What an amazing birthday! The best one yet, I would have to say, minus the missing friends and family. Our 5 day trek to Kaieteur Falls was more than we ever hoped for! This is a long one, so prepare yourself...

Day one: 7 other volunteers, Blake and I, and Tony, our guide for the next 5 days, met up Wednesday morning armed with hiking backpacks and banana bread (I baked!) to begin our first long day of travelling. We all piled into the minibus and set off on our adventure. The car ride began with laughter and excitement and died down slowly within the first 30 minutes, as road trips often do, as we settled in for the long haul. We would be in the minibus for about 6 hours that first day. We followed the paved road to Lethem, stopping at a rest stop for lunch along the way (at 10:30?!). After Lethem the road becomes a red dirt road ridden with potholes. It had rained that day and the night before so those potholes were huge puddles so it was rough riding for at least a couple of hours. The red road turned to gravel road that took us through the beginnings of the rainforest. We weaved our way through amazing greenery and wildlife. We crossed on a few-car ferry and continued our journey. Once we reached Madhia, a quaint mining village, we ditched the minibus for our 4X4 vehicles. The brochure mentioned open-air all-terrain transportation, so you can imagine what we had pictured. What we got was an ancient blazer that stalled every couple of minutes and a truck into which Blake squeezed next to our bags on the floor, nestled next to the fish and the gasoline. Not exactly picturesque, but an adventure nonetheless. Our "all terrain vehicles" drove us about an hour along indescribably bumpy roads until we reached the boats. Out of the cars we went and into the boats; volunteers in one and bags in the other. And we were off for the last segment of travelling for the day; an hour and 1/2 boat ride snaking through the rainforest. Finally we arrived at our accomodation for the night; a benab at Amatuk Falls. The falls were stunning! We spent the first hour exploring and then headed back to camp where we slung our hammocks and settled down for dinner. What a great close to the first day.

Day 2: Up bright and early for breakfast...Delicious! After a semi-slow start we hiked with our packs a short 15 minute walk and boarded our boat again, this time with our packs, and we were off again. We boated down the Potaro river for a few hours, stopping along the way to check out some diamond mining destruction and do some hiking through the rainforest. "To warm up our muscles for the coming days," exaplined Tony. He was an endless wealth of knowledge about the rainforest having grown up at Kaiteur Falls. We bedded down for another night underneath the rangers cabin. Not our favorite accomodation after warnings of snakes. Yikes!

Day 3: Up and at 'em again. The rain had threatened to put a damper on our plans of a 6 hour hike that day. It had rained steadily for the first couple of days and then torrentially through the night. We set off at the first break in the weather. We had to cut our hike a bit short because some of the creek crossings had turned into river crossings and were uncrossable. As we set off into the rainforest, Tony began to cut us each walking sticks. They weren't just for show! We began what was to become about a 4 and 1/2 hour hike. Our first hurdle was the first creek crossing. Due to the rain, it had swelled higher than Tony had expected. The current flowing from the waterfalll above had become very strong and a bit dangerous. Tony stripped down to his underwear and headed across the creek tying one end of a rope to a tree at each side to make the crossing easier for us. Then he walked us across one at a time. Blake crossed like a champ, I had a close call trying to keep my pants up, but our entire group made it safely across. As if in celebration, a band of spider monkeys appeared at just the moment we all crossed. Amazing! We hiked to the top of the falls and took several minutes to take it all in. As we sat and enjoyed the view the rain began to pour down. It was one of those surreal, "I am sitting in a South American rainforest in the pouring rain looking at a waterfall and I just crossed a dangerous river with just a rope and Tony for safety" moments. So, on we continued for about another 1 1/2 to camp through the pouring rain. We passed through several more rivers up to our armpits balancing on submerged logs, hidden from view. WOW! Arrived at camp soaking wet, and settled down for our long hike the next day.

Day 4: My birthday and our last leg up to kaiteur falls. This time we all carried our bags as we were heading straight up to the falls. Tony said we would be climbing 2,000 feet and then slowly decending 1,000 feet back down to the falls. Here we go! The hike was gorgeous through the rainforest, but tough as well. The walking sticks came in handy as we climbed over slippery rocks and up steep inclines. Blake drank water from a stream called "Grandmother" and we traversed 2 especially tricky areas called "Oh my God 1" and appropriatly "Oh my God 2". Finally we broke through the canopy of the rainforest and came to our first view of the falls. Breathtaking! It was huge with all of the rain which had magically stopped for this final day of hiking. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the falls, bathing at the top (you won't believe how close to the actual falls...there aren't exactly safey measures here yet) relaxing and watching the swifts (swallows) that live behind the falls roost for the night. My birthday evening was wonderful, complete with birthday cake (thank you Blake and Mr. and Mrs. Singh!) presents, and friends! Then it was off to bed again.

Day 5: Last day at the falls. Tony took us around the falls for our last hike of the trip. Then it was off to the landing strip to board our tiny 2 engine plane (yikes!) and head back to Georgetown.

It was definitely a birthday to rememeber and a trip I would recommend to anyone. Sorry about the rambling and again for the lack of pictures. Hope everyone is doing great!

Blake and Jessa