Guyana

Ok, so, it's September 25th and I haven't written a country blog since number 114, Mozambique, on August 30th. Here's the deal: September started out slow. Calib got his bottom braces on (even tightening them is an adjustment, so getting those on made eating a little difficult for a few days), and then Hayden got sick. I have one strict rule with these countries: we DO NOT do one unless EVERYONE can eat the meal, together. And when you have sick kids and kids sticking to smoothies and cup o noodles, that's just not going to happen. 

Then we were finally ready to start doing countries again when Hurricane Irma was upon us.  At that point it was hard to go to the store and get a list of everything you needed, because shelves were literally empty. You didn't buy cold food too far ahead of time either, because you had no idea if you would have electricity (we did!). And then after the storm passed, it took over a week for stores to be back to normal. Besides that, right after Irma, I finally got the illness that had been working it's way through the house. I was grateful to have electricity to cook food I couldn't keep down, and A/C to sweat my fever out in. Then, after all of that, we found out Asa was going to be in the office a lot more (and when he is in the office, he misses dinner). So, basically September imploded with the country project. 

But, I have done what I can with the situation. We do have our new goal of finishing up with the Olympics, which begin on February 9th, which I believe is still do -able. By the end of September we should have around 70 countries still left. Divide that by four months (and 8 days) and we have to do somewhere around 17 a month. I'm going to super load up October (and take some help from the Food and Wine Festival at Epcot)  and try and get us back on track.   

We did do some countries in September, I just haven't done any blogs. In an attempt to catch up before our weekend starts, I'm going to do my best to get through some (or all) of them today. 

Back in early September we did move on to country #115, Guyana. For Guyana, we head to South America, where there are only 12 independent countries. It's the continent with the least amount of countries. Even Oceania has more, at 14. 

Guyana is the only English speaking country in South America. It's full of various cultures though. The current population is largely decedents of African slaves, and indentured immigrants brought from East India. The population of the whole country is somewhere around 800,000 people, but over half a million Guyanese live abroad. 

The primary religion here is Christian, with about 64% of the population identifying as such, but there is also a large Hindu population. The city of Phagwah has a big Holi celebration each year. 

Guyana is pretty safe to visit, but their capital, Georgetown, is notorious for petty street crime. Beyond that, Guyana doesn't get the best press. Often people focus on the headlines of corruption, power outage and economic troubles. But tourists don't go to Guyana for it's cities, they go for it's adventures, natural wonders, and biodiversity. 

Our landmark is one of those natural wonders: Kaieteur Falls. Kaieteur Falls is the world's highest single drop waterfall. . It's about five times as high as Niagara Falls. The single drop accounts for 741 feet. It later flows over a series of cascades, making the whole thing around 822 feet. 

Now 'tallest waterfalls are hard to measure and officially determine- but this one is unique in that it has such a tall single drop. Not only does Kaieteur have the height, the combination of that plus the sheer volume of water ranks it among the most powerful waterfalls in the world. 

Although, if you want to visit Kaieteur, it'll be difficult. It's only accessible by plane, or a three day hike. There's no driving past this one. If you're looking for some interesting driving in Guyana, you can just hope on the famous Takutu River Bridge. It transports you to Brazil. What makes this bridge (that opened in 2009) unique is that it switches what side of the road you drive on! Drivers go over the bridge driving on their left (in Guyana) to driving on the right in Brazil (like here). 

With it's varied animal habitats of beaches, jungles, plains and savannas, Guyana is a top wild-life watching destination. There's the waxy monkey tree frog, rare birds and jaguars. But, there's also the giant river otter (squeel!!) These guys are over 5 feet long, live in families, and are the nosiest of all otters (I know, I know, otters are horribly mean, but I LOVE them!) Anyway, Guyana is the last real stronghold for the species. They are the most endangered in the neotropics (which, if you didn't know is basically Central and South America), thanks to poaching. Wild population estimates of the otters are generally below 5,000. 

Over in the Iwokrama rain forest, you'll find another giant species: the giant ant eater! The rain forest is one of four remaining tropical forests in the world that have been untouched by man, So besides being home to the anteaters it could be hiding a whole world of species we've never seen before. The giant ant eaters are often called 'ant bears'. These ant eaters are actually classified with sloths. Their tongues are over 2 feet long, and they can eat over 35,000 ants a day. 

The boys made their postcards for Guyana. 

Calib drew an empty rain forest to denote all the untouched land, and had planes going out to show people Kaieteur Falls. 

Peyton's forest featured the giant ant eater, and he had people in different colors because of Holi. 

Hayden drew what I thought was an awesome picture of the falls, but it lacked content, so while I didn't vote for it, it made an excellent addition to his collection (which I then voted for). 

Because of all the Guyanese who live outside the country, their cuisine is pretty diverse, it seems when those citizens return from their time abroad, they bring back some cooking tips with them. For Guyana dinner we had Guyanese Chowmein (without chicken), Garlic Pork, Guyana Green Beans (recipe adapted without the shrimp & rice part), pineapple and bread. 

This dinner earned five spoons up, if my memory serves me correct. 

Everything was awesome, and any one of those recipes could have been the main dish on it's own if we had left in the protein, and probably earned 5 spoons up. Even Hayden liked the noodles, and he's not really a noodle guy. 

 If you don't like garlic though, none of this is for you. My whole family loves it though, so this was right up our ally, and after having done a lot of African countries in a row, this was a welcome change. 

We colored Guyana in dark blue (I took this picture quite late, so if you are paying attention, you'll notice there's some extra Caribbean countries in there). 

That's 115 down, 78 to go! 

Next Up: Saint Lucia (I think I still have six more blogs to do today, yikes!)