RockyRoad, and not like the icecream

It all started with a Nuggle.
This nuggle is a little peanut caramel chocolate delight and also my new favorite word. . I bought one at the gas station in Georgetown that we were meeting the bus at. The gas station that sells magazines, oil of olay soap and diet pepsi….where am I, I thought?!
I was overwhelmed by the choices of candy and food that I settled on something I’ve never had, and lets just say I don’t regret my decision. Nuggle.

Meeting at 8:30 turned into leaving at 11:30…because..well..just because it is Guyana.
I met the conductor Gary, and our driver Don and a whole crew of 30 others that were ready for the journey down to Lethem as well. (other Peace Corps Volunteers, some VSO a forestry guy, world teach, Guyanese etc) The prediction was a 15-20 hour drive, reasonably 500 km away on unpaved roads will do this to you…
We packed in, 4 to a row. I sat behind the conductor because I told him I wanted to practice being one too. The bus was so packed he actually had to sit on a bucket……

boooom we were offfffffff

So it started with a smooth 1.5 hours , then a 20 minute wait at a random house where Kirsten and I peed between two semi’s that had a bear head concrete statue thingy between. I pretended he was my protector cuz it was dark…but that didn’t protect me from Kirstens stream!! Ahhh I thought..but then I realized im gonna be on a bus for awhile anywho…nothing to get grossed out by Get back on the ride and
Then the bumps began…30 packed into this vehicle and me next to a window= a constant window bump to the side of my head… luggage on our lap because there is no compartments..and music has stopped because of the road…The only noise to hear was the shifting of gears, and the rattling of the entire bus. It kinda reminded me of our family road trips to Florida…where my siblings told me to hold the van door because the rattling was annoying so I had to keep my foot on it the entire time….only this time, the rattling was everywhere…and my foot against the door didn’t help!!
I closed my eyes because it was 2 a.m. but sleep never visited me that night…although I pretended to a lot….2 stops 2 pees later, I decided to stop drinking water, when I scraped my legs on bush twigs…as well as noticed that we were in the middle of nowhere.. Looking around there was one dirt road…nothing to the sides for miles and miles except jungle. I got dizzy watching the trees pass by…couldn’t even see over the tops of them as the sun rose.
There was a point in the first 12 hours when we met a hill too large and started up it…the bus couldn’t handle it, although the conductor told me it was only because I was on it we were not getting up that hill driving. So we get out and walk. Walk on a red dirt road that has ridges from rain and wind….like a wash board.
. We make it up…and then 2 hours later we make it half way and we are in Irokrama. If you ever closed your eyes and pictured peacefulness, this was it with trees and rivers so beautiful its as if they were cut outs from a snowglobe of landscape…without snow…so simple. So evident of the fact that it was untouched by outside forces.
We get out of the vehicle and cross the river on a fairy. Classy jillian fell and broke her flip flop in the water..…14 hours later…

We are on the dusty trail for 2 more hours….its 4 p.m. and sun is starting to shine not as heavy. With the 30 seats next to me, we meet a line of vehicles. A line of vehicles from a fairy that passed before us an hour ago..as well as vehicles that were 2, 3 and 4 hours ahead of us….hmmmmmmmmm whats going on?! We got out and started walking in the heavy rained on mud. Oh did I mention it was down pouring before we crossed the river? Im soaked, muddy and sliding through the mud to get to the bridge. The wooden bridge that is the cause of the hold up. And there it is. A military like vehicle…with a tarp over its back has glided off the bridge and has broken a chunk of the bridge as well as is stuck in a way that nothing larger than a van can pass. Apparently it has been here in the middle of nowhere for 4 hours….where’s Triple A, I think to myself.
Vehicles are switching tires to get them small enough to sneak past, but now a vehicle is stuck with it….how are we going to get it out without the military vehicle falling over to the creek and snapping the bridges stand?????

An hour more and the vehicle that was stuck between wiggled through…and is off to Lethem as quick as he got through. We are left behind with a stuck truck..and no equipment to move it…..except when a vehicle shows up around 6:15. The sun is starting to set as they are removing all that is in the back of the stuck truck…..soda, onions, potatoes, bicycles, beams, mattresses, bags of rice, beer. I’m tempted to jump on little orange bike with my bag and start riding the next 10 hour ride, however someone handed me a beer..so I thought to myself…well atleast I am not going to die.

Another hour passes. I get stuck in the mud. The vehicle however amazingly gets unstuck..without falling sideways!!
YAY WE ARE FREEE!!!!


We pile back in the bus…smiles on our faces!! We are not stuck!! OWOWO but then there is a little muster from the engine…oh NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We get out to push and as the driver puts it in reverse it is revved up enough to start…we take offffffffffff!!!
We drive 4 more hours till we get to food and water. I stuff my face with a butter flap pastry, that is really just pastry and get two waters. Everyone stops and eats for about 30 mins..then back onto the bus because we are told its just 2 more hours….
The 2 hour mark passes and I am ready to sleep…but stay up just to see us reach. Then the 3 hour mark passes and I am so over anxious I am laughing outloud and inside breaking bit by bit. Then the 4 hour mark comes and the driver is tired so he pulls over to take a 30 min nap. We stand outside…look at the full moon and the mountains in the distance. Im so giddy I decide to take off my panties….mainly because they are still wet from the downpour before and its not my favorite feeling.
We pile back in. The 4.5 hour mark is approaching and I see a light finally!! The light comes…and then goes…..and another hour later I realize that light is just a distance dot. 6 hours into …after crossing over countless almost broken bridges I see it. A red shinning light…and that my friends I was told was LETHEM!

AHHH my heart is screaming with excitement…we made it we made it!! I want to yell but only look around me to see disappointed stares or sleeping with their mouth open faces. 20 mins later we enter. A town that looks nothing like the Guyana I know or am sharing my life with. A Guyana that is savannahs and quiet. A Guyana that meets me with a peaceful calm.

Here was some Highlights of the next 1. 5 days when we were not on the bus:

1. Stayed at Auntie Foo’s….a kind woman who woke up and made us all breakfast. Porridge, hotdogs and eggs…and bread that actually tasted like grandmas…something that I didn’t believe was possible…but Grandma, she’s got your recipe!!
2. Rodeo!!! Whats more to say about listening to country and watching men buck on bulls and horses. They actually had so many cowboys they had to reuse the horses…they were so tired at some points that they bucked for a second then rested…bucked again….very anticlimactic…buttttttttttttt my favorite one was when they opened the gate after sattling a man up..and the bull just layed down.
3. Ferris wheel….3 bumper cars..one named bob espongi and meat on a stick
4. A jewelry man Lawrence
5. a gambling table game called chic chic
6. beautiful sunset
7. even more beautiful waterfall(Kumu Falls)
8. monkeys, birds and nature
9. Kite flying…millions of kites…it’s a tradition here to fly them on Easter Sunday and Monday….its one of the most freeing sights….definetly a tradition id like to keep with my own family someday


So many things to challenge you..so many things to fall in love with. Like everyday life, only in a journey do you realize the good will always out weigh the challenge…and the next day will come to show you the luckiness you truly have.

Peace Love and an unforgettable Journey