The Guianas - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 642

CARICOM (Caribbean community)
countries, plus USA and most Western
European countries. Contact your
nearest Guyanese embassy/consulate
for more details.

of a benab , you may well be able to hang
it on someone's porch.
In Guyana a “single room” will usually
have a double or queen-sized bed and a
“double room” may come with two beds
of varying sizes. Not all establishments
accept foreign credit cards, so check when
making a booking. Call rather than email.

GETTING AROUND
Privately owned minibuses operate to
nearly all destinations accessible by road,
including Lethem close to the Brazilian
border (US$60). Roads are paved from
Georgetown to towns along the coast and
inland as far as Linden; beyond, it's dirt
roads only, which sometimes become
impassable during rainy season. There is a
possibility that the road from Georgetown
to Lethem will be paved by 2015, courtesy
of the Brazilian government.
Independent travel in the interior
requires either hiring a 4WD with a driver
or hopping on the back of someone's
motorcycle (see box, p.655). Daily flights
in small aircraft connect Georgetown
to settlements in the Rupununi and
elsewhere; these are reliable and relatively
cheap (US$100 to Lethem).
Travel along Guyana's main rivers
involves river taxis (speedboats), whereas
locals tend to use dugout canoes and
motorboats when travelling along the
smaller rivers.

FOOD AND DRINK
Curries, roti, cassava, rice and coconut
milk reign over Guyanese cuisine . Chicken,
pork and beef are fried Creole-style, curried
with East Indian spices or flavoured with
Chinese spices. Rice is ubiquitous, boiled
with coconut milk, black-eyed peas, lentils,
channa (chickpeas), okra or callaloo
(spinach). Other staples include roti and
dhal puri (akin to a tortilla wrap).
Black pudding (a sausage filled with rice
mixed with cow's blood) is popular, and
is often eaten with sour , a hot, tangy
sauce, and souse - pickled pork, pig's skin,
chicken's feet, cow's heel, cow's face or
fish. The Amerindian contribution to
Guyanese cuisine is pepperpot - made
with stewed meat (or fish), coloured,
preserved and flavoured with cassareep
(a thick dark sauce made from cassava
juice), cinnamon and hot peppers. Other
Amerindian food includes cassava bread
and farine (grated, dried cassava).
Locals consider wild meat a delicacy
and adventurous eaters should try deer,
iguana, wild pig, manicou (opossum) and
labba or agouti (jungle rat).
Snacks such as patties, buns, potato
balls, pholouri (seasoned flour and lentil
balls), pineapple tarts, salara (red coconut
rolls) and cassava pone (like bread pudding
but made with coconut and cassava) are
sold in bakeries (G$200-300 each).
In Georgetown you'll also find Brazilian
and Chinese restaurants as well as
Western-style international cafés and
eateries. A hot meal costs G$400-500
from a market cook shop ; in local cafés it
costs twice that and in upmarket
restaurants you'll spend over G$1300.

7

ACCOMMODATION
There are plenty of good, reasonably
priced guesthouses and hotels in
Georgetown, where G$7000 will get you
a spacious, clean room with a mosquito
net, TV, running water and air
conditioning. Prices are cheaper outside
the capital, but accommodation more
limited. In the Rupununi Savannah
there are several excellent ecolodges and
ranches that offer an introduction to
traditional savannah life as well as
outdoor pursuits such as wildlife-
watching and fishing; these range from
rustic to luxurious, and there are also
cheaper guesthouses in some villages.
Most villages will have a benab (wooden
shelter with thatched roof ) where you
can hang your hammock (bring your
own, cost/night US$10); in the absence

DRINK
Alcoholic drinks worth trying include
local award-winning Banks Beer (G$300)