Into the Interior of Guyana

To Apoteri, Rewa and Crash Water

On Tuesday, March 24th a team from Bina Hill Institute headed for Apoteri, Rewa and Crash Water, Amerindian villages on the Rupununi, Rewa and Essequibo Rivers. The party consisted of Mike Williams, Samson Bartholomew (aka Medex), Tracy, our cook and Neal, our boat captain and me. The trip is one of the outreach segments of a project funded by the European Union. Mike Williams was carrying information about the project, Medex was carrying new health care information and I was being introduced as a business consultant at Bina Hill who is available to work with the villages with economic development. The journey began with a six mile tractor ride across the savanna from Bina Hill to Kwatamang Landing on the Rupununi River.

At the river Tracy brushed her teeth while we loaded our equipment into the 20’ aluminum boat.

Then it was onto the river for the 70 mile, 4+ hour boat trip to Apoteri. Neal is an experienced boat captain on the local rivers…and it became obvious as he steered the boat from one side of the river to the other, always searching for the channel, avoiding the many sandbars and other unseen, underwater dangers. I marveled at Neal’s ability to read the water surface as our trusty 15 hp Yamaha pushed us downriver at 15+mph.

Amerindian Hospitality

After traveling about three hours we came to the village of Rewa. Here I was introduced to a new (to me) aspect of Amerindian hospitality…without a prior invitation, and totally unexpected we were invited to lunch. Our meal was basic, cassava bread and fish. The fish was delicious…better than any expensive salmon I’ve ever eaten. When I asked what it was, our hostess glanced in the pot and said, “Skin fish”. The meal is eaten by laying pieces of cassava bread in a bowl, saturating it with broth from the pot and then spooning out chunks of fish. For the uninitiated, cassava bread is thin, very hard bread made, not surprisingly, from the cassava plant.

Following lunch, Mike briefly gaffed with the Touchoa about setting up a village meeting for two days hence. Then, it was back into the boat and on to Apoteri.

Sitting on a bluff high on a point of land that separates the Essequibo River from the Rupununi, is the delightful village of Apoteri. We made our way up the steep embankment, across a grassy field, the sandy play field, by the old school to the residence of Nydo Lall and his family.

Again, in the finest Amerindian tradition, we were invited to sit and eat. Again, it was cassava bread and fish…only this time, the fish was whole, only about six inches long and looked for all the world like it was the aquatic cousin to an armadillo. It had huge armored plates down its sides. Once I figured out how to get to the meat inside, it was, as before, delicious.

Zachary Xavier

After gaffing a bit, I laid down to take a nap. I had just dozed off when Mr. Lall approached my hammock, “I have someone here who wants to talk with you.” I shook hands with a very enthusiastic Zachary Xavier (pronounced Chavier). He explained that he was Wapashaina from Deep South. He had come to Apoteri years ago to work in the balata industry. Mr. Xavier invited me to go with him to the site on the other side of the point where the remains of the balata processing facility slowly deteriorated. With a wave of his hand he pointed out where some 200 homes had existed before the balata industry ended… “It was quite a city…electricity, underground water pipes…we had the first air-conditioned office in the North Rupununi”, he stated proudly.

Mr. Xavier led me on a tour of few remaining buildings in the compound. Interestingly, one structure that still exists…on the very banks of the Rupununi River is a ‘bathing pool’; now just four deteriorating concrete walls with a set of steps. Apparently one of the previous managers wanted to cool off when he came to the compound but did not want to swim in the river. We walked over the grounds while he pointed out where the office had stood, the cook house, the sleeping quarters. Then he took me to the building where the balata sheets that were brought in from the forests were compressed into 400 pound bales. From here the bakes were airlifted to the coast by DC-3 until the industry collapsed about ten years ago. Mr. Xavier demonstrated the press that even today could still press bales of balata.

On to Rewa

Following our meeting with the villagers the next day, we departed Apoteri, heading upriver to Rewa , 20 miles east. As we departed a party of curious school girls gathered on the riverbank to wave good-bye.

Like all the villages along the river, Rewa sits well up on a bluff, far away from the floods that come with the rainy seasons. As we travelled upriver, I was amazed to see the scum line on the trees along the banks ten feet or more above the current water level. During the rainy season, the river extends miles out into the savanna making land travel nearly impossible, even by tractor.

We arrived in Rewa in late morning following an uneventful trip from Apoteri. Mike met with the Toushoa, arranging a village later that afternoon. Rewa is only slightly different from Apoteri…with two big exceptions. Apoteri has neither an eco-lodge…Rewa has a gorgeous lodge, nor a store of any kind where the villagers can buy salt, sugar, flour…any of the staples most people take for granted. Rewa has a small, but fairly well stocked shop. Although the morning we were there, they had no flour or salt. But the Toushoa was going out the next day to collect provisions for the shop.

As we left Rewa headed for Crash Water, our hostess walked to the river with us where she took advantage of the Rupununi version of a “Laundromat.”

Next Stop Crash Water

The last stop on our trip would be Crash Water. We expected an uneventful trip, and it was…until Tracy spotted two small wild pigs that had just swum across the river but could not get up the precipitous river wall. Neal pointed the boat to shore to begin “Operation Rescue Two Little Piggies”. As we neared the shore it appeared that one piglet had a broken rear leg. On closer inspection, Medex determined its rear leg had been nearly severed by a Piranha. Knowing it would not survive, Medex dispatched itas mercifully as possible. That left “one little piggy” on the loose. With Tracy and Medex in hot pursuit down the river bank, Neal guided the boat to the shore where the piglet was last seen. As it scrambled up the bank, it tumbled backwards, nearly landing in the boat.

With a deft scoop, Neal captured the piglet, much to the pig’s displeasure. Now the party had been joined by a small wild pig, not over a week old who was dubbed “Tracy’s Pig”.

With the pig firmly in hand, we continued to Crash Water. It is the least distinctive of the three villages we visited. I was surprised how different each village is. At Crash Water, very few inhabitants speak English. Mike conducted the entire meeting in Macusi. Terrance, one of the village elders took me to the guest house the village constructed in an effort to stimulate some kind of eco-tourism business. It is an admirable beginning, but they have a long way to go, especially when the infrastructure and business growth is compared with Rewa and Surama.

While in Crash Water, I was treated to a part of cassava processing that I had not previously witnessed. In true “Rupununi Fashion”, the women of Crash Water have devised a crude, but very effective cassava grating machine. A bicycle frame is turned upside down, the front wheel removed and the entire affair secured to the ground. A belt, piece of rope, inner tube…what ever is handy runs over the rear wheel of the bike to a pulley on the grating machine. While one woman pedals the bike, another feeds cassava into the whirring teeth of the machine. I got very nervous filming this piece because the woman feeding the cassava was not using a push stick of any kind and, with her fingers only inches from the razor sharp spinning blades, she kept looking at the camera.

As I travel around, I’ve found that a camera is the greatest ice breaker there is. As soon as it comes out and I’ve taken pictures of the first few kids…and shown them their picture (you gotta love digital cameras)…other kids come pouring out of the woodwork. Even adults start to loosen up when I show them pictures of the children. Usually after a modest refusal, the adults will consent to having their picture taken…and do they laugh when they see themselves!!!
Look how fast the kids multiplied in these pictures, taken just moments apart. The little girl wearing the print dress came running out of a house pulling her dress on so she would look her best for the picture.

From here it was on to Kwatamang Landing, Bina Hill and home…the end of an incredible trip into the interior of Guyana.