Life in the Corps: I'll Be Back Jus Now (guest post from Kaylie)

I’m slightly embarrassed to admit that when David found out where he’d be serving for the Peace Corps just over 2 years ago, I had never even heard of Guyana, let alone plan to visit twice in two years.

It’s weird to think that the next time we go back to visit, David’s 7 year old ‘niece’ will probably have kids of her own. Hopefully, when we visit in 20 years or so, we’ll see a lot of development throughout the country – hopefully the tourism industry will grow and thrive so people from all over the world can come experience the beauty of the Guyanese rainforest, and maybe the trail to Kwakwani will even be paved – likely reducing the travel time to his village by at least a couple hours (I’m not putting money on that one though)!

We got to travel a good bit this time around. David took me to Kaieteur Falls, which is arguably Guyana's most famous attraction. The Guyanese claim that its the largest single drop waterfall in the world. Regardless of whether or not thats actually true, it is definitely one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We took a small (13 passenger) plane to get from Georgetown to Kaieteur, and once I got over the fear of crashing, I actually really enjoyed the flight. The plane flew fairly low, so much of the time we had a really nice view of the country while we were in the air.

David and I also had the pleasure of visiting Arrowpoint - a small eco resort that is a two hour boat ride down the Demerara River from Georgetown. It was a very intimate getaway experience. The only people staying at the resort other than David and I was another couple and the 4 staff people there to help us with whatever we needed. We spent our time at Arrowpoint enjoying the beautiful scenery, laying in the hammocks, kayaking, hiking, and mountain biking - we even went on a nighttime boat expedition where we saw a cayman (or, as we Americans call it, an alligator) - very cool, but a little scary!

Other than the traveling, I spent the rest of my trip in David's village hanging out with his host family. It was a really wonderful trip and I can't wait to see whats in store 20 years from now when I visit again!

I've included a bunch of pictures from my time in Guyana – hope you enjoy!

View of Kaietur from the Plane

View of Georgetown from the plane.

David's Kaietur Selfie.

They call the water in the Arrowpoint area "Black Water" - supposedly the dark color is from the leeching of tannins from decaying leaves of vegetation. Between the extremely dark black water and the stillness of the river, there is a mirror-like reflection that is absolutely gorgeous!