Today we finally took the long awaited, much anticipated, yet frequently rescheduled, tour to one of Guyana’s most famous attractions; Kaieteur Falls. Yippeee!!!
We were able to bring our friend, a taxi driver extraordinaire and connoisseur of Tibbs’ home cooking, along on the adventure. James picked us up at 10am and we sped off to Georgetown to catch our plane. At the airport, we met up with the rest of the passengers on the tour and boarded a 15-seat, single prop plane. Yikes! The hour long ride to Kaieteur was spectacular, with sweeping views of lush jungle and fluffy, cotton cloudscapes. Then we were at the falls!
Before we landed, the pilot took us in some heart-stopping loops around the falls, dipping as close to the waterfall as we imagine he was allowed to get. Once on the ground the panoramic views continued to unfold before us. Two excellent tour guides and rangers in the park brought our group to 3 different vantage points where we admired the majesty of the world’s most powerful single drop water fall. We took tons of photos everywhere and even got a glimpse of the rare golden frogs that hide in bromeliads along the trails.
At the first vantage point, the weather started out clear and bright and the sun glinted off the falls and a fine spray of mist created rainbows in the valley below. In typical Guyanese fashion, however, the weather took a turn for the worse. Rain came in from the jungle and doused us (and our expensive camera equipment). At the second view point, the rain was joined by a fog that obscured the falls, making it even harder to take photos. Gerr…. However, we do live in an Amazonian jungle so we weren’t very surprised when the rain had all but cleared away by the time we reached the third lookout.
We spent an enjoyable time sitting with our dear friend James and one of the tour guides, Leroy, marveling at the majesty of nature. Leroy told us the legend of how King Kai sacrificed himself to save his people from starvation by paddling his canoe over the single-drop. The gods must have been appeased by Kai’s self-sacrifice because the villagers lived and Kai is forever remembered through the name “Kaieteur” which literally translates into “Kai’s fall”.
It was a wonderful day, by far one of the best Saturdays we have enjoyed in a while! Now it is time to hunker down, finish our projects and start making real preparations to pack up and head out of our home for the last two years…. WOWO! Hard to believe…
it is all about passion
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