A Girl in Guyana and Suriname

This is a picture of the floating bridge crossing the Demarara River in Guyana. The bridge consists of big sections that must be clamped together, but you can see the buoys (or whatever they are) off to the side that help it float.

The only picture I took in Georgetown! This is St. George’s Cathedral, supposedly the tallest wooden building in the world.

Just before I snapped this photo, this cow and another one were standing in the middle of the road blocking the car from going anywhere. The driver had to lay on the horn to get them to move.

Lara and Tyrone sitting in the hammock in her living room.

Lara’s kitchen

My “bed” at Lara’s place

The view from Lara’s veranda – looking down the street

My bed with mosquito net covering at the Windjammer hotel in Georgetown, Guyana

Looking through the window of Ian’s minibus

Looking down at the minibus loaded on the ferry – crossing the Essequibo River

A house in a mining village. The water has turned cream-colored because of the mining.

Amatuk Falls – This is right by where we slept the first night of our overland trip.

This was our first view of Kaieteur Falls. It’s way off in the distance. From here we still had a one-hour boat ride and six hours of hiking to get there!

Tony, our guide, showing us the vines that grow alongside the trees in the rainforest.

Across from where we camped the 3rd night. It’s called Old Man’s Beard Falls.

The Ramessar family crossing a stone bridge on our big hike.

Nadina and Daniel playing in the water at the top of Kaieteur Falls. This is where we sat in the water so close to the edge. The actual edge is just to the left of the photo.

The view looking away from Kaieteur Falls

Tony and Melissa looking over the edge of the overhang!

Looking down Kaieteur Falls – you can see part of another rainbow too!

Looking away from Kaieteur Falls at dusk

Looking down the falls at dusk

At first we thought there was only one frog when we first saw it from behind, but then we got a better angle…

Some roots growing over the edge of a rock… they are all covered in moss.

All of our shoes drying in the sun at the Kaieteur Falls Guesthouse.

One type of carnivorous plant

Another type of carnivorous plant that Tony showed us.

Tony picked apart the 2nd carnivorous plant and found the remains of a bug.

Tony taking a nap while we waited for our plane.

Some islands we flew over in the interior of Guyana.

A mosque in Bushlot, ECD, Guyana

A cow standing in the road in Rosignol

Mark, Mikey, and Matthew

Melissa trying on my backpack – she even latched the waistbelt!

Alana, one of the Peace Corps volunteers I hung out with, with her new puppy

Shanna, another PCV, in her house

It’s a LONG one…

Sunday the 29th of January

The trip to Blanche Marie Falls had a rough start. We were supposed to be picked up at the resort since Anne and Lieke had an appointment with their supervisor in the city on Monday morning. The tour operator, Boti, had arranged for a vehicle to pick us up because he was so excited that we booked the Blanche Marie tour instead of the Raleighvallen trip. Boti had told us that our ride would arrive around 5pm. At 7:30pm, we finally decided to load up the 2-seater truck we’re borrowing from Gunno, the girls’ host, and drive into the city. Just as we were about to pull out of the resort’s driveway, our ride showed up. Thank goodness, as I had volunteered to ride in the back of the truck all the way to town (not fun), and Lieke was not happy that I volunteered because it meant she would have to ride in back too.

Our driver, Henk, drove like he was in some NASCAR race. I didn’t even feel the bumpy road because we FLEW over it. Anne really wanted to say something to the driver about how late he was but figured it wouldn’t be a good idea if he ended up being our driver the next day. We had Henk deliver us the center of Paramaribo, and then we had a fantastic dinner at Queen’s Garden. Our waiter was a little creepy. He saw my backpack and started asking me questions about whether or not it had a frame in it. It was very awkward because I wasn’t sure what he was exactly asking so I didn’t know how to answer him. After dinner, we checked our emails and I added the photos to make you all happy!!! Then we took a taxi to the house we stay at when we’re in the city. All 4 of us slept in one room since only one air conditioner was working. It was the best I’ve slept the whole trip. I’ve only had air conditioning one other night on my whole trip, but it broke half-way through the night so I still roasted.

Monday the 30^th of January

Lieke called a taxi, and then woke me, Ferdinand, and Anne so we only had a few minutes to repack everything and head out. First we dropped Anne and Lieke off at their appointment, and then Ferdinand told the taxi we needed to go the bank so I could cash some traveler’s cheques. Ferdinand waited in the car so I didn’t have to attract more attention by walking out of a bank with my huge backpack (I might as well carry a sign that says “I’m a TOURIST! Rob me!”).

Getting traveler’s cheques cashed is always quite an experience. I think I mentioned the last time I tried to do it, the bank had closed at 3pm. This time I was able to find the correct window almost right away, but after I signed and dated the cheques, the girl had to type every number into the computer. Then she told me to wait at Kas 5. I found Kas 5 which was a door on the opposite side of the bank surrounded by 2-way mirror. I had to sit on the bench outside the door and wait for my name to be called. After 3 or 4 people had came and left from Kas 5, a woman yelled “Kat-rin” which I took to be Katherine but only after she yelled it 2 more times. I walked in the room which only had a table and 2 chairs. She counted out my money and off I went. The 2-way mirror thing made me quite nervous. I felt like it should just have a sign on it that said, “I’m walking out of the bank with a large sum of money in my pocket. Rob me!”

Thankfully, I just hopped in the taxi, and within 5 minutes we were at the tour operator’s office so I could give them all my money. Boti told us that the other 8 people on the tour would leave shortly, but we would have to wait for another 2 hours until 11am since our vehicle was in the shop having the brakes repaired and he wasn’t sure how long Lieke and Anne were going to be. Ferdinand and I introduced ourselves to the other people (all Dutch), and then we got directions for the post office since we both wanted to buy some postcards. Two seconds after walking out onto the street, Ferdinand confessed he wasn’t exactly sure where they had told him to go. We had enough time to get lost, but we actually found it right away. On the walk back to the tour operator, we thought we’d buy some bottled water. I went to grab a big bottle of water on the bottom shelf of the cooler but stopped when I realized that the one water bottle had no cap on it, and there was a 1.5 liter Coke bottle with water in it next to it. Hmmm… I think we’ll go with the little bottles, thanks.

Anne and Lieke arrived around 10am, and we decided to walk down to ‘t Vat, a restaurant down the street, for brunch. They surprised us by actually serving our food within 15 minutes of us sitting down (just to get something to drink there, you usually have to wait almost a half hour). My brunch was a broodje kaas (cheese sandwich) which was great! I really miss cheese; I can’t help it – I’m from Wisconsin. You can buy it down here, but it’s expensive and usually not very good. We did a little sightseeing of Fort Zeelandia on the water’s edge and the Palmentuin, a park full of palm trees.

Anne and Ferdinand at Fort Zeelandia

Once we were back at the tour operators, Boti informed us that the car was still in the shop and asked if we wanted something to snack on while we waited. We had just eaten, but we all had something to drink. While we waited, we met this really atrocious older Dutch woman who was booking a trip with her husband. She looked at Anne’s Teva sandals and said, “Well, they’re really awful-looking aren’t they? Well at least they’re practical.” And then when she found out I was from America she asked where I was from. I told her Wisconsin. She immediately replied, “Never heard of it” and turned to ask Anne another question. A little while later, Boti asked me if I wanted another Coke but I said no, and the mean woman said, “You’re American. You live off of Coke.” EXCUSE ME?? Wow, lady… thanks for not stereotyping me.

Lieke and Ferdinand waiting at the tour operator

At about 1pm, we were still waiting. Not a big surprise at this point. I totaled all the time we had spent waiting in the last 5 days… over 10 hours. Our joke now is that every wait is 2.5 hours. Finally around 1:45pm, the vehicle arrived (just over 2.5 hours). And Henk was our driver so it really was a good thing that we didn’t say anything to him the night before. Everything was loaded up in our 4×4, and we headed out of the city to meet up with the rest of the group. Henk, again, drove like a bat out of hell because he thought we were really behind. When he stopped at one bridge, he asked the guy taking the “toll” whether or not the group had passed by yet. The guy said no, but Henk didn’t believe him so on we drove. Henk made a stop at Bigi Poika, a village with a telephone, and found out that the group was still 30 minutes behind us at least. We were all able to meet up at the intersection where we came from Bigi Poika and they came from Jodensavanne (which I’ll mention later). A quick lunch of roti and chicken, and we were back on the road for another 3-4 hours. The group in front of us took so many smoking breaks, it felt like we stopped every 30 minutes (a few times we actually did). And once in awhile we would stop in the middle of an old rickety wooden bridge. Not exactly my ideal place to stop, but the view was great! We made it to our camping spot, Alfons Dorp, and set up our hammocks. It was great to be sleeping in a hammock again. My first 7 out of 8 nights in Guyana were spent sleeping in a hammock, and I haven’t slept in one since. Lieke, 3 other people, and I went out walking with Norman, one of the guides, to do a little night hunting. We didn’t see much that first night, but on the walk back I slipped and fell up to my knee in a very deep puddle. My khaki pants are now permanently red from the left knee down. Anne, Ferdinand, Lieke, and I played a few games of Troef Call, and then we hit the sack. We fell asleep to one of the couples screaming obscenities at each other in Dutch because the guy (who was drunk) tried to hang his hammock over the campfire.

Tuesday the 31^st of January

I woke up when everyone kept running into my hammock strings. What a great way to wake up… constantly being bumped into. We left camp at about 9am, and at one point we had to stop because a tree had fallen in our path. Not a problem for Norman, who quickly pulled out his chainsaw and cut it up. Problem solved. 🙂 We arrived at Blanche Marie around 3pm and took the quick hike out to see them. I’ve seen Niagara Falls and Kaieteur Falls which were both great in their own way, but Blanche Marie definitely has the most character of any waterfall I’ve ever seen. It was quite wide across with all of these dark colored rocks sticking out of the water. The photos don’t even come close to how beautiful it really is. I was immediately glad we made the decision to visit this area. We were able to sit in the water right at the bottom of the falls. I ventured in for only 15-20 minutes, but the current was so strong I was sick of trying to hold on to rocks so as not to slip away. When we walked back to the Guest House from the falls, we saw a green-striped frog on the path and two toucans in the trees probably about 80 feet above us. They were super loud!!

group at Blanche Marie

swimming at Blanche Marie

the frog we saw

That night we had a delicious dinner prepared by our cook, Heuwell. At dinner, the old drunk guy from the night before tried to tell us that going to Apura the next day was pointless and that we should all just stay at the falls. We were getting upset because we had been told by Boti that we would definitely go to Apura for the day (as had everyone else). The reason we chose the trip was because there was more to do than just sit at the falls all day. Unfortunately we couldn’t discuss this with Boti because he had gone back to town and wouldn’t arrive until the next afternoon. Norman settled the situation by saying whoever wanted to stay could stay and whoever wanted to go could go.

Wednesday the 1^st of February

Two cars with 9 of the 12 tourists started our drive to Apura (Apoera) around 9am. Our first stop was at a bauxite mine where we were able to get some gas and watch some trucks driving around. My favorite truck was the one labeled “Taliban Crew.” I have been down here over a month, but I’m still shocked when I see someone has labeled their truck with the word Taliban. I was told by some of the Peace Corps people that it doesn’t mean what I think it means. Still makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

Taliban Crew truck

Our next stop was at an old abandoned railway station. After the civil war in Suriname, the government received funding from many different countries and organizations to help rebuild the country. They decided to put a lot of the money into building up the northwestern part of Suriname by building a railway and mining bauxite, trying to encourage expansion. After spending 1 billion euros (1.2 billion US dollars) on this project, it was abandoned. I’m not sure why it was abandoned or when they exactly got the funding for it, but it was a HUGE waste of money. The building we visited was supposed to have a restaurant, bathrooms, store, etc. What we saw was concrete pillars, broken windows, and bat poop. The structure is still there, but anything that could be used was stripped out. Norman, our guide, said that that was the story of Suriname… lots of wasted money. And it was the first time one of the guides had made an extra effort to explain something to me in English, so I knew Norman had some strong feelings about this place.

group at abandoned train station

After about 2.5 hours of driving, we arrived in Apura. We stopped at a store to get some beer, and then we stopped at a lady’s house to buy a big chunk of ice for the cooler. All of us “jongens” (kids) hopped in the back of Norman’s truck. Lieke, Ferdinand, Anne, I, and 2 other Dutch people (Marlies and Omar) had a blast in the back! I waved to all the little kids I saw playing in their yards or out riding their bikes.

Anne, Lieke, and I in the back of the truck driving through Apura

We made a stop at some guy’s house for some mangoes, and his 4 little kids (all in their underwear) carried out the mangoe-reaching pole. Then we all peeled the mangoes with our teeth and sunk them in to the orange stringy fruit. They were delicious! After the mangoes, Norman took us to another guy’s house where we were able to see different kinds of trees… breadfruit, cocoa, olive.

eating the mango

the view from the mango guy’s house

Norman took us on a little hike to an AmerIndian village on the water’s edge. I had only worn a pair of flip-flops and kept getting my feet stuck in the thick mud. More than once, we shoe would be buried in the mud after I had pulled my foot out, and I would have to throw my hand in and grab in. Finally I gave up trying to walk with them on and just carried them. At one point, our trail was flooded. And I mean flooded… at least 5 feet deep in some parts. Luckily, Henk and Lieke volunteered to go out in the water and find a path to take. There was a few wooden boards to walk across first and then a log to scoot across. Standing on the log, the water only reached to our knees so most of us made it across half dry. Lieke, on the other hand, fell into the water when she was searching for a path, so she had a nice little swim! We arrived at the village and all the women came running with their crafts to sell. They laid everything out on a bench so we could see it all. The women and children stood on one side and at the end, and we stood on the other side. It was quite the store. They were selling bracelets, necklaces, purses, and other things made out of seeds that they collect from a certain kind of tree around their village. They dye some of the seeds blue, gray, purple, peach, red. And then they use other seeds or jaguar claws or anything else available and incorporate it into their craft. I bought a few bracelets and necklaces, and when we were almost finished buying things I looked over to see that nobody had bought the most beautiful piece of work on the bench. Some woman had strung all these seeds together to make a little square with a beautiful pattern on it. Then she hung the shells of another seed on the ends of it. We were told they wear something like that when they dance. I asked how much she was selling it for. She answered 35 SRD which is about $12 US. That made up my mind… I handed her a 50 SRD bill, but she didn’t know math, and I couldn’t explain in Dutch that I needed 15 change. Finally Norman came over and told her she needed to borrow 15 from one of the other women, and then she would have to pay them back later. Many times Norman had to intervene a bit to explain how much change we would need back… thank goodness he was there. And because everyone was shopping for themselves, I was forced to use my Dutch for the first time since arriving here. Not that I had to say much, but I had to ask how much things cost and I had to understand their answer. It was actually really great. I was proud of myself for not having to ask my friends to buy things for me.

hiking out to the AmerIndian village

wading across the water

buying crafts from the AmerIndians on the western coast of Suriname

After the shopping was finished, we walked over to another part of the village. Norman asked if the group could go swimming there. As we were waiting for him to figure things out, I felt a few sharp pains on my right foot. I looked down to find 10-15 little red ants. Those little suckers can bite! We were able to go swimming, but I hadn’t brought my suit so I just waded into the water to try to take away some of the pain of those ant bites. From where we were, we could see the eastern coast of Guyana. I sat on a bench with Marleen, who also hadn’t brought her suit with. We chatted about how her and her husband Bert had retired from the medical profession in Holland and moved to a little village in France last year. We also watched a few of the naked children in the village walk from thatched-roof hut to thatched-roof hut. They were adorable.

a view from the village

We were able to get a ride back to our vehicles from a guy in the village. He had a boat made out of one piece of wood that fit all of us single-file. I almost sat in some boskip (forest chicken) blood, but other than that we were able to just enjoy the breeze and view.

riding in the boat made out of one piece of wood

That morning Norman had written “DANGEROUS!!!” across the tailgate of his truck in the red dirt. The week before we had watched an episode of Friends on Lieke’s computer where Joey thought “Bert!” was their code word for danger. So we labeled our truck “BIRT” (we didn’t want to offend Bert, Marleen’s husband, by spelling it with an E). Although, Ferdinand first spelled it “BIRD”. So now we use either word as our code word for danger! 🙂

Norman and his warning!

We arrived back at Blanche Marie around 6 or 7pm, and Heuwell had dinner ready for us already. After dinner, we loaded up the trucks and drove out to the falls. They turned on the spotlights for us, and we had a few drinks and admired the massive amount of water floating past us. Heuwell happened to be sitting by me, so I told him that he was an excellent chef and that we noticed he paid close attention to detail by adding cucumber and tomato slices all the time. He was so excited that I complemented him! I hadn’t really talked to him at all yet, but I knew he knew I only spoke English because he would say a few things here and there. Little did I know he sounds like he grew up in the States. His English sounds like mine. I was super surprised. After talking to him for about 10 minutes, I asked him how long he lived in the States. He cracked up… said he’s got family there and has probably spent 2 years in total visiting the States. And he’s got friends at the American Embassy in Paramaribo so he speaks English all the time. We ended up having a fantastic conversation all evening about everything… me being a traveling American, his coming out of the closet in a super-conservative country, cable television, Saturday Night Live, Beyonce. Heuwell promised to take us out in Paramaribo the next time we were in the city, and Norman said he would come too if he was around. Lieke, Ferdinand, Anne, Heuwell, Marlies, Omar and I all went back to our building (everyone else was staying in other buildings next door). This is when the alcohol really kicked in… Lieke, Fer, Anne, and I took about 20 photos but I’m just going to include my favorite… us pretending there was something scary on the veranda.

something scary??

Thursday the 2^nd of February

I spent the morning getting to know the toilet in our guest house while everyone else was able to make it out to see El Dorado falls. I slept until after noon sometime, and Heuwell periodically checked on me to make sure I was still alive. Eventually I was able to take a shower and pack up my stuff. Somewhere around 2pm, everyone came back and we had lunch. Rather, they had lunch and I had 2 bites of rice and potatoes before giving up. Everyone was happy to see me walking around, and they said everyone was concerned about me when they were at the falls. It was nice to know they were still thinking of me. We left the guest house about 4pm and no less than 3 minutes into the drive, Norman (the lead driver) stopped because something was blocking the path. He waved us all up to come see… it was a turtle about 15-18 inches long right in the middle of the path. When he picked it up, the turtle hid in his shell and was passed around so everyone could inspect him. Soon we were back in the vehicles and heading out again, but before we could even get to the main road we had to stop again. Something a little bit bigger than a turtle was blocking the path. A tree had fallen in the middle of the night (sorry, no jaguars or anything cool like that), so Norman again got out the chainsaw and went to work. He even let Ferdinand hold it one time (perfect photo op).

Lieke and the turtle

tough guy!

We were supposed to drive for 4-5 hours, but Henk got sick of the slow drivers in front of him and decided to pass everyone and floor it. This was his craziest driving yet. We were going so fast that one time he turned the wheel too late to avoid hitting a tree trunk that had fallen but was still suspended 3 feet off the ground due to the branches. When we finally stopped to wait for everyone to catch up, Henk told us to notice the time and that everyone else would arrive in 30 minutes. Ten minutes later, everyone else arrived, and I just happened to notice that the windshield had cracked somewhere in the last hour. Hmmm… I wonder if it was because he hit a tree? Henk said it was because of the vehicle, something about a crack in the frame of the window. Yeah, right. And when everyone caught up, we were told that Henk missed the camp we were supposed to spend the night at so we kept driving another hour and a half to the camp at Alfons Dorp.

After a quick dinner that Heuwell had prepared at the guest house, we were sitting around chatting. Someone asked me if I wanted to drive. I said “YES!” I had no idea what I was volunteering for at this point. I think it was Heuwell who explained to me that Boti and Norman wanted to go hunting (the only thing they hunt during the day is bush pig usually). They wanted someone to drive, but they wanted to stay out until they actually got something. Heuwell told me in these exact words, “They want to make sure that Katie doesn’t fall asleep.” And I said, “Well, Katie’s the only one here who slept until 1pm today.” They all cracked up at that one… it was true! Lieke agreed to come with and keep me awake. Omar and Ferdinand decided to join us too. I was super excited as it was my first time ever driving in another country, and the driver sits on the opposite side of the car than we do, and it was a HUGE truck and a stick shift! My night couldn’t have gotten any better!!! Norman gave me a quick course in hunting-speak. Boti and he would ride in back of the truck with their spotlights. If he shined the light in front of me and made a motion up, it meant to drive faster. If he motioned the light down, it meant slow down. If they banged on the roof of the truck, it meant slowly come to a stop, put the truck in neutral, and turn off the headlights but keep the truck running. Everyone came over to wish us luck and wave us off. I got out on the road and started dodging the huge puddles (probably 15 feet across), but Norman and Boti must have gotten slapped by a few tree branches because they told me to just drive right down the middle. Hell yeah! A few of the puddles were 3 feet deep or more… I was LOVIN’ it!!! In the 2.5 hours of driving I did, we probably stopped 7 or 8 times, but all we saw were a few birds, 3 caiman, and a big snake. Just before we turned around and went back, Boti and Norman both got out of the truck and walked down the road in front of me with their lights. Norman told me to keep the lights turned off and to follow them. “Keep in mind the trees on either side of the road.” It was crazy! Pitch black and I’m following two little lights that flash three or four times a minute. Norman had me jump in the back seat so he could drive back to camp. I looked over at Ferdinand who was sleeping in the most uncomfortable-looking position ever. His legs were in the position they would be if he were sitting, but his upper body had fallen straight over to the right and was bobbing up and down. His head was about 2 inches from me, so I couldn’t get very comfortable. We arrived back at camp around 4pm to find that Marlies and Anne had set up all 4 of our hammocks so we could just hop in and fall asleep.

Friday the 3^rd of February

I was told I could sleep in, which I should have known would never happen. Again I was woken up by people running into my hammock strings and talking out loud right next to me. I got about 4 hours of sleep which did not make me a happy camper (hahaha). Boti and Henk left camp early that morning to go meet a group of people returning from Raleighvallen because a car had broken down. They had to backtrack about 1.5 hours, so Henk took Heuwell’s vehicle since his was falling apart. We had a breakfast of fried potatoes and scrambled eggs (that’s all that was left). Heuwell started playing some tunes, and we had a little dance party. He made Lieke and Ferdinand do the Buca, a Surinamese thing. We were all cracking up as it meant that Ferdinand would stand there with Lieke’s hands on the ground and legs wrapped around his waist. And then they had to “dance.”

do the BUCA!!

Norman also gave me some machete lessons. I chopped down a tree that they will later use for firewood.

machete lessons

It was decided, in Dutch, that Heuwell would take Henk’s 4×4 with a group of 5 people (Anne, Ferdinand, Omar, Marlies, and Yvonne – the lady with the drunk husband) and start driving since they would need to go slower than everyone else. Nobody told me what was going on, and luckily I asked just before they pulled onto the road because my purse with my mosquito lotion, etc was in the vehicle. I was a little pissed, and Lieke knew it. I was just sick of everything being discussed in Dutch and then being explained later to me and in much less detail. Since we were again waiting, this time for Boti and Henk and another vehicle to arrive AND for the chicken to be ready for lunch, Lieke and I decided to make the most of it by lying out in the sun and getting a little color. We laid out a hammock which served as our beach towel, and I was burned in about 30 minutes. The 3 vehicles arrived, and my favorite American-hater got out of one of the cars, the mean lady who told me I lived on Coke. Lieke and I couldn’t believe it, and we couldn’t wait to see the expression on Anne’s face when we all met up in a few hours. Lieke and I decided with Bert and Marleen that us 4 would ride with Norman. Boti told us that everyone who was left from the Blanche Marie group would ride with Henk. I was not happy about having to ride with Henk or Paul, the drunk guy who tried to tell us not to go to Apura. I asked Boti why. He said it was to keep the group together. We said we didn’t care. We wanted to ride with Norman. I was pissed. The whole trip was definitely not what I expected at all, and I was sick of riding in Henk’s car. Finally Boti gave in and let us ride with Norman. Norman told us to all get in the car quick so we could leave before Boti changed his mind. And soon we were on the road again.

We met up with Heuwell’s car at the “Mango Tree.” It was a little rest stop with picnic tables and thatched-roof huts for shade. We had some sandwiches and sat and chatted. Lieke went to use the bathroom and came running out screaming with her pants half-way falling off because she saw a spider in the bathroom and she’s afraid of spiders like I’m afraid of bats. After inspecting it, I can see why it sent her screaming. It was probably 5-6 inches long!

All of the vehicles gathered on the side of the road in Zanderij for one last beer together, and we said our goodbyes. Lieke, Ferdinand, Anne, and I were to ride with a driver from the other tour group. About 10 minutes into our drive, he stopped for gas and after getting a full tank, was unable to start the car again. We were stuck at Walma’s Service Station for almost 2 hours before the car was ready to go again. We went into Walma’s to get something to drink, only to find the shelves almost bare. There were 6-packs of dirty Coke cans in the fridge. And there were 2 choices for candy bars. And some Pringles. We were so happy to be waiting again. Kidding. Finally arrived home around 11pm and went right to bed.

group photo with Norman

waiting at Walma’s
*****
We’ve been back for 4 days now, and it’s been great. Relaxing. The days are going so fast. Yesterday, I woke up and couldn’t remember if it was Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. Ahhh… the life. Yesterday, Ferdinand, Anne, and I were able to visit Jodensavanne, the site of the ruins of the largest synagogue in the western hemisphere. And site of a mineral spring flowing with healing water. So I definitely gave it a try! 🙂 Out on the town tonight with Heuwell and Lieke.

BONUS PHOTO:

a green-eyed fly we killed in our car!

Thanks to everyone for their positive comments and concerned emails! I am doing really great. I don't have a lot of time to catch you up on what I've been up to, so hopefully I'll post again soon. ... [Continue reading this entry]