And He Walks Out of the Jungle

We get up, pack up and start walking. A few hours later we pass our last tree, walk into the Savannah and arrive at Surama Eco-Lodge. Tonight we have cold showers, beds and real flushing toilets! It's an interesting observation that when most westerners mention cold showers, it's in the context of a rustic novelty but here it's mentioned as a luxury! We hang up and dry out our kit. I decide to buy my bow and arrow and a couple of training arrows to send back to the UK and also buy a Gootie - a rubber pot the locals use to keep their booze in.

Lionel turns up and takes us for a walk around his Surama village. It is literally just a few huts! Still, they are very proud of their wooden school buildings. There's a school assembly going on outside which we stand and watch. But we decide to move on when it becomes apparent that the whole assembly had stopped to watch the watching westerners!

We go to the animal sanctuary. Spurred on by a German TV company the idea is that they catch wild animals, hold them captive for a 3 months or so whilst they're filmed "in the wild" and then released. Apparently if you watch the credits of almost any nature program it'll say, "filmed in controlled circumstances." As for this place is concerned, I'll just say that their Puma has been caged for the past 3 years and it paces up and down in distress. They keep a bush deer in the cage right next door to it - I swear that poor deer hasn't slept a wink in the past 3 years. Would you with your natural adversary sleeping next door? Poor frightened thing! They also have a very friendly Bush Cow (Tapia), some monkeys, an armadillo (!) and other stuff. We leave to visit the village shop, pick up a couple slabs of beer and head back.

We throw up a couple of lazy hammocks in the upstairs of the main Behab and marvel at the tranquility of the view; jungle mountains slinking off behind the Savannah. Ian kindly donates a lazy hammock to my traveling cause; the only catch being the others get to choose which one. Hmm. So you know that sickly purple & yellow floral psychedelic one that we all laughed at when it was first brought out? Well it's now mine! We are joined by Morden & Elizabeth, a young Danish couple who recently arrived in Guyana for a quick holiday. Elizabeth has piercing googley eyes and spends most of the night talking to me. :-) I fill up my Gootie with Rum and once the slabs of beer are finished, drunken Rum chaos ensues into the early morning.

Today I was impressed to find my first ticks - one on my waist and another behind a knee. You catch them scraping through tree ands shrubs in the jungle. Needless to say, the resilient blood sucking monsters didn't last for long once I found them!

Posted by Steve Eynon