Do you know those days that exhale perfection? Those days that are so beautiful you wish you could save some of the moments and pictures in a safe box easily accessible so that you could jump in an relive the dream whenever you’re down or feeling less inspired?
Well, I have no photographs to prove the day, because I broke my camera and got my phone robbed. Again. So I didn’t want to spend a day in the river with the new phone… let’s give this one some more alive time, shall we?
The day began at an early 5h30. We drove and ATVed to Pamela Landing, just 9 miles off Mahdia. At Pamela we hopped onto a boat with a 15 engine and believe me I also thought it was too small until I tried picking it up when we had to travel with the boat overland.
During the boat ride to Amatok Island we passed by several land dredges and water dredges (aka dragas, due to Portuguese influence). These are impressive floating buildings, with the mining components at water level and a house on the top floor. They normally have satellite TV and internet access. To me it’s always a sad site, because the impact is unavoidably huge.
As we got closer to Amatok the number of dredges reduced and suddenly the latte water turned into thick-black-oil-water. That’s what it looks like, oil, because it’s so dark. The colour is due to the tannins, just like in tea. And that’s exactly what a glass full of river water looks like.
Bad news at Amatok: the water was very low, so we had to carry the boat for about 10 minutes, which felt more like an eternity. I was really proud of myself at the time and now, one day later, am in terrible muscular pain… Oh the Tom Boy!
Feeling tired but glorious, with boat in water, we continued up the Potaro River and stopped again at Tukait Falls. It’s a series of rapids and due to the low level of water, we splashed and got dragged by the current, having some fabulous fall fun!
Just below the falls there’s an idyllic white sand beach where you can hide from the sun in the shade provided by the jungle trees.
I swam across the Potaro with the pirai in mind and therefore looking at my feet whenever something brushed into them. Ok, not quite, and hey I can say nothing bit me, yay! The best swimming pool is the river, no doubt!
So, after a brilliant day with some of the people I will miss the most when my time in Guyana comes to an end, we headed back and were blessed by four rainbows. Ahead of us were two rainbows, reaching from one bank to another, as if handles of a basket, being the Potaro River the basket. The other two were the reflections on the water and the water was so still the picture was too good to be true – a circle of rainbows!
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