Wild Cocoa Flower
too. I counted four different species flowering. We also saw a troupe of Wedge capped Capuchin monkeys. Our boat was supposed to pick us up at 12 pm. He did not show up until almost 2 pm as a large boat had gotten stuck in one of the 99 turns and he could not get around it. We headed down the Waini river. We passed quite a few collection points for Heart of Palm. It is one of the main sources of income in this region. Three hours later we rounded Waini point and headed into the Atlantic Ocean. It was very rough and we were all soaked in minutes after frantically getting all our bags covered up. The problem was that we could not land on the beach as the Waves were too high. Finally, we got in close enough to jump off. The waves pushed the bow up onto the beach and it was all hands quickly getting the bow turned into the oncoming waves so the boat did not get swamped. This was Adventure Tourism at its best. I got to take a long walk along Shell Beach as we had to jump off way down. We never got to check out the guest house. We met
Heart of Palm
some local fishermen and they said that the beach went out at least another mile but it had all been eroded away. I wondered where it went. Maybe it is on the other side of the Waini Estuary on the spit of land at the very top of Guyana. The beach is made up of all broken shells with very little sand hence the name. There are many large uprooted coconut trees scattered around the beach, testament to the movement of the strength of the waves.
E X P L O R E
Amerindian Children Paddling up River
G U Y A N A
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