This weekend I went a little further inland and across the Demerara river. The Demerara region is home to the sugar of the same name, although I think nowadays Demerara sugar isn't necessarily from there. Anyway, a family friend has a small farm on the river bank and a nice house just up the hill from it. We drove out from Georgetown to a small dock where some guys loaded our stuff onto a boat and drove us across the river to the farm. The boat was a small wooden thing with two big outboard engines on - we went pretty fast.
One of the farm workers gave me a quick tour of the farm, mainly chicken, including a tiled room where they kill and pluck the birds - they had these upside-down cones mounted on the wall, apparently you stuff the chicken in head first and then slit its throat. A little gruesome but quite interesting (they weren't doing it whilst I was there). The house was on tall concrete stilts, and about 15 of us had a barbeque and drinks sitting under it. This was perhaps my first experience of the wealthier side of Guyanese society, but despite having people around cooking and carrying stuff for us it was quite humble and friendly. This event was somewhat of a reunion, so a significant amount of gaffing went on (that's Guyanese for what I might call banter, and involves laughing a lot and exchanging stories of varying lewdness). We were close to the bush/jungle, which as an Englishman I am fascinated by but have yet to visit. The house itself was not quite finished but very nice, this picture is the view from the balcony:
Today I went to the Pegasus hotel, which I am told is often a hang-out for overseas volunteers and ex-pats. I used the gym for a while which has a running machine and some weights, and is of course air conditioned. Exercising during the day in Guyana is not really possible given the heat so it was nice to use the gym. After this I went in the pool which is big, deep and at a perfect temperature. All in all, a very nice spot even if it has a touch of colonialism about it.
On the way back across the Demerara
