After two years of living the vida sudamericana, followed by a 2-month tour around the US to reconnect with family and friends, I’m now headed back to the work I started in Peru and Brazil. To get there I decided to take an indirect route, through the northeastern Amazon. I’ve never visited this part of the continent and haven’t heard much about it, so I thought it would be fun to explore.
I’m starting this next phase of my journey in Guyana, the only officially English-speaking country in South America. Now I’m having as much trouble understanding some of the accents in English as I’ve had understanding some of those in Spanish or Portuguese. Also, most people also speak a creole language which is supposed to be based on English, but sounds nothing like it. I heard it borrows a lot from Hindi, due to the large Indian population here, as well as from the local indigenous languages.
There is little tourism in this country, even in the main city of Georgetown, and public transportation options are limited. Some of the food is delicious, like the local fish and the “channa” (chickpea) curry, prepared with some real tasty Indian spices.