The beauty of untouched land

Three weeks ago I went on my first real trip to see the beauty of Guyana...and it was incredible! In the past three months I had only been on two small trips to Leguan Island and Linden, a mining town, with some Guyanese friends but this was the first time I was seeing one of the main tourist attractions in this beautiful country.

It really was more than what I had expected. Nothing compares to relaxing on a beautiful isolated untouched beach with no one around and walking for hours at night to see prehistoric Leatherback Sea Turtles nesting....and of course the amazing roller coaster boat ride through the forest! It was a long journey of approximately 12 hrs total in a bus (Georgetown to Parika), on a boat (Parika to Anna Regina), in another bus (Anna Regina to Charity), and then on another boat (Charity to Shell Beach). Luckily I'm good with traveling and I never get sick or anything so I loved every second of it. 

The boat rides were my favourite! My fellow boat ride lovers and I took the opportunity to sing loudly and laugh uncontrollably at times...especially on the rollercoaster boat ride home where we all got drenched. The 4 hour boat ride between Charity and Shell Beach was by far one of the highlights. There were 12 of us in a small wooden motor boat winding through the "99 turn" river through the forest. We stopped occasionally for young Amerindian children in small wooden canoes fishing or on their way to school, to observe the otters, and to stretch our legs in Maruca, a small Amerindian town. The town was so nice and quiet and it reminded me of the place I called home in Kenya...the town of Oyugis. Although I am really enjoying working and living in Georgetown, I miss the experience of living in a small rural town. It has such a nice community feel where everyone knows each other and everything is so peaceful.

Maruca

It was a beautiful long boat ride in the hot sun with a nice cool breeze that allowed you to just think and think and think because it was too loud to speak. I spent the weekend relaxing, reading, swimming, playing frisbee, and fighting off the mosquitoes. We spent two nights there where we walked for about 5 hours along the beach, in pitch black basically, joining the turtle wardens on their nightly walk.

Shell Beach is a 90 mile stretch of coast, which for the most part remains ecologically undamaged, with several beaches composed of sea shells. It is located in the North Western part of Guyana and is the nesting ground for 4 of the world's 8 endangered species of sea turtles: the Leatherback, Hawksbill, Green and Olive Ridley turtles. They nest from March to August. The whole nesting process from when the turtles crawl onto the beach, dig a deep hole, lay their eggs, cover the hole, and crawl back into the water can take anywhere between 1 to 3 hours.

The turtles became endangered due to unsustainable harvesting, habitat loss, commercial fishing, pollution of the oceans and overall climate change. A man named Audley James and Dr. Peter Pritchard decided to take action and began an effort to save the endangered sea turtles by working with the local communities and they started the Guyana Marine Turtle Conservation Society in 1988. Together they encouraged fisherman to stop hunting the turtles and to leave the eggs alone. It was difficult for them to convince the fisherman to give up their livelihoods but Audley and Dr. Pritchard focused on community development and alternative forms of livelihood to encourage them and the communities. They educated the communities on tourism, recognizing it as a source of income, so that they would realize visitors would pay to see these things in their environment that they may take for granted. They converted the hunters into turtle wardens who patrol the beaches every night monitoring and protecting the turtles. The turtle wardens tag and measure the turtles and keep detailed records of all the turtles that nest.

I saw 3 Leatherback sea turtles and I got to measure one! It had been 3 months of non-stop work and I enjoyed every bit of my first trip to see the real Guyana. I took the opportunity to talk with Audley and his son Romeo about the conservation project, how they can improve, and how they can become more sustainable (by attracting more people). They are currently upgrading the camping facilities and working on their website and I plan to send them some photos and videos that I took. When we were leaving, Audley handed me a pair of earrings with shells and some earrings with feathers from the Scarlet Ibis as a gift. I was so grateful to have met Audley himself and to have a great conversation with him and his son. I will continue to stay in touch with them to see how everything is going and to eventually plan my return one day :)

As long as me!

Romeo can be reached at 1-592-661-1080 or romeodefreitas@yahoo.com. Don't expect a luxurious resort but instead be excited about experiencing something that not many have before and don't be surprised if you come out with some mosquito bites. I strongly encourage everyone to make a trip to Guyana to visit Shell Beach and all of the other wonders of this country before they are flooded with tourists, which eventually will happen :)