What’s on the Forecast Today? Torrential Rains With a Side of Meat Coma.

Well, like the title says, today was a rainy one. Upon arrival to the office at around eight this morning, everything was dry. Upon noon’s arrival, streets were flooding over. The interesting thing about the rain here though, is that, while back in the States, rain that falls in this magnitude is usually accompanied by thunderous clouds, lightning, and tornados, Guyana sees none of that. It just rains, and rains, and rains. However, after around one, the sun generally decides to come out, providing a beautiful afternoon. My theory: the sun is incredibly lazy and just doesn’t like to work much before noon. This theory is further supported by the sun’s disappearance by 6:30 every night.

As for the side of meat coma, that part of the forecast definitely came true. For lunch, we were taken to Brazil Churrascaria off of Alexander Street in Georgetown. This place was amazing. It was a 3,500 dollar meal (approx. 17.50 USD) after tax and tip, but it was well worth it. After all, this would probably be around a 30 to 40 dollar meal back in the States. The restaurant was kind of behind a home, in a covered outdoor seating area. We walked in and there was a buffet set up with salad, okra, black-eyed peas, pasta, other vegetable concoctions, cassava cooked two different ways, and some incredibly delicious plantain. After taking a seat, our drink orders were taken and then came the arrival of my demise. Those meat waiters sure did play nice with their smiles and gracious attitudes toward serving copious amounts of delicious meat that came straight from the skewers they were walking around with, but I really think that deep down inside, they were evil conspirators that get their kicks by watching people suffer from the meat sweats and meat comas. Of course I fell victim to their evil plan though. How could I not? The food was incredible. Mmmm ... pork, chicken, and beef sausage, and pork, chicken, and beef barbecued in their stone oven right in front of my eyes. These people know how to serve up a good meal. I will definitely be making another trip back to this place before my return to the States and I can’t wait for the meat coma that will ensue.

-Michael

Guyana - 1: Asics - 0: Michael - ?

With the sun blaring in and the dogs yapping away at 6:15 this morning, what better thing is there to do than get up for a run? Nothing that I can really think of, especially considering how much cooler the temperature will be at this time of day. So, that’s what I did; I got up, made a quick bagel with peanut butter, drank quite a few gulps of water, put my contacts in, changed into running clothes, grabbed a Gatorade, then headed out the door at 6:45 with the goal of heading west on the seawall to the Pegasus Hotel, then backtracking and heading east to where the concrete portion of the seawall ends, then back to where I started at the Celina Resort, resulting in around a 7.5 mile run according to Google Maps.

Well, of course, the day I decide to do this long run (this feels long, I’m not in the marathon shape anymore that I was in a year and a half ago), it’s going to decide to rain. Which honestly, why should I have thought any differently? After all it is still the rainy season and it was early morning (when it seems to rain the most) with clouds filling the sky. So, as I’m approaching the seawall, it starts drizzling. At this point, I’m not too far to just turn back and go home, but I’m far enough out that, it just feels like a waste of time to not continue. Therefore, I of course decide to continue. As I’m hitting the seawall, the rain decides to pick up slightly. Oh well, it’s not so bad. Ha. About halfway to my westbound destination, Guyana decides to laugh at me with a mass amount of its tears of joy. I am royally soaked at this point, but I’m so far in that there is no reasonable reason to turn back now and I decide to try to finish it out. After all, this is the best feeling run I’ve had the whole time I’ve been down here. There was no suffering from sun, heat, and humidity like all other times of the day after around seven in the morning and before five in the afternoon. This rain finally decided to stop around thirty minutes into my run after my clothing was sufficiently drenched. But, I did manage to get the whole run in, which very likely might not have happened if I had decided to put the run off until later. Now, I’m sitting on my balcony watching the third or fourth coming of rain since I’ve been awake with my poor Asics sitting to my left, stuffed with paper in hopes to absorb some of the water that is currently drowning them.

The best image of the run today, which gave me a good laugh for a while, was when two mini-buses had to slam on brakes due to two jackasses deciding that stopping in the middle of the road to hang out was a good idea. No really, they were jackasses, you know, the kinds that go “hee-haw.”

-Michael

Has It Really Been Over Three Weeks?

As I sit here in my posh office (A/C is my only requirement to be posh), with nothing on my plate at the moment, I decide to open up Word to write an update for the blog to be posted when I get home (once again, A/C is my only requirement to be posh; the internet need not apply). It has been while since I’ve updated this blog, so I guess it is about time to do so. So, what have I been up since my last update ... in May? Well, a whole lot of nothing, and I’ve been enjoying it.
My typical is get up around 6:30, get ready, head to the office, then, to the surprise of many I will assume, pray for work. Then, I have an hour lunch at 12:00 and after fighting off an after lunch nap, a few more hours of work until 4:30 (3:30 on Fridays). After arriving home, it’s usually just taking it easy for a little bit, then going for a run and maybe going to the gym. The rest of the night is reserved for supper and relaxation.
There hasn’t been much activity these past few weeks outside of work. The past few weekends have been simply going for runs along the seawall, hanging out at the pool, meandering around town some, relaxing at the apartment, and catching a little World Cup action at OMG! (the local sports bar).
Other than these typical activities, I did end up going to an Indian wedding party. This was a very enjoyable event. For the first time in my life, I got to try chicken-feet soup. To my surprise, it was rather tasty. It contained a very good assortment of spice and some nice, fatty chicken feet. I also attempted to learn some Indian dances. I think I will just leave these dances to them though, as I should probably not embarrass myself by attempting these anytime in the future.
I am really hoping to go to the interior soon, so hopefully we will manage to get on top of planning these trips and I’ll be able to update some more with some more interesting stories and I imagine, wonderful pictures.

-Michael

P.S.
Don’t ever let me hear you complain about the American Postal Service being inefficient. I have come to discover a great appreciation for the USPS after recently having a package sent to me. In all the time that the American post offices seem to take, the waits there still shy in comparison to here.

Some More Pictures

Whoa! It's a Ghost!

After Jeff and I left the zoo, we decided to attempt to venture home. On the way, we saw a little bar/store that had some beers that we wanted to check out, so we decided to drop in and take a break from walking and the heat.

I ordered a Carib beer because I had seen an advertisement for Carib the night before and it was apparently a good one since it suckered me into buying one. While we were sitting down, the people on the table behind us got up and left, so I decided to pull my chair back a little bit to get out of the sun. Well, the owner apparently thought this was hilarious because he came running up to me laughing and just pulled my table out of the sun, then proceeded to put his arm up against mine and laugh about how I didn’t like the sun because it hurt me because I was so white compared to him. Then, since I’m obviously a rare specimen around these parts, he decided to have a little more fun with me by showing me a box of peppers and making me eat one while laughing about how hot they were. Well, I of course ate one, and actually, it really wasn’t that bad, but that still didn’t stop his wife, I’m assuming, from slapping him for picking on the white guy. Very soon after this, the owner decided to bring out a mango to show to me since I had apparently never seen one in my life according to him. He then sliced it for Jeff and me to try out, then pointed to a tree that I’m assuming he picked it from. But of course this wasn’t a gracious enough thing for him to do. So what did he do next? Why he brought out three more mangos and then put them in a bag for me to take home. I like this guy.

Moral of the story... white guys are apparently fairly rare around here and the store owner, with a little help from the vodka drink that he was working on, had a blast picking on the one that just so happened to stop by his store. I think I may have to make a couple trips back there sometime; it’s hard to find hospitality like this these days.

Oh, one last note. Jeff is a wuss for drinking Banks Light. Just ask the three older gentlemen that were joking on his beer selection.

-Michael

The Guyana Zoo

So, on our second day of touring the city, and after walking by the rather interesting Georgetown prison with guards standing around with AKs and an equally interesting aroma coming from the prison, we stumbled upon the Botanical Gardens which contained the Georgetown Zoo. After paying the equivalent of 1 USD a piece, buying some water, and me receiving a napkin to wipe the sweat off of my face from the sweet lady working the entrance, we decided to see what this place had in store for us.

When first walking into the zoo, there was a display of various birds. The one I found to be most interesting was the very large, and very odd looking, Harpy Eagle. If you don’t know what this is, which I didn’t before seeing one at the zoo, look it up. It’s an incredibly interesting looking bird that is native to the rainforests in South America, but is apparently a very endangered species.

Next, or sometime after the birds, I got to see a real live anaconda. It was hard to tell how long it was as it was wrapped around a tree, but I would guess that it was maybe 10 to 15 feet. Again, I couldn’t really tell. Also, I would guess that it was about as big around as a regulation football.

The most entertaining of the bunch is what came next. The MONKEYS!!! Yes, I will freely admit, I probably could have stood there and watched the monkeys for the rest of the day and would have been perfectly content. I can’t remember what kind of monkeys I saw first, but they were awesome to watch. They were just hanging out, watching us, and climbing around inside their cage. The coolest monkey of the bunch was thoroughly enjoying his rope swing. He would just hang off of it and swing back and forth, over and over, then switch arms and repeat. I wish I had a video of this guy; he was awesome. Next to these monkeys, were the Capuchin monkeys. These guys were also awesome. It was rather entertaining to watch these little guys and gals eat on their mangos and just wander around. They weren’t quite as active as the other monkeys, but still very entertaining to watch in themselves.

After the monkeys, came the cats. Let’s see, there were cougars, which were in hiding when I first passed their cage, but they let the fact that they came back from Alpharetta be known when I was leaving the zoo. Also, there was a jaguar, a lioness, an ocelot, and something else that skips my mind right now, but I may come back and edit it in later.

So, that was the zoo, overall, it was well worth the 1 USD I spent. I may not have been able to see an anaconda otherwise, and those bars between the cougars and me made me feel much more secure than when making those dangerous treks through Alpharetta back in the States.

Next up, me getting free stuff at some drunken guy’s store.

-Michael

Some Pictures