Starting to explore…

The Eldorado Inn is a quaint little hotel in the middle of Georgetown somewhere (Check it out àhttp://www.eldorado-inn.com/). The staff is extremely pleasant and I think they find me amusing with my questions and smiles. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can, but though I have wireless internet here at the hotel, it is temperamental and crashes routinely, especially if I try to load files.

We started apartment hunting today and I will probably have a place by the weekend. The two we saw today were very nice and run for about $60 000-90 000 a month. For the record, $1 CDN = $G200. I’m still getting used to people throwing around number and paying $1000 for a meal (which is actually on the expensive side). I don't have much money in my wallet, but I feel kind of rich carrying around a $1000 bill. The first apartment was $300CDN, one bedroom, fully furnished while the other one was $450, two bedrooms, fully furnished (discounted from $550 because it would just be for me). The first was really cute, but the second one does have air conditioning in the bedrooms (beginning to think it’s a necessity for my sleeping success) and the bedrooms are on the second floor which apparently decreases the number of bugs and frogs. The second one is the size of a large townhouse which might be a little much for just me! Wallis has a couple more places lined up for me to see – and of course all the places we are looking at has someone (either herself, a friend or a co-worker) within a block in case of an emergency. She is wonderful.

My first night here we went to GuyExpo which is like a fair with all the booths, but minus the rides and somewhat more commercialized, especially with all the cell phone companies. The booths sell everything you could think of and also present a lot of information from places like the Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Health. As I was still adjusting to the heat and probably half asleep, I didn’t try any of the food, but I did enjoy all the sights and sounds (especially the Hindu rock music), and the smell of the food was very tempting. We actually didn’t get a SIM card for my cell phone, but hopefully soon.

For those of you who are concerned, after three days, I am still the same pink-white that I was when I left Guelph. I wouldn’t be caught without sunscreen and my biggest concern is that I don’t know when to re-apply because I don’t know how much I have sweated off. And I do sweat! I’ve spent my days in and out of offices, walking around and traveling. Any distances more than a couple of blocks are done in the project vehicle driven by Wallis or by Glenn Millar, the project driver, or a taxi hired by the project, as the roads are definitely not designed for pedestrians. I feel the heat, but even the people who are from Guyana complain about how hot it is, so I don’t feel out of place. I’m going to attempt to unpack my suitcases to find my umbrella which is apparently not just for rain anymore, but will be my new sun protector. Also trying to find a balance between sunscreen and bug stuff – I haven’t met a mosquito yet, but I don’t want to meet one with dengue fever.

Ah, the best for last, the food. So far so good (knock on wood), but I am actually agreeing with everything that I have eaten which is fairly impressive for my sensitive stomach. Some of the highlights include phoroullis (obviously spelt wrong, but are kind of like chicken balls without chicken, made with spices and chickpeas which you can get covered or on the side “sour sauce” which is misleading because it’s actually spicy), roti with fried eggplant and potato, plantain and cassava and sweet potato chips (like potato chips, only not “potatoes”), and a little bit of fried chicken. And the pineapple. I don’t even have words to express how beautifully sweet this fruit is – I like it before, but I had no idea. And there is pastries with pineapple filling and they make pineapple jam! And they have this “cherry” juice which is amazing. But it doesn't taste like cherries, because it's not a cherry really. I’m still trying to find out what this fruit looks like and it's relation to the cherries that I am familiar with, but I crave the juice now. Looking forward to breakfast tomorrow, that’s for sure!

Take care.

xoxo