A is for armadillos & airstrips

Armadillos
The Bradt Guide to Guyana says that “Armadillos are easily identified by their protective bony shell”. You can find 2 types of these animals: the Giant armadillo, and the Great long-nosed armadillo.

I’m not expecting to see any, or at least not too soon, because they are nocturnal creatures and I can’t yet imagine myself going out for walks in the forest during night.

Airstrips

From what I know (and I shouldn’t be writing this without being sure), Guyana only has one airport: Cheddi Jagan International Airport. It’s in Tamehri, about an hour drive (41 km) south of Gerogetown.

If you’re visiting me, you’ll probably be bringing me things; In that case, the Bradt Guide advises the use of a taxi (20 USD) instead of the minibuses.

So, because it is not easy to get around by car – in many cases it’s impossible – there’s a lot of other ways of getting around. Namely: on foot, by boat, on an ATV and on an aircraft. These are small, allowing for up to 12 passengers and generally speaking, old. Getting into detail, you can find some that are old, quite old, or extremely old.

My first trip from Georgetown to Mahdia was on the best aircraft and it was pretty old. I was lucky enough to sit next to the pilot; As you can imagine I was like a kid, wearing a huge smile on my face and wanting to ask him trillions of questions during the flight. Of course I asked none at all: the man was piloting, for goodness sake, let him concentrate!

The view is amazing. Again, I need the modem to upload some pictures; I’ll do so as soon as Guyana gets more! But so that you get an idea, imagine never ending fields of broccoli and long wide rivers. Oh, when you imagine the rivers, think of brown water, clay coloured. My brain kept telling me it was the wrong colour, but is slowly getting used to it.

Every now and then you see a clearing and lots of colourful (I saw brown, yellow and blue) puddles. Probably gold mining camps and/or abandoned mining camps. Unfortunately this is still a problem, nothing too surprising, of course. There has been a lot of discussion going on between the miners and the government and they are trying to make mining more sustainable.
So, a little about "my" airstrip, the one in Mahdia. No duty free shopping, no building at all. Just a rough, bumpy and good enough strip. Right now some sort of building is being built: I saw the cement blocks!

[This post is dedicated to Sandie, you can imagine why :-)]

Story recommended: Goodnight Gorilla, by Peggy Rathman. For a set of activities simply follow the link.