Before I even went on this, my final trip this summer, I was absolutely shattered. This should teach me not to try and cram so much into so little time. By the time I reached my destination I was ready to do nothing but chill out. Luckily Trinidad and Tobago was my first stop, laying on the beach and chilling out was all I wanted to do. Unfortunately the weather had other plans. It was so hot and humid with hurricane type rain that came and went every 10 minutes. You never had a chance to dry off, so I was constantly wet. The mosquitoes were really horrid especially in the swamp. As soon as it stopped raining we were attacked by the most vicious mosquitoes. Those sods bit right through my jeans. I have never seen so many mosquitoes on me or around me ever. At one point I thought of jumping into the swamp just to get away from them. My arse and all down my legs looked as thought it had been pebble dashed with all the lumps and bumps.
Finally arrived in Suriname but was a little disappointed. Not what I expected. It felt like I was at home back in Malaysia. It didn’t feel like being in South America, everyone was either Indonesia, Indian or African. Same types of villages, same looking people, same culture and same old jungle. I guess they all look the same eventually.
Guyana was similar although there were more Africans where we visited. Two main things happened in Guyana. Firstly I had the best four wheel drive experience ever. I had this fantastic driver and we were going up and down, in and out and on some occasions we were practically vertical. I haven’t had a bump and grind like that in ages. The tracks we took to get to our destination was just amazing. Some points of the journey we had to get our and cut bits of the jungle just to get past. In fact on that 9 hour drive we had 2 flat tyres and a crash. Our guide was the only person hurt. The last part of the drive was in the dark and that was pretty hairy. I loved it.
There was a lot of walking on this trip. I really must read the trip dossiers before I book my trips. My problem is I just see a place I like and book it. That’ll teach me. I didn't realise there was going to be a 17 mile hike on day 5 in the jungle followed by another 7 days of slightly shorter hikes through mud and god knows what else.
I also stepped on a snake which happens to be the most poisonous snake in South America. The name of the snake is Ferdilance, it wrapped itself around my ankles as I tried to do a little dance to get it off me...thank god for hiking boots. It was the only time I used my walking boots. I had used my sandals throughout the other walks because it was just so bloody hot. But for some reason I thought I’d use it for this particular walk and thank god I did. I guess we must have disturbed it as we walked past and as I was last as usual it probably tried to cross the path but got tangled in my feet. I actually thought I was slipping on the mud and leaves but when I looked down and saw what it was I did my dance. Because I know that you always get bitten when you step on a snake I tried my best not to step on it hence the jig I did. I obviously did step on it because it tried to bite my feet several times. I’m glad I paid that little bit more for my walking boots. Maybe I should write to the company and tell them they’re boots are also snake proof. I can't remember if I screamed during my ordeal but the guide assured me the noises that came out of my mouth were muted...although he recognised every swear word I uttered throughout the hikes. The rest of the group were more interested in taking photos. We had hardly seen any wildlife on this trip and the first one I encounter tries to kill me. Actually the only wildlife we encountered was a huge lizard and a lovely cute spider monkey. Unfortunately we killed them both. When I say we I mean our mad drivers. One driver in fact. He killed both those animals. The lizard was killed on the way to the jungle as it ran out onto the track but he was going so fast he never would have been able to stop anyway. The spider monkey was killed on our way back from the jungle. I was in the vehicle when he killed the monkey. I saw it come out onto the road and pointed out saying “Ooh look, a spider monkey”. I screamed at the driver to stop but the idiot swerved into the monkey instead. I was mortified. When I looked back I saw his lifeless body lying on the dirt road. I know that it’s hard for these people to avoid animals that shoot out into the road but if you go that fast there is no way you can stop.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a group that I didn’t get along with. Apart from one Welsh lady the others might as well have not been there to be honest. My room mate was this really young girl, on holiday with her mum and dad. All in all a good summer, a bit hectic and I could have done without all the mosquito bites.
On the way home we stopped of in Barbados, that was lovely. Didn’t get time to get to the beach but just being there made me relax.
