Bartica旅行/ Trip

今週は珍しく仕事が忙しかったので先週末の旅行について書く暇がなかった。

１１人という団体でガイアナの７の地方の都市Barticaへ１泊２日で行ってきた。
カナダ人、イギリス人、オランダ人の友人達プラス日本人の私というグループである。Barticaへはまず乗り合いバスでエスクイボ川の主要港であるPurikaまで１時間かけて行く、そこからモーターボートで１時間と４５分程の旅。

このボートはスピードボートと呼ばれていて天候によってはかなりスリリングである。波が高い日や高潮の時はかなり揺れるし水しぶきでびしょ濡れになるときも。でも船にビニールシートが常備してあるのでそれを使ってうまくかわさないといけない。雨が降るとそれを一列毎に頭に被る。風でシートが吹き飛ばされないようにしかも雨にぬれないようにするには難しい。シートの下に４人ごとにうずくまる姿はかなり滑稽だと思う。

Barticaはガイアナの２つの大きな川（エスクイボ川とマザルニ川）が交わる中州に出来た町で内陸部へのゲートウェイでもある。私達はそこのヴィラを借りて一泊してのんびりしようという予定だった。ボートを降りてブラジル料理のレストランで昼食を済ませ徒歩で貸家まで行った。家は想像以上に綺麗で、プール付き白壁のコロニアル様式の豪邸（？）だった。この旅行の前に友達からお湯が出るらしいよと言われた時は喜びと興奮のあまり“お湯！”と叫んで椅子から数センチは飛び上がってしまった。我ながらガイアナのシンプルな生活にどっぷり浸かっているなと可笑しくなってしまった。

夕食までめいめいプールで泳いだり読書したりドミノで遊んだり昼寝したりし、合同製作の野菜カレーを食べて１２時には皆寝てしまった。翌日はガイドを雇ってボートで周辺を観光した。オランダ人が植民地時代に強制労働に逆らった原住民の首切りを行った島やガイアナ一大きい刑務所、渓流の途中の小さい滝などを見て回った。ガイドの男性はとても物知りでガイアナの歴史に少し触れられてなかなか面白かった。

I was unusually busy with my work this week, so I haven’t had a chance to write about the weekend trip.

11 of us went to a town called Bartica in Region 7. Our group consisted of Canadians, British, Dutch people and me. To go to Bartica, we took a minibus for about an hour to a city called Purika, which has got a major port on the Essequibo River. And then, we changed to a speedboat that took an hour and forty-five minutes.

Depending on the weather, a speed boat ride could be pretty rough and exciting. When the water is choppy or the tide is high, you get fair amount of splash and can get soaking wet. Each boat is equipped with some kind of plastic sheets, so we need to use this to avoid water. It is worse when it rains, as you can imagine. Each row (four people) cover themselves by making sure to keep away from rain but hold the sheet not to have it blown off by the wind, which can be tricky. I think it’s quite funny to see everyone shoving their heads under this cover.

Bartica is located on a delta between Essequibo River and Mazaruni River, and it is also a gateway to the interior. Our plan was to rent a house there and just take it easy. We got off the boat, had lunch in a Brazilian restaurant and then walked to the house. The house was so much better than I expected. With a swimming pool, white-walled colonial style house! Before the trip, one of my friends told me that the house has hot water. You don’t know how happy I was. I screamed “hot water!!” and jumped off from the chair at least a few centimeters with joy and excitement. What a simple person I have become being completely immersed in Guyanese way of life!

Till dinner time, each of us did whatever we felt like, such as swimming in the pool, reading, playing Domino and taking a nap. We ate jointly cooked vegetable curry (was yummy), and went to bed as early as 12. The following day, we hired a guide and did sightseeing with a small boat. Their tourist traps were Skull Point where Dutch people used to chop heads of Amerindians who refused to work for them in the colonial time, a biggest prison in Guyana, a small water fall in a creek and so on.. It was interesting to know a bit about the history of Guyana.