Henry in Guyana

My first weekend in Guyana has gone reasonably well, it's been cooler as it rained a bit but still warm enough at night to wear just a t-shirt. Power has been good until I started writing this - it's been on and off twice in the last 20 minutes. Fortunately my laptop battery can handle it but the network drops out which is a little annoying.

Yesterday I went out to do a bit of shopping along Regent street, one of the main shopping areas in Georgetown. Shops are a little different to England; most items in non-food shops are behind a counter, and when you want to buy something you are given a piece of paper with a price on it. You take this to the cashier, who is in an armoured cubicle and through a tiny hole you pass your money. Then you return to the desk and the person hands over the item to you.

VAT was recently introduced in Guyana at 16% but it is never made clear whether quoted prices include VAT or not which has caught me out a couple of times. Also you are always shown that something works before you buy it - I bought a light bulb and they had a socket on the wall just for that purpose. Anyway in my travels I picked up some bits and bobs including a radio and a pair of jeans. There are endless phone shops and electrical stores it seems.

 There are also wandering vendors with carts of cds for around £1 each so I picked up a few. I am told there are no copyright laws in Guyana, and I'm not convinced that the music my on copy of Daggerin' Time 2 was copied with the permission of the owner...



A little later in the day I went with a few people to Agrifest, a massive outdoor agricultural expo. It was quite good with lots of stands about sustainable farming and so on. It doubled as a big party - during the afternoon there was a Spongebob Squarepants live pantomime thing for the kids (the first time I've heard Spongebob speaking Guyanenglish), and later some other entertainment on a big stage including the Soca star Rupee' who had flown in from Barbados although we went home before he came on. There was a wide variety of food - I tried some cane juice, and there was a woman making it by putting these big canes into a mashing machine with juice coming out of the bottom. It was quite tasty although it had a hint of marshland about it.

John - the chap I'm staying with - got talked into buying a bottle of El Dorado 5 year old rum for 1800 dollars (around £6) and somehow by the end of the evening John and I had finished it. After a stop at a nightclub and a Chinese take-away to pick up an "Imperial Chow Mein" we got home, much to the amusement of Ronnie, the other chap in the house. Today will be a day of rest.