's still 3 month and a half to go, including carnaval.
Also, a romanian friend from Canada will join me for 2 months. It will feel safer to have somebody to watch each other's back.
Back to life, back from the gates of hell...
Besides that, EVERYONE is welcomed to join in. I can also give you hints and help you around.
Otherwise, I hope my blog will inspire you to follow your dreams
