Red road and blue-green lizards..

The road is never ending. Styrofoam, plastic bottles, coke cans, carib bottles, coke bottles some with zero sugar are indicators of Guyana's development. We are now avid consumers and we can throw away anywhere. The dhal at Peter and Ruth comes in a small plastic cup - I guess it is either a throw away plastic cup or water to wash cups which can be reused. The dust rises in places where the road is not wet. There are butterflies, blue, white, yellow. Sometimes, there are flashes of bright blue and green or blue green as lizards dart across the road. We see animals darting across, two monkeys, then a powis, one or two birds, flashes of red as the red backed agouti come out and run back in, looking confused and frightened.

I feel ashamed really, that this road is needed for human progress... massive safaris of trucks lorries, four by fours, minibuses, taxis, big buses , this thing called progress which leaves rubbish on the forest which no one will clean up. And frightened animals.
Everytime I heard the safari advertisement I cringed.. the real Guyana apparently, for people to invade with vehicles and to have this thing called Adventure.. Guyana is one big adventure though , and I wonder whether the people who live along the route of the 'safari' will think of the people who view their domain as a place to conquer, somewhere not really fit to live in, but to conquer and move on.

There are parts of the road, through the forest tunnel, which have surreal effects. The light filters in, shadows come on both sides of the road and you are not sure where the sun is or what are the shadows.

Walking in the savannah is another experience. the animals do not look frightened. The birds look back at us. A lizard stayed on my shirt one day until I brushed it off. The red breasted bird. the long tailed fly catcher is carrying on its business. If you walk quietly no disturbance.

Moonlight is nice on the savannah. I want to time my visits to coincide with the full moon, you sometimes see the moon over the pakaraimas from 4pm. I woke up early and was able to see the big yellow moonset, first time in my life. There was rain. In the middle of the madness, coming out of bush mouth to the savannah was needed to keep me sane.

I am grateful to Samantha James from Iwokrama for inviting us to participate in the 9th Junior Wildlife festival.