Vicky Baker is travelling around Central and South America guided by the local people she meets on social networking websites. This week, she is in Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, capital of Guyana. Photograph: Getty Images
It's not every day you spot a country's president hanging out at a 1980s party. But this is Georgetown, capital of Guyana. With a population of just over 200,000 in a country of 750,000, it has a small-town, everyone-knows-everyone feel.
The party is being held at Buddy's International Hotel, built for last year's cricket World Cup. There's nothing exclusive about the event and half the city seems to have turned up. Most, including the president, are hanging around the pool, although a small payment of G$1,000 (£2.50) gets you entry into an exceedingly hot room resembling a school disco hall. Unfortunately, the president doesn't treat us to any moves, and neither is he my travel-networking contact.
I've come to the party with Anna, a 29-year-old member of couchsurfing.com, plus a group of her friends, predominantly expats with a handful of Guyanese. Originally from the UK, she's been in the country for a year and a half on a work placement in the government's department of finance, where she is trying to encourage businesses to set up in the country, reverse the brain drain, and "basically let people know that Guyana exists".
Guyana is a country that almost all backpackers leave off their continent-spanning itinerary, a place that induces blank looks even from most South Americans. Geographically, it is firmly rooted on the South American mainland, east of Venezuela and north of Brazil, yet it is also part of the Caribbean common market and has a colonial British heritage. Combine all that with a mixed African, Indian and Amerindian population, and it's not an easy place to get your head round. It's even more of a shock after coming through Venezuela and Brazil. One bumpy bus through the rainforested interior and, suddenly, everyone speaks English and drives on the left. I even spot a billboard advertising Marmite.
Georgetown is a city unlike any other I've visited on this trip. Downtown comprises of whitewashed, detached wooden houses on wide roads, many with grass verges instead of pavements and big greens dividing the two lanes of traffic.
I first meet Anna at what she describes as "the best roti shop in town". Shanta's (225 Camp Street) is a simple deli counter set-up, but the food is, indeed, delicious. Over her recommendation of local staple of roti and boulanger choka (an aubergine dip), she informs me that to experience Georgetown properly I need a night of "wining and liming". I have no idea what this means, but arrange to meet again on Friday to find out.
Vicky with couchsurfer Vidya Anna is one of just a handful of travel-networkers registered in Guyana. She is listed as being available "for a coffee or a drink" with passing travellers, although she mainly just gets people tentatively expressing an interest in the place. It's an experience shared by my first couchsurfing contact in the country, 37-year-old Vidya, although he also gets the occasional request for a postcard of his mysterious and exotic homeland.
Vidya saved me from a tragic fate of spending my first night in Georgetown cooped up in a hotel room eating a takeaway and watching grainy television pirated from the US. "There's a Jamaican film screening and discussion happening at a jazz bar downtown. Fancy it?" he says when I call him. Within half an hour, I am sipping rum in the Sidewalk Cafe, an open-fronted bar decorated with pot plants and cane furniture.
Vidya arrives after me, so we have just a short, hushed conversation over the film and the chorus of frogs and crickets outside. "There aren't any cinemas here," he whispers, "so a small group of us started organising these screenings among ourselves."
The next morning, I have a proper chance to get to know Vidya over coffee in one of the two branches of the city's popular Oasis Cafe, a cosy joint for the cappuccino-and-Wi-Fi set. When not working in the IT department of an NGO, he's volunteering for an organisation fighting domestic violence, making short films, running a local book club and curating the city's gay and lesbian film festival, now in its fourth year.
Guyanese, born and bred, with fifth-generation Indian heritage, he makes me feel at home with mannerisms that seem decidedly British, such as saying "crikey" and doing the awkward "shall we shake hands, kiss or hug?" goodbye. He's a busy man, but promises to make time to meet up again and gives me some valuable tips. Thanks to him I discover the little-known city-based bird tour with Guyana Feathered Friends (£15, gff_birdingtours@yahoo.com), and the launch party for Carifesta, a celebration of Caribbean arts that is returning to Guyana this August for the first time since its 1972 inauguration (carifesta.net).
As Vidya can't make it to the Carifesta, I decide to invite another contact I made in the city, Kathryn from wayn.com. The site is currently aimed more at sharing tips and online chat than meeting in person, but it does have a function for showing you who's been looking at your profile. When a Georgetown resident popped up in my list, it seemed like fate and we arranged to meet.
A 47-year-old data-entry clerk, she is shy and softly spoken, but there's little opportunity for conversation anyway, with steel bands and Trinidadian limbo dancers on the stage, and we still manage to enjoy our brief time in each other's company.
But what of wining and liming? Reuniting with Anna on Friday, I discover "wining" is slang for raunchy dancing to Trinidadian soca music, while "liming" is simply drinking rum and chatting. The combination makes for a very entertaining evening, starting in Roopa's Rum Shop, a karaoke bar in a villa on Station Street, and ending up at Palm Court, an open-air club on Main Street.
Guyana has been the destination I have been most excited about getting to know, and, so far, I haven't been disappointed. Here's hoping the second week in the country lives up to the first.
The art gallery at Castellani House (Vlissengen Road), an ex-prime minister's home, has local works.
Coffee, cakes and books
The two Oasis Cafes (Carmichael Street and South Street) have great ambience, coffee and pastries. You can join in the book club's discussions on Saturdays, even if you haven't read the book.
Screen saver
Sidewalk Cafe (ariantzesidewalk.com) shows a Tuesday night film, followed by discussions. There are monthly Caribbean jazz performances too.
"Before that, I used to always call all the contacts I know in a city but it was like a job on the top of the one I was already struggling with. Also, that didn't help me know who was in town from other parts of the world - people who may be more willing to go out."
Similarly popular is tripit.com, which goes one step further and will automatically compile an online schedule based on your confirmation emails (hotels, flights, trains etc), so your friends can know exactly where you are going to be and when.
The party is being held at Buddy's International Hotel, built for last year's cricket World Cup. There's nothing exclusive about the event and half the city seems to have turned up. Most, including the president, are hanging around the pool, although a small payment of G$1,000 (£2.50) gets you entry into an exceedingly hot room resembling a school disco hall. Unfortunately, the president doesn't treat us to any moves, and neither is he my travel-networking contact.
I've come to the party with Anna, a 29-year-old member of couchsurfing.com, plus a group of her friends, predominantly expats with a handful of Guyanese. Originally from the UK, she's been in the country for a year and a half on a work placement in the government's department of finance, where she is trying to encourage businesses to set up in the country, reverse the brain drain, and "basically let people know that Guyana exists".
Guyana is a country that almost all backpackers leave off their continent-spanning itinerary, a place that induces blank looks even from most South Americans. Geographically, it is firmly rooted on the South American mainland, east of Venezuela and north of Brazil, yet it is also part of the Caribbean common market and has a colonial British heritage. Combine all that with a mixed African, Indian and Amerindian population, and it's not an easy place to get your head round. It's even more of a shock after coming through Venezuela and Brazil. One bumpy bus through the rainforested interior and, suddenly, everyone speaks English and drives on the left. I even spot a billboard advertising Marmite.
Georgetown is a city unlike any other I've visited on this trip. Downtown comprises of whitewashed, detached wooden houses on wide roads, many with grass verges instead of pavements and big greens dividing the two lanes of traffic.
I first meet Anna at what she describes as "the best roti shop in town". Shanta's (225 Camp Street) is a simple deli counter set-up, but the food is, indeed, delicious. Over her recommendation of local staple of roti and boulanger choka (an aubergine dip), she informs me that to experience Georgetown properly I need a night of "wining and liming". I have no idea what this means, but arrange to meet again on Friday to find out.
Vicky with couchsurfer Vidya Anna is one of just a handful of travel-networkers registered in Guyana. She is listed as being available "for a coffee or a drink" with passing travellers, although she mainly just gets people tentatively expressing an interest in the place. It's an experience shared by my first couchsurfing contact in the country, 37-year-old Vidya, although he also gets the occasional request for a postcard of his mysterious and exotic homeland. Vidya saved me from a tragic fate of spending my first night in Georgetown cooped up in a hotel room eating a takeaway and watching grainy television pirated from the US. "There's a Jamaican film screening and discussion happening at a jazz bar downtown. Fancy it?" he says when I call him. Within half an hour, I am sipping rum in the Sidewalk Cafe, an open-fronted bar decorated with pot plants and cane furniture.
Vidya arrives after me, so we have just a short, hushed conversation over the film and the chorus of frogs and crickets outside. "There aren't any cinemas here," he whispers, "so a small group of us started organising these screenings among ourselves."
The next morning, I have a proper chance to get to know Vidya over coffee in one of the two branches of the city's popular Oasis Cafe, a cosy joint for the cappuccino-and-Wi-Fi set. When not working in the IT department of an NGO, he's volunteering for an organisation fighting domestic violence, making short films, running a local book club and curating the city's gay and lesbian film festival, now in its fourth year.
Guyanese, born and bred, with fifth-generation Indian heritage, he makes me feel at home with mannerisms that seem decidedly British, such as saying "crikey" and doing the awkward "shall we shake hands, kiss or hug?" goodbye. He's a busy man, but promises to make time to meet up again and gives me some valuable tips. Thanks to him I discover the little-known city-based bird tour with Guyana Feathered Friends (£15, gff_birdingtours@yahoo.com), and the launch party for Carifesta, a celebration of Caribbean arts that is returning to Guyana this August for the first time since its 1972 inauguration (carifesta.net).
As Vidya can't make it to the Carifesta, I decide to invite another contact I made in the city, Kathryn from wayn.com. The site is currently aimed more at sharing tips and online chat than meeting in person, but it does have a function for showing you who's been looking at your profile. When a Georgetown resident popped up in my list, it seemed like fate and we arranged to meet.
A 47-year-old data-entry clerk, she is shy and softly spoken, but there's little opportunity for conversation anyway, with steel bands and Trinidadian limbo dancers on the stage, and we still manage to enjoy our brief time in each other's company.
But what of wining and liming? Reuniting with Anna on Friday, I discover "wining" is slang for raunchy dancing to Trinidadian soca music, while "liming" is simply drinking rum and chatting. The combination makes for a very entertaining evening, starting in Roopa's Rum Shop, a karaoke bar in a villa on Station Street, and ending up at Palm Court, an open-air club on Main Street.
Guyana has been the destination I have been most excited about getting to know, and, so far, I haven't been disappointed. Here's hoping the second week in the country lives up to the first.
Vidya's tips The arts scene of Georgetown
Pictures and politiciansThe art gallery at Castellani House (Vlissengen Road), an ex-prime minister's home, has local works.
Coffee, cakes and books
The two Oasis Cafes (Carmichael Street and South Street) have great ambience, coffee and pastries. You can join in the book club's discussions on Saturdays, even if you haven't read the book.
Screen saver
Sidewalk Cafe (ariantzesidewalk.com) shows a Tuesday night film, followed by discussions. There are monthly Caribbean jazz performances too.
Business travel networkers
Federico Barbieri, a Nokia retail director currently based in Shanghai, is one of a growing number of business travellers using social networking sites to escape the boredom of another lonely evening in a hotel room. His site of choice is dopplr.com, which allows you to share your travel plans with your circle of contacts."Before that, I used to always call all the contacts I know in a city but it was like a job on the top of the one I was already struggling with. Also, that didn't help me know who was in town from other parts of the world - people who may be more willing to go out."
Similarly popular is tripit.com, which goes one step further and will automatically compile an online schedule based on your confirmation emails (hotels, flights, trains etc), so your friends can know exactly where you are going to be and when.
guardian.co.uk