April 6, 2009

We finally got in at 4 am. It was a 45 minute ride in the dark to the hotel. A couple preliminary observations: All of the roads in the city are single lane. The houses are all raised foundation, presumably because of flooding, but there was also a hypothesis that living upstairs, business downstairs, is a legacy of Dutch architecture.

The more ornate houses had a distinctly South Asian aesthetic. Our escort (who is from Freemont, CA) did not seem particularly enamored with Guyana (he hadn’t done any of the things that I hope to do if I get stranded here a couple of days) but he was very high on the rum. He probably mentioned it 5 times. Apparently it won some sort of international award. We even passed the ‘rum factory.’ I may need to bring some of it back for when I host poker night.

We are staying at the nicest hotel in the country, which runs about $70 US and I would describe as rustically charming. The water pressure was a literal dribble and there was no climate control (I should have brought more t-shirts – it is practically the equator) in the room but there is a comfortable, covered, outdoor courtyard that seems to get ocean breezes.

I woke up at 10 – which is a solid 6 hours – but between the time change and late arrival, my body can’t decide which way to be jet lagged…so it just settled for puffy, blood shot eyes. I did some work until noon, took a little nap and then heard some collogues[1] in the courtyard. I have a balcony towards the courtyard, so I can generally see when people are convening for meals. I had a ‘fried rice’ for lunch which came with beef, chicken and shrimp in a sort of barbecue sauce. It was very good.

After that, one of the guys in charge (I still don’t know who is who and who is in charge, just that I am one of the two scientists and the one expected to know about flooding) wanted to buy a trinket for his daughter. So we went to a primary drag for shops. This is something I still haven’t figured out yet about traveling with other Feds who travel a lot. I would have liked to go to the zoo or a museum or, well, anything but shopping…but don’t really feel like I have the social capitol to ask for a driver. So I went along just to get into the community.

It was interesting two walk around. I didn’t see any other white people, but I actually felt less out of place than in Africa or Asia. It seemed like there were very few stares, no requests for money and even the sales people used relatively soft sell tactics. It would have been cooler if they were selling local wares, but most import American goods from Miami and mark them up…so the stuff wasn’t even cheap.

We did see one of the famous landmarks from a distance. There is a gothic cathedral here made entirely out of wood. Apparently, there was some big injunction against using stone to build in Georgetown since lumber was their primary buissiness. (I included an internet picture that was far superior to mine)

Now for the part of the journal where I see how long I can talk about sediment until you skip the paragraph or click on some other site. (Still here after that sentence, impressive.) Guyana isn’t a successfully commercial Caribbean destination, in part, because it has no real sand beaches. The entire coast is rock and thick, not particularly attractive, mildly stinky mud. But here’s the thing…it’s not their mud. The northern currents bring the outwash of the Amazon River to the Guyana cost. It has something ridiculous like a 100 year travel time (so they are still not seeing the post-industrial loads yet) but they do not control their own source.

It looks like I won’t be taking a boat up the river. My Friday flight got canceled, so I am flying out Thursday afternoon (which is going to make for a pretty short journal). I am only mildly bummed. There might be great potential for ecotourism here, but there isn’t much of it on the ground. Only a couple companies that run mainly on the weekend (and then, only if they have a full trip). If it hadn’t been a last minute trip, I might have been able to plan for it, but with Easter on Sunday and teaching commitments in Davis on Monday and Tuesday, I’m going to be content with just the cross cultural adventure.

Dinner was fun but I was definitely odd man out. The others either knew each other or knew the same people…they each had military background…and I was the only one who isn’t fluid in another language. I also found that the more the rum flowed, the more of the conversation happened in Spanish. This I did not foresee. Go to an English speaking country, you can talk to the locals, but the regional specialists will all be fluent in Spanish. It was still interesting none the less. I learned a lot about how the humanitarian efforts of the armed forces (and a lot of our defense spending goes into that sort of thing) works…which is helpful as I want to be involved in as much of it as possible. I passed on the rum but had chutney snapper[2] and a local beer. You know that facebook application where you choose your 5 favorite beers…I could never do that. My favorite beer is the local beer. It is just another visceral level in which I can experience a new place that is similar yet different than other places. Tyler calls it the tyrwar (sp?).

I came back to the hotel, finished my presentation for tomorrow, did some e-mail and read a little before bed. More tomorrow.

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[1] Did I spell check this right. I always want to use this word, but my first 6 or 7 attempts at it are usually so far away that spell check doesn’t have a chance. So I usually just go for synonyms.
[2] The server warned me that it would be hot and, out of character, I ordered it anyway…and it was fine.