Vacation in Guyana

On Sunday 25th March, I met Rosie and Clare at Cheddi Jagan airport and we began our three week vacation in Guyana.

My room in the shared flat in Georgetown was our somewhat compact base. The adjoining balcony, the covered patio area in the garden and the swimming pool area of the Pegasus Hotel were our spaces for eating, talking, reading and general relaxation/ flopping exhaustedly in the excess heat and humidity.

Kite flying- the soaring kites represent the resurrection of Christ

As the vacation straddled Easter, teachers I know invited us to join their children's kite flying sessions in the parks and along the sea wall. Traditionally kites are home made, constructed with great care and pride, using paper, cloth, lightweight woods or bamboo, string or twine and ribbons, although most on display seemed to be bought.  There are competitions for the best, the largest, the noisiest, the smallest-a seemingly endless range of kites. Schools bring pupils onto nearby parks for the last days of the Spring term. For a week before Easter, where ever we travelled, the sky would be dotted with kites. Easter Monday is the key day, when whole families come together to picnic, fly kites and "lime".

When we walked through the Botanical Gardens later on Easter Monday afternoon, hoping to see the manatees (sea cows), there were no spare patches of grass left for sitting in a park full of picnics, vendors selling iced drinks and snacks, parked vehicles playing loud soca music and sagging kites following running toddlers as the adults settled to conversation and relaxation while teenagers flirted  for attention. We caught the mood- but as visitors and tourists, slipped back home  for iced cokes, ginger ale, lime and rum.

Georgetown sea wall- Easter Monday