Five of us went ‘camping’ to Hot and Cold Lake last weekend, and I think it was one of the most peaceful and relaxing weekends that I’ve had since we’ve been in Guyana.
It was about a three hour trip to get there by minibus-speedboat-minibus. The speedboat ride took us across the mighty Essequibo river, which is 20km wide. There are around 365 islands in the river and I kept having to remind myself that we were actually on a river because it is so huge. I can’t imagine what the Amazon would be like. We were a bit concerned because it rained for the whole boat ride, but that was the only rain that fell on the weekend.
We set up our hammocks in the benabs and spent the day swimming, reading, and relaxing. We gathered wood in preparation for the evening campfire. I think it was the first time ever that I sat around the campfire and had to move away because it was so hot outside! Surprisingly there were very few mosquitoes – Nick even slept in his hammock without using his mosquito net. What there were a lot of was ants. We interrupted ant highways and tunnels all over the ground, the benabs, the chairs, tables, everywhere!
I’ve never slept in a hammock before and, though it was reasonably comfortable at the time, my low back was sore for a couple of days afterwards.
We were disappointed to come back to the hussle of Georgetown, but made good time on the trip home. Our minibus (15 passenger van) was packed to the nuts with 21 passengers and a live chicken!
We’ve officially decided to do a 5 day trek in March to see Kaiteur Falls, the tourism highlight of Guyana, so we’re excited to be organizing that. 7 weeks to go in Guyana!
Love DawnO
I would just like to say that I think that’s an amazing photo of a person going off a diving board. The person who took that photo must be extremely talented.
OK, so perhaps Hannah deserves some credit for her amazing photography. Perhaps she would like her blog published on our site as well…