Trekker Tours Essiquibo

Trekker – who has complained bitterly and incessantly for weeks because we haven’t been anywhere or done anything fun in a very long time - was already in holiday mode when we departed Georgetown, with five other missionary couples, for a 40-mile day-trip down the Essiquibo River to visit some of the (former) Dutch settlements. This trip on Wednesday, October 26 was scheduled weeks ago for Diwali, a national holiday.

Diwali is a 5-day Hindu festival celebrated with great enthusiasm and excitement with parades of spectacularly lighted floats as well as with firecrackers, traditional sweet treats and gifts to friends and loved ones. Nicknamed “festival of lights,” each day of Diwali has its own principal good-over-evil stories of various Hindu gods.

On this beautiful – but hot and muggy - day in Guyana, nineteen of us traveled by boat down the Essiquibo River into the interior of “the land of many waters.” As wide as 21 miles across in some areas, this enormous waterway – which served as the 17th century highway to numerous Dutch settlements - has very much earned its nickname as “the king of all rivers.”

With our Traveling Tiger in tow, we left from Rod-en-rust to Fort Island for a visit to Fort Zeelandia and the Court of Policy (where African slaves were beaten, beheaded, sold and torn from the arms of their loved ones) . . . then on to Saxacalli Beach with its current small settlement of Seventh Day Adventists. From there we spent an hour walking the streets of the interior village of Bartica before arriving at Baracara Falls – the highlight of the trip.

Fort Zeelandia, built in 1737 to protect the planters and workers for the Dutch West India Company, replaced an original wooden fort at the mouth of the Essiquibo River. A most interesting lozenge-shaped structure similar to many found in Africa, the 2-story fort was 50-feet on each side and housed about that many Dutchmen soldiers and officers.

At Saxacalli Beach, Trekker got separated from us as he wandered into the underbrush chasing who-knows-what. Luckily, our able-bodied sea captain found him on the beach and returned him to us. He was seriously shaken due to his separation anxiety, including fear of being left behind on this Caribbean island, so was very happy to be back on board with us as we continued our journey.

Time spent at Baracara Falls was the most pleasurable part of the day with men and women getting into the fun – some fully dressed – as we socialized and played in the cool water before heading back to our port! It was a lovely, relaxing and fun day. Despite Trekker’s complaints and his ongoing question of “is that all there is?” we are refreshed and ready to go back to work!