Monday February 2
We left the Cara hotel at 7:30 for our 10 o’clock flight into the jungle. We got to the airport soon after eight and we checked in quite efficiently. This involved getting ourselves weighed, as well as our suitcases . It was quite revealing seeing the quantity of goods that were being checked in for transportation to various places. Things like multiple cartons of 30 eggs and large quantities of vegetable produce.
We were then shown into an executive lounge and the plane took off just after 10 am landing at Fair View Airstrip soon after 11
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Then just a quick drive to the Iwokrama Lodge which has a magnificent central building with views over the river. We were given a good welcome and taken upstairs in this building and through to sit on a sofa to await lunch at noon. It was a buffet that I quite enjoyed and it was reasonably warm.
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At 1 pm, we took off in a motor boat For a two hour trip on the lake with a pleasant guide. We were in search of wildlife but only saw several kingfishers, and a turtle, We both enjoyed it all the same. At one stage we had to put our anoraks on against the rain, but most of the time the weather was quite good.
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Once back at the lodge we were driven on to the Atta Lodge about one hour distant. We were travelling on the main highway from Georgetown to Brazil but this did not mean a decent surface. The dirt road was a deep rutted mud road, but the driver managed it very well. Our pleasant guide came in the car too, and we thought she would stay in at Atta Lodge at least for the night, but having shown us into our room, she said goodbye and she and the driver departed and we were left with a lady who we could not understand very well.
The room was quite small and very basic, taken up almost entirely by a huge mosquito net over the bed. And the bathroom was even more basic and outdoors. Our guide for tomorrow introduced himself. He also was difficult to understand and really hadn’t got anything to say anyway, if it did not concern a bird. I got some ice and we had an Negroni out on the lawn with a small snack and then went back to the room for an hour or so. David had read that there was no free Wi-Fi other than between 11 pm and 6 am: this reduced our opinion of the hotel even more.
At 19.00 we went up to the bar for a drink and were horrified that there was no price list they just told us the prices verbally. They said the beer cost $5, so we decided skip the drinks. At 7:30 we sat down for dinner which, can you believe it, was a buffet for just the two of us. But actually not just us two, as the guide also joined us for dinner, we certainly did not want this. There was a decent soup and decent fruit while the buffet itself was pretty awful. But we just learned from the guide that in fact there was now free Wi-Fi available at all times. We had to rid ourselves of the guide and we returned to the room as quickly as possible and settled down in the darkness with our iPads.
Tomorrow will tell how we get on with the guide for the rest of our time here and whether we learn to understand him a little better.
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Tuesday, February 3. Atta Lodge
We presented ourselves in the communal building at 6 am for our trip along the canopy trail. Vento said we should wait until the rain stopped. So it was about 15 minutes later when we set off . It was really dark along the trail and halfway along it started to rain and rain and rain. We put our anoraks on but we were soon soaked through and then we had 180 steps to climb up to the canopy platforms. Most of these were quite routine but there were one or two rocky bits which were a bit more difficult for me. Before this we had seen absolutely nothing. And the guide just pointed out some trees to us, before David told him that this was rather useless.
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We arrived at the platform where the first canopy bridge was situated and we had to cross this one by one. It was much less bouncy and more secure than any other ones I have been on. Then onto the second canopy bridge and this was the end of the trail as the other two bridges had fallen down in the last few years and obviously were not going to be replaced. Then back the same way, to dry off a little bit. Into breakfast at 7:30 am. This was hardly a feast just some pineapple and cheese and an over fried egg and sausage slices.
We told Vento that we did not want a 10 a.m walk with him, so had four hours in the room which was much more liveable in, once we got the four poster curtains removed back to the wall. These were on a rail which folded back and we also found an extra window we could open to get much more light into the room and with the front door and the bathroom door opened a room was quite habitable, particularly with a bright bedspread on the bed. We sat outside for some of the morning but mainly in the room reading our iPads and having a little siesta.
Lunch was at 12:30 and unsurprisingly was chicken again, but there was also some fish which was very good apart from the myriad of bones it contained. I asked for pudding but was told this was not provided at lunchtime and neither were there any cookies available because they had run out of flour! On the way out of lunch I spoke to Anthony, the manager who had just arrived new on the job the evening beforehand. I told him a few of our problems and he said he could find us a new guide and indeed half an hour later one turned up it our door, Dylan, and he said he could take us out to a nearby creek in the van in the next 10 minutes so this we did and had a pleasant hour with him along the road, seeing kingfishers, a caiman, some toucans and several other birds. Then we had about two hours back in the camp before we were taken out again at 4:30 pm to a different creek with some dead trees along the road. Here we saw monkeys, as well as a vulture and several other birds so we were quite happy with this experience. Dinner at 7:30 pm with a non-event with guess what chicken and beef again and we also had to decline the company of our guide for the third or fourth time running: the establishment seem to find it very difficult to accept our wishes.
During the morning David had WhatsApped Shanette with our problems but she replied that it was all a bit too complicated to change things, but she would try.
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