Getting to Guyana didn't go as smoothly as it was supposed to. Our guesthouse had booked for us a van that was supposed to take us the whole way from Paramaribo to Georgetown, and they had told us the price included the fare for the ferry crossing.

We were collected at 4.30am and shared a small people mover (van?!?) with 3 Brazilian women. There was very little luggage space as the very back seats of the van took up the boot space and were designed for 3 year old children. But we got to the border and ferry crossing at around 8am (which was surprising as our driver concentrated more on his phone than the road) where our driver threw us out and told us to run to get a ticket. The only problem was the gates were closed and we, along with the 30 or so other people around, were not able to get in as the first 10am ferry was full.

Our driver had also decided he didn't want to take us the whole way, so he had negotiated with another guy to take us the rest of the way. He wasn't very open to telling us this though, since he owed us some change from our fare and thought he would get away without giving it to us. So we had some random guy telling us to put our bags in his car and no one really telling us what was happening. We eventually got our change after standing there and demanding it 4 times.

We then had to wait a few hours in the stinking heat in the small amounts of shade we could find until the first ferry had left, at which point they let us all into the compound to buy tickets and clear customs. Then, after another wait and some duty free shopping we were on the ferry at around 1pm, as was the car with our bags which was good!

On the other side after stamping in to Guyana, we got into the car with our new driver, along with another 2 people and the guys 9 or 10 year old daughter squashed in the back with us. Our first impressions of Guyana were then at about 140kms per hour, sometimes 160kms through semi suburban streets with school children and farm animals lining the sides of the roads.

We asked another passenger, a local girl, if driving like that was normal, and her response was "driving like what?". We were weaving in and out of traffic, and if there was an oncoming car while overtaking, he would just honk his horn and the other cars would move over allowing 3 cars wide on the road. While everyone in our car thought it was perfectly normal, no one else was travelling as fast as us, and the road signs indicated an 80kmph limit.

We did eventually make it to our guesthouse in Georgetown in one piece, which may have been a miracle.

LAPFWT