I got dropped off at the Guyana Marriot Hotel Georgetown around 5pm and the hotel was absolutely beautiful. It was only 10,000 Marriot points, so I decided to stay 3 nights before heading to Trinidad and Tobago. The hotel was located at the northern most point of the city and there was barely anything around there except for residential and commercial housing. The hotel faced the river right in front and the beach was more than 30 meters long, but I was not going to take a chance swimming in a river. Instead, I headed downstairs to enjoy the beautiful swimming pool during sunset. Right outside of the compound, I noticed a group of kids running around, hanging out and just random things happening. Here is a glimpse of that view.

The hotel was very well equipped with a few restaurants, bars, a state of the art fitness center and an outside terrace/swimming pool area. It was nice to relax inside the hotel room and also at the outside terrace. If you ever go to Georgetown, I believe this is the best hotel there. Here is the link: http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/geomc-guyana-marriott-hotel-georgetown/

I did not go out on the first night, since it was already dark and I was told from the front desk staff not to walk to the city center at night. Hence, I waited until the next morning for my solo tour. I tried to find people in the hotel, but there were very few guests and I only saw around 4 or 5 people. They all looked like businessmen, in Georgetown for business.

The next morning, I got a map from the front desk and decided to go for a long walk to explore the city. Georgetown was a small city and at least the center of town was walkable. I walked the entire 3 days I was there, but the smell from the canals were not very pleasant. There were very little sidewalk and had this rustic feeling of being in a small village in South America. Well, I was in South America after all. Guyana is the only country in South America where English is the official language. When I spoke to the people, they had an interesting English accent, a Caribbean feel, but communication was not a problem. One guy I spoke to said a lot of “yah man.” I thought I was in Jamaica for one second, but obviously, that was not the case.

The walk from the hotel to the city center was around 20 minutes and I passed heaps of fascinating buildings. Guyana used to be part of British Guyana and had remnants of colonial rule, but at the same time, modern Caribbean mix changed some of the buildings into bright colors. Surprisingly, most of the buildings were made from wood and supposedly, built in the 19^th century! The beautiful restored buildings were predominantly government related buildings, while there were a ton of fading wooden houses. The city would look so much nicer if they were looked after properly.

I did not get a chance to go inside any of the buildings, since it was not allowed, but at least, I took some precious pictures.

One of the main attractions was St. George’s Cathedral, one of the largest wooden cathedrals in the world. It seemed like it was closed when I visited in May of 2016. I tried to peak into it in a few places, but no service was happening and I did not see any people in there either. This was a Neo-Gothic style cathedral and the sheer magnitude of its size was incredible. I’m surprised why it has not been added to the UNESCO world heritage list. I heard that the inside was beautiful and hope to see that inside one day in the future.

I continued walking along the little side streets and stopped at a restaurant for lunch. It was recommended by the hotel and it was not that expensive. The place even had wifi while I was eating. I ordered local food, which happened to be roti that day, but they had other authentic things on the menu like Creole-Chinese fusion to pure Indian food, etc. Guyana, like French Guyana and Suriname had similar ethnic roots of African, Indian, and Chinese. Hence, the food was very international to some degree.

After lunch, I went to the market, right next to the river. This market was very big and hectic, just like any market in the world. It had a corrugated clock tower out front, which was right above the main entrance. I walked in, despite the hotel staff telling me that I should not go inside alone without a local, but what the heck, I have been to Africa and other countries, so I went in. It was nothing special, just a lot of stalls here and there selling all kinds of things. The locals will try to sell you everything from fruits to clothes. I noticed that the price got cheaper, as I went further inside of the market, thus, if you are going to buy anything, go further in.

Right outside the market, there were tons of numbered vans. I was looking for a van for the airport and did find one and it was roughly a few dollars, but I was told that it only left when it was full. Thus, I ended up not taking the van and took a taxi instead a couple of days later for roughly $30 USD. The journey took around 50-60 minutes from the hotel to the airport without any traffic.

Nightlife

I was told not to go out in the evening, so I did not. I did hear that the nightlife can get pretty rowdy on weekends and there were a few bars in the city center, so I ended up going to one during the day. During my visit, the Euro 2016 was happening and I wanted to watch one of the games. I watched one of the matches at a bar frequented by expats, but I did not see any expats really. While watching the match, I ordered a nice Guyanese rum. Prior to visiting Guyana, one of my favorite rum is called Pyrat, made in Guyana. I asked about this rum, but the bartender had no idea. The bartender recommended me El Dorado 15 years, which was an amazing rum and to this day, it might be my second or third favorite after Zacapa. I had a couple of glasses of this and ended up buying two bottles at the airport duty free for $30 each.

Interesting game meat

On my way to the airport, I noticed a few people on the street holding large iguanas/salamanders. There were signages on the road with a for sale sign with a small box. I wondered what it was and asked the taxi driver. He told me that they were selling wild game meat, iguanas and salamanders for specialty dishes. He has tried the meat and told me that it was really tasty grilled, just like chicken. After all, if you are born in this environment eating salamanders, I guess it was normal.

I stayed in Guyana for four nights, but that was surely not enough. If you have a chance to go there, you must visit Kaiteur Falls, about one hour away by plane. I wanted to visit the place, but there were no flights available from Georgetown when I visited

Visited in May 2016.