The Crossing of the Guianas – Part 1: From Brazil to the South of Guyana

One of the most intriguing parts of planning the overland crossing of South America was figuring out a way to cross the Guianas (as Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana as collectively referred to) on a low budget. Guyana and Suriname are independent countries whilst French Guiana (or Guyane, as the French call it) is still officially a part of France – and therefore the European Union. Not many people attempt to cross the Guianas overland as part of a longer backpacking travel and therefore there isn’t too much useful information about this on the internet. The little available online information indicates that such a crossing is expensive and can be a hassle. Yet, there was something that drew me to this rather unknown part of the world. These were the territories of South America which I could never remember at school and with a colonial history and influence very distinct from the rest of South America. 

Map of the Guianas

Guyana and Suriname share a lot of cultural similarities with the Caribbean islands and actually consider themselves as part of the Caribbean in their political unions and most other spheres. For example, they compete in sports with the Caribbean countries. Yet, no matter what anyone says or does, they are geographically part of South America – and no travel around the continent would be complete without at least a glimpse into the diversity of these three very particular territories (I cannot use the collective term ‘countries’ since French Guiana is still a colony). I had two aims with this part of the travel: to learn about these territories and their culture, and to face the challenge of what could indeed be a complicated but interesting crossing. Through the following blog entries, I hope to shed some light on backpacking in this part of the world for anyone who may try to follow a similar path in the future. Therefore, I’ll go into the logistics of the travel as much as possible.

 

Creole cuisine in Lethem (Guyana)

For this part of the travel, Sofia and I decided to split due to the complications she would have faced to obtain visas as an Ecuadorian citizen. She would have needed to apply for visas for Guyana and Suriname and a Schengen visa for the EU to enter French Guiana. As a British citizen, I wouldn’t need a visa for any of the three countries (I’ll count French Guiana as a country - indeed it is French territory so one is entering into France). The only thing I will need is a tourist card for Suriname which I can get from Georgetown, the capital of Guyana (I will talk about this in my next blog entry on Georgetown). Keep in mind that citizens of several countries do need a visa to enter Suriname so it’s best to check out if you may need to apply for one whilst planning your travel. Whilst I cross the Guianas, Sofia will head back down to Manaus and catch a cargo ship down the Amazon River towards the Brazilian city of Belem, stopping in Santarem and Alter do Chao along the way. My own plan was to reach Belem from the north after leaving French Guiana and to meet Sofia there on a tentative date (we’d wait for each other in Belem if one of us is delayed).

Despite the fact that they border with each other, it isn’t possible to cross overland from Venezuela to Guyana due to political tensions between the two countries so I had to return to Brazil first and enter from there. After leaving the Venezuelan border town of Santa Elena and crossing over to Pacaraima in Brazil, Sofia and I caught a shared taxi to Boa Vista (30 Brazilian Reales each for a ride of about two and a half hours) and headed straight to the bus station to buy tickets for the following day – she to Manaus and me to the town of Bonfim, on the Brazilian border with Guyana. The ticket from Boa Vista to Bonfim cost me 18.50 Reales, with the bus leaving very early the following morning.

The area between Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana

At this point, I was running low on Reales and didn’t want to exchange my US dollars in order to save them for Argentina, where the exchange rate for dollars is very good on the informal market. Sofia didn’t have a penny of Brazilian money so we tried to withdraw Reales from an ATM at the Boa Vista bus station. We got a nasty surprise when both my and her credit and debit cards didn’t work, despite trying with more than one card on more than one occasion. I had just about enough money to pay for the bus tickets and for a very cheap room in dodgy hotel near the bus station for the night, but not much more. We headed into town to look for ATMs that could give us cash. None worked. I was very concerned about the situation since I was really low on cash even if I did use the dollars I had left with me - and crossing the Guianas is a potentially expensive affair. I had read that there are no banks in the Guyanese town of Lethem, on the other side of the border with Brazil.

Having no luck with the banks and ATMs, Sofia and I walked across the centre of Boa Vista, which has practically no historical buildings worth seeing but does have a charming modern area next to a river lined up with sandy beaches. It seems like a pleasant enough city but not really a touristy one. Sofia and I remained hungry that night, fearful of ending up totally cashless unless we manage to solve our problems with accessing money.

 

The sandy beach along the river in Boa Vista

I woke up very early the following morning to get my bus to Bonfim which departed at 7am. Sofia accompanied me to the bus station and I wished her good luck for her first solo backpacking travel. I calculated that we would see each other after approximately two weeks in Belem, at the mouth of the Amazon River. Despite being somewhat concerned for Sofia, I felt that backpacking alone for a couple of weeks will do her good and help her become more self-confident as a traveller. At times, I can be a bit overpowering and always have a plan when backpacking, leaving little room for Sofia to learn from experience and improve her travelling skills.

The bus heading to Bonfim passed through dry savannah territory and a number of cattle ranches along the way. We initially stopped in the town of Bonfim itself after about two and a half hours, which looks rather small and still under construction. I was told to stay on the bus since the border was still a few minutes’ drive away and the bus could stop me right outside the Brazilian immigration office. I noticed a couple of other travellers on the bus – they seemed like tough and experienced travellers and I was glad that they were heading the same way. We started to chat once we got off the bus and headed towards the Brazilian immigration office, all three of us carrying heavy backpacks. James and Debbie are an English couple in the middle of a year-long travel across Central and South America. They’re both teachers and James is also an artist (quite a talented one, I would later find out). We got our passports stamped by the Brazilian immigration authorities and now had to head towards the Guyanese part of the border. 

There were taxis outside, offering (for what seemed like a rather high price) to drive us along the couple of kilometres which separated us from the Guyanese immigration office. We declined the taxi drivers’ offers and walked across the border, backpacks and all. We crossed a bridge in a rather dusty area, and realised that we were now in Guyana. It took us about 15 to 20 minutes to get to the Guyanese immigration office. The Guyanese officials were very polite but they checked our bags thoroughly and were the first border officials on this travel who asked for the yellow vaccination certificate, which we thankfully all had with us. They wanted to ensure that we had been vaccinated for yellow fever. I had heard that Brazilian border authorities also ask for the yellow vaccination card, but I didn’t get asked for this on both occasions when I entered Brazil overland within the past few weeks. One of the Guyanese immigration officials also insisted that I give him an address where I’ll be staying in Guyana, so I borrowed the guidebook of the English couple and picked a random hotel name and address. I wrote it down for the official and he seemed pleased enough with that.

After the completing the Guyanese border formalities, where I heard English spoken as a first language by locals for the first time in a couple of years, the English couple and I decided to walk to the centre of Lethem until we realised that Lethem is actually spread out over a large area with no real centre and that it would take us ages to get anywhere. We therefore negotiated with a taxi driver to take us into town for a total of 9 Brazilian Reales (3 Reales each instead of 10 each as initially requested). He initially asked for much more for what would be a rather short ride but he then lowered the price when we chose to walk, telling us that this was a give-away rate and that it was more like hitchhiking rather than catching a taxi. He tried to make us feel guilty by saying that he has a family to feed. His biting humour (hopefully it was humour) was a stark difference to the Brazilian (and general Latin American) way of communicating. The prices were obviously also very different from other countries in the region. The rasta-haired taxi-driver told us that since we were travelling, then we must be rich. The English couple answered that they were simple teachers in the UK who did not own a home or a car. I explained that we had decided to undertake a nomadic way of life – which is rather true at this point of our lives. I don’t think the tax-driver quite understood.

The wide red dusty roads of Lethem

Debbie was planning her travel by following the advice of a chunky Lonely Planet guidebook that she was carrying with her. She had read about a woman called Shirley who lived in Lethem and could be useful for ideas about things to do in Guyana. My original plan was to cross straight through Guyana and head to the capital, Georgetown, to perhaps go on a day trip from there. Yet, the prospect of seeing something interesting elsewhere in Guyana raised my curiosity so I decided to join the English couple in their visit to Shirley. Meanwhile, I decided to camp in the garden of the Takutu Hotel for the night next to the British couple. I paid 1000 Guyanese dollars (approximately 5 US dollars – the exchange rate is more or less 200 Guyanese dollars for 1 US dollar) to set up my tent in the garden and was given a locker to keep my things in and a bathroom. Once the tents were up, we went out to look for Shirley.

A large house in Lethem

Shirley owns a little shop and bar near the airport, which was only a short walk away from the hotel we were camping at. We easily found her and sat down for a chat. She opened a map of the area (the south west of Guyana) and started telling us about the many things we could do there – but all were extremely expensive. There are a number of lodges around Guyana, in areas of stunning nature and with a lot of wildlife you can observe. Despite having a serious mining issue which is severely disrupting the environment, Guyana also still has immense areas of unspoilt nature. There are two main problems faced by travellers who want to reach these lodges: getting anywhere is absurdly expensive and it isn’t easy to coordinate any cheaper form of transport. Simply forget using public transport – it is mostly non-existent for the time being. I suspect that this will improve over time but, currently, this is the way it is. Generally, one must rent out a jeep – which can cost at least two or three hundred US dollars for a trip of a couple of hours. And that’s just the price to get to the location itself. Then you must pay the really high price to stay at the lodges and there often seems to be no obvious backpacker alternative such as camping or sleeping in your hammock. Perhaps you could look for such places once you get to the area, but would you pay a couple of hundreds of dollars to find out? I suspect that when travel becomes cheaper and more organised, experimenting your way through Guyana will become much more feasible. My major fear is that, currently, you may end up in a remote place and have no other option but to pay a really high price to get back to the main route. Unless you are travelling with a rather big group and can share the cost of a jeep (which is rarely the case with backpackers), it will be very difficult to get any transport for a good value for money.

Out of all the options presented by Shirley, the only interesting thing to do in the area that seemed reasonably priced was a visit to a little ‘Amerindian’ (the name given to indigenous communities in Guyana) village called Nappi, which is about 30 to 40 minutes’ drive away from Lethem along a dirt road. Shirley told us that we could get there by paying 25 US dollars each (a total of 75 US dollars between the three of us – a steep price for a ride of less than one hour).  She then got us in touch with a person who works in one of the lodges in the area, who may be passing through Nappi on the morning of a couple of days later and who could give us a lift back down to Lethem (hopefully for free – but you can never tell in Guyana). She told us that we could camp in the garden of one of the locals in Nappi for a very affordable price. In the end, we decided to go for this option. Debbie and James were really curious to visit a few other places – including an area where there are wild giant river otters and the Iwokrama National Park where there is a canopy walk, which sounds like a fascinating experience. The logistics of how to get to these locations without spending a little fortune seemed extremely confusing so they needed a couple of days to think things over. Meanwhile, the little chat with Shirley and the phone calls she made to check things out for us cost us 25 USD. Again, it seemed overpriced but we paid up – divided by three made the price more affordable but still expensive. I guess information is a valuable item and with so little information out there on travelling in Guyana, someone like Shirley who has information and contacts has a small goldmine in her hands. 

We spent the afternoon roaming around Lethem, a rather dusty and very spread out town with wide roads, which seems to be developing its commerce rapidly to take advantage of its location right at the border with Brazil. The Chinese seem to be investing heavily here, which could have worrying long term consequences for the locals if the true main interest is mining. The majority of locals here are of African origin who are English native speakers. I luckily found a bank in Lethem (there are actually two now) despite the fact that I had read there were none. Apparently the two banks opened here in the past few months. My credit card still did not work, but a very helpful guard noticed by frustration and suggested that the staff at the bank could help out. I ended up making a cash advance using my credit card and managed to solve my money problem. I paid a fee of approximately 15 US dollars but it was well worth it since I was penniless at that point. I made sure I had enough Guyanese dollars to last me till Georgetown.

That night, Debbie talked to a couple of miners (who claimed to be from the United States but who spoke in Spanish between themselves). They openly boasted about how they were here to cut a deal with the locals and find opportunities to make a lot of money. They claimed that the percentage of their revenue that they would have to pay to the local authorities was minimal and that they therefore could make very high profits. It was quite shocking to hear how men like these could possibly destroy the resources of the country and leave practically nothing in return. It seemed to be very similar to the colonial plundering of the past.

 

The following day, Shirley and her Dutch partner, Jan (a charming scientist), came to pick us up in a jeep. It’s funny how the Lonely Planet mentions her and her former partner so people always mistake Jan for her ex-partner. “They need to update their information”, Shirley said. Shirley and Jan were taking a number of items to the village of Nappi and to a nearby lodge since a ‘high profile’ (read as ‘loaded with money’) couple were visiting the lodge that weekend. The jeep zoomed through the dirt road in the dry region, passing by gigantic termite mounds along the way (they can reach over two metres in height). When we finally got to Nappi, we were dropped off in the compound of a little farm where we would be camping. Jan unloaded the goods that the couple had brought with them with the help of some locals. We paid the 75 USD for the ride and the 25 USD we owed Shirley for her services (a total of 100 USD for, give-or-take, a half hour’s worth of work and a jeep ride they would have had to do anyway).

Huge termite mounds on the way to Nappi

Nappi is charming a little village, spread out over a number of little hills at the edge of the dry savannah, right next to the green Kanuku Hills which lead into the jungle. It felt so beautiful and peaceful so I looked forward to spend a couple of nights there. We met our hosts, Eleanor and Michael, who are very sweet and well educated people. Eleanor is a former village chief whilst we eventually found out that Michael was once a member of the Guyanese Parliament as a member of the opposition. Our hosts are not Amerindian (she is of Indian origin whilst Michael is partly of Chinese origin). Indeed, people for India are the largest ethnic group in the country, followed by people of African origin. After chatting with the sweet couple and setting up our tents in their garden, we were introduced to Kevin Thomas, a young Amerindian man from a different village. We hired Kevin as our guide for two days at the cost of 20 US dollars per day (which we shared between the three of us). At first glance, Kevin seems like a carefree young man but, when we got to know him well, we realised that he is an extremely intelligent, caring and ambitious young man. 

Indigenous houses in Nappi with the Kanuku Hills in the background

Amerindian children at their doorstep

On our first morning in Nappi, Kevin took us around the village to visit various people and places of interest. We went to the local school, where we talked to a couple of teachers and a number of students. Some of the children were facing a literature test so they were rather tense! Debbie and James were happy to share few words with the local teachers since they share the same profession. We also visited the health centre where the only staff member had a detailed map of all the families and water wells in the area. There was also information on mosquito-transmitted diseases but were told that there was nothing to worry about in the area. People seemed generally happy to see us since very few foreigners tend to pass through here and take an interest in the local way of life. We then crossed the village and visited an elderly man who makes some amazing sculptures from a rubber-like substance and sells them to people in the area by order. Finally, we visited Kevin’s home, where his pregnant wife and her family were at working making cassava bread (made from the root of the yucca plant). What surprised me is that their method for making this bread, which is so important to indigenous communities in the vast Amazon region, is practically identical to the method used by indigenous people in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It’s fascinating to see such similarities in culture despite the immense distance which separates Guyana and Ecuador.

Outdoor lessons in Nappi's primary school

The wonderful rubber sculptures of nature

Preparing cassava bread the traditional way

That night, we chatted with Michael about life in Guyana and he told us anecdotes from his time as a member of parliament. He feels that corruption has always been a major problem in the country, slowing down progress. He also recalled a time when the two major ethnic groups in the country: those of Indian origin and those of African origin (a result of the country’s colonial past) were facing great tensions in the post-independence period. What’s fascinating about this experience is that the two ethnic groups actually talked the situation over and went off to Ireland to learn from the Irish peace-process. Their intent to search for a peaceful solution to the ethnic tensions is not something very common but eventually led to a much more peaceful situation in the long run. This is surely something Guyana should be commended for. Sadly, Michael has been suffering from a neurological problem which is affecting his body and capacity to move. He therefore needs to do regular exercise to slow down the degeneration of his illness. He chose to move to the quiet Nappi from Georgetown to be surrounded by nature – feeling that this would improve his morale as he struggled to remain mobile.

The wonderful Eleanor and Michael

The following morning, we woke up very early and were picked up by Kevin who planned to take us into the forest that began just before the Kanuku Hills. We aimed to get to the trees before it started to get really hot. We were told that this year, the area around Nappi had only half the rainfall it usually gets and the dryness and heat were afflicting the area. During the rainy season, it’s apparently very difficult to move about since the lower areas are flooded and the dirt roads are rather unusable. The sun was high by the time we reached the trees, but thankfully we cooled down thanks to the shade provided by the dense foliage. This area of vegetation near the village was a mixture between wild nature and some man-made plantations. As one goes further into the hills, the nature becomes wilder until the jungle eventually begins. Our aim was not to go into the jungle but to stop at the small Nappi Falls where we could swim in a natural pool. To get there, we crossed a couple of small rivers and made our way up a trail through the nature.

My tent with the Kanuku Hills in the distance

We chatted with Kevin along the way and he told us that he is not originally from Nappi but actually from a village very far from there, beyond the hills towards the south. Moreover, he is from a different tribe to the one that lives in Nappi so it took a long time for him to be accepted into the new tribe. It was the love for a girl (now his wife) that brought him to Nappi a number of years ago. What struck me about Kevin’s story is the fact that he had not returned to his home village or heard from his family for about six years. It would cost him a ridiculous amount of money to travel to his village. The last time he had gone there, he has walked and it took him a few weeks to get there and back. The village his family is from has no internet or phone connections so communication has been impossible. This shows the major injustice caused by the inexistent public transport system in the country: it makes it impossible for citizens to visit their own families if they live far from each other. Kevin does reckon that this situation must change sooner or later. Michael had mentioned that Guyana will soon have a general election due to a vote of no confidence in the current government. He hopes that the political campaign will focus on solving these serious shortcomings in the country as well as the very high crime rate in Georgetown, which he considers is causing many people to leave the country.

The Nappi Falls - small but beautiful

We spent the afternoon swimming in the cool water beneath the Nappi Falls, with bothersome (and painful) houseflies causing the only nuisance in this paradise. As sunset approached, we made our way back to the village and were stunned by the high amount of wildlife we saw along the way. Kevin was keen to spot as many different birds and animals as possible and was very good at doing so. He had worked for the lodge in the area for a time and had a knack for spotting animals. He told us that he could help us see a whole lot more animals if we stayed overnight in the jungle with him. Considering that we spotted monkeys and a number of wild birds (including a rather rare harpy eagle) so close to the village, I could only imagine how much wildlife one could spot deeper into the jungle. The only problem would be the logistics of staying longer in the area and getting into the jungle. If we could coordinate something with Kevin, we could get a decent price and he could sort things out for us. In the end, we reluctantly opted to simply enjoy these couple of days in Nappi and move on since we had managed to get a free lift to Lethem the following day. Kevin dropped us off on the farm of our hosts at dusk and we said goodbye to this fine young man. He was a great guide and gave much insight into the life of locals around here. Anyone passing through these parts could give him a call (+592 670 7046) and see if they can coordinate something with him.

The natural pool beneath the Nappi Falls

Sunset in Nappi

That night, Michal treated us to the viewing (courtesy of a generator that works at night) of his favourite movie: ‘The Naked Jungle’, starring a young Charlton Heston. Despite the dodgy sounding title, it’s actually a fun and cheesy love story supposedly set in the Amazon – though it hardly looks like the real jungle. The following morning, we were up early to take down our tents and I felt as if I was in the Wild West when a few men had the task of branding the cattle after catching them with a lasso. The make-shift cowboys were not really trained at catching cattle and it took them ages and a lot of laughs to get the job done. The poor cows yelped as the hot poker branded their butts and, on hearing this, an Indian friend of mine reckoned that karma would come and poke us on our butts too in the future!

The cowboy way - trying to lasso cattle

Gotcha! A calf is finally caught for branding

As an Indian friend of mine says, karma will get back at us eventually!

Our lift into town came a few hours late, making us worry whether we really were going to have a lift into town at all – the contrary would have meant looking for a complicated and surely expensive alternative. Thankfully, the person who promised to give us the lift did indeed turn up eventually. Before leaving, we paid Eleanor 1500 Guyanese dollars each per night for allowing us to camp on their farm and we also paid a one time village entrance fee of 1000 Guyanese dollars each (which will go towards the infrastructure of the village). Back in Lethem, I bought myself a ticket to Georgetown for 6pm that same day for the cost of 12,000 Guyanese dollars (about 60 USD). I’m aware that I could have found a ticket elsewhere for 10000 Guyanese dollars but didn’t have the time to go looking around for the cheaper price. Debbie and James decided to remain in Lethem for at least another day to see if they could manage to visit some other areas of this lovely country. Nevertheless, they became more aware of the difficulties in doing so as time went by. A local magazine we read boasted about a recent visit to Guyana of Hollywood actor Channing Tatum and a group of his friends. It stated with pride that internal travel is easy if you hire a few jeeps for yourself and your friends. Photos of Channing and his friends in a convoy of jeeps filled the pages. I suppose it is indeed easy if you have a few thousands of dollars to spare or if you’re a Hollywood superstar.

Michael and Eleanor's amazing farmland

About 30 minutes before my van left from Lethem, I said goodbye to James and Debbie and headed for the departure point. As I entered the cranky and crammed little van that would take me north across Guyana towards Georgetown, I realised I wasn’t going to get much sleep that night. To make matters worse, I was unlucky to sit next to a very chubby Brazilian guy, making my seating space even smaller and crammed. At 6pm, we took off for the bumpy ride to the capital of Guyana. But that is a story to be told in the next blog entry…

Not a comfy ride - the van from Lethem to Georgetown