Collecting and study fish.
Text & photob by: Alf Stalsberg.
Guyana is not the first country people go to, in fact I think there is very few people going there. Why?? Well it's not a tourist place, even though there is a lot of thing to see and do, but there is no beaches as a start. But if you go there to study the wildlife fauna, you will find a lot. And I don't think I've seen so much of the wildlife before on my trips. I've seen some of it, but not so much as this time in Guyana.
So let me start with the begining. Why going there in the first place?? Well there was some fish I would like to bring back. Aequidens potaroensis, Apistogramma, Nannacara, Livebearers, Corydoras and more. I start to plan the trip in good time, staying out in the bush need some planning. First checking out the ticket price and how to get there.
We flew from Norway to London, meet my other friends there, and we started out on the wrong foot nearly missing our plane. You see we was so happy after a loooonng waiting to check in, and when we was ready we went into a Pub to cool down with a beer. Finish the first beer order another one, the one of the boys said, what time was the departure?? One grab the ticket and look. And he said, the plane is leaving a quarter after twelve!! And the clock was five minutes past twelve. Guess who got a rocket in the back!! We jump up and run to the gate and they was saying "last call", but we made it.
We flew with BWIA, to Trinidad and landed first at Barbados and then Trinidad. At Trinidad we had to waite four hours before we flew to Georgtown in Guyana. While waiting at the airport in Trinidad, we was discussing what BWIA was short for. We did nort find anything before I went to the loo. You all know about the writings at the wall, and there I found the translation for BWIA. "Brittains worst investment abroad"?? We found out later what the letters was short for, and that was "Best West Indies Airlines", and I had nothing to complain about.Getting our baggage and getting through custome then we could walk out, from the airport in Guyana.
Outside I was met by an English friend called Duncan Pears, he was working here in Guyana on a two years contract as a teacher in forestry. A very nice guy, and he helped us a lot. He met us with the small school bus, and we got all our stuff in it and heading for our Hotel. Our Hotel was not Sheraton, but a small, very and nice guest house with a very nice and friendly owners.
The sign outside the Rima guesthouse.
When we had settled in our rooms we went out and down to a Chinese Restaurant call New Thriving Restaurant, and this was good.
In the morning the day after and after a good breakfast, we decide to take a look at the Paramaribo town. We did not go fare, and we brought our dipnet and outside the guesthouse there was a small ditch with not much water, but it was fish there, guppy and Pecilia picta. The fish try to find a place in the shadow under the small "bridge", but there was not room for all, but later, there was a shover that increase the amount of water in the ditch and cool it down a bit. We was waiting on our contact person, namely Duncan Pears, and he came and guiding as to the square where there was a marked place, from there we plan to take a trip to the Botanical garden to have a look there. There it was also a zoo and a small aquarium that was not very impressive. After the zoo it was back to the guesthouse for lunch and a little nap.You can reach me by e-mail at: