Off The Charts In Guyana - Marshall Falls

Captain Mark cooling off in Marshall Falls

Captain Mark arranged for a day trip to Marshall Falls with a local river pirogue from Bartica.  Sean, Victoria, Kevin and friend picked us up in Victoria's pirogue "Doll".  The first cruisers to arrive in Guyana had already been there so it ended up being half of a cruisers circus with sv Wild Matilda, sv Larus, sv Honey Ryder and Mark.

Pick up

Victoria and Kevin

Our first stop was in Baritca for fuel.  They have a very unusual method for refueling but that is another blog posting for later.

Bruce and Nancy

Tim, Sabrina, Tom, Mark, Crew - Kevin, Sean, friend and Victoria

Soon we were zooming up the Mazaruni River, past the prison island.  The Mazaruni is the river on the west side of Bartica and joins the Essequibo River at Baritca.

Itaballi Crossing - there is a lot going on in this place.  Can you see it all?

How about this one?

The next quick stop was at Itaballi ferry crossing for drinks and snacks for the crew.  We sat in the boat while they dashed ashore.  It is a fascinating place.  A crossroads, literally where people come out of and go into the interior.  I could have stayed ALL day just to people watch.  I mentioned this to Tom and Mark "We need to come back here and spend the day just watching everyone come and go."  They agreed.

Rapids

Ancient water swept rocks

The next short stop was to view some rapids.  Sean filled us in on the area and such.

Hike to the falls

One of life's bridges to cross....."deep thoughts by Jack Handy"  SNL - bahahaha

Then we beached the pirogue and started walking towards Marshall falls.  It was an easy 20-30 minutes hike.

Marshall Falls

Refreshing - Burce, Sabrina, Mark

The falls themselves are approximately 30 ft high.  Immediately Mark and Tom climbed back behind the fall of water just to see what was back there.

Ahhhhh....

Sean enjoying the falls

Sean lead the climb to the top of the waterfall.  Nancy, Bruce and I were content to simply soak in the refreshing, bubbly/jacuzzi water.

Well deserved and needed baths?

"Look at all the butterflies dancing around above us."

The water was clear but tinted red.  I guess the minerals leach out and combine with dead leaves and such to turn it red.

Red tint to the water

There were many beautiful butterflies.  One species that caught our attention is the Blue Morpho butterfly.  They are HUGE and iridescent blue.  More later in another blog posting about this magnificent butterflies.  As we splashed in the falls, these and other butterflies danced above our heads in the sunlight.  Magical!