The Interior of Guyana

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Here in the interior of Guyana, there is no mobile coverage, no landline and only one road which is not surfaced. Near here in the Iwokrama forest there is a crossing of the Esquibo river using a ferry than runs once an hour during the day. This is on the main road between Georgetown and Brazil. We are expecting to take the bus back to Georgetown tomorrow, but are waiting to hear if it it necessary to leave today (there is some suggestion the bus will not run tomorrow). Yesterday the bus was late due to heavy rain and the peope in the room next to us (who took the bus here from Georgetown) said that it took 12 hours to get here, mainly due to scheduled and unscheduled stops includng customs and immigration checks - there are no border crossings, but smuggling is a problem here.
The river could be a highway but there are lots of rapids and a profusion of rocks and sandbanks during the dry season especially. During the rainy season, the level rises and some of the rapids become more passable.
Because there is no phone communications, only VHF radio, sorting out problems can be hard. For example, the bus does not always run, which is why there is some uncertanty about our travel plan. We are not getting a quick answer. Another example: when we stayed at the Lodge on the river, their generator broke - they ordered spares but they failed to turn up so that the boat was left waiting for the man who had gone to collect the spare part consignment from the bus (which failed to appear). Apparently the bus quite often breaks down. You have to get out of the bus when there is a steep hill and on the ferry even if it is raining.
There is internet here provided by satellite, but it is a bit slow and yesterday after doing a long blog entry, there was a heavy rainstorm. The connection was down for about 45 minutes until the storm cloud had passed.
The government is installing a fibre optic connection and we saw it being laid but it is not working yet. I assume this will provide landline and faster internet.
The power here is by solar cells with a battery system but there is a generator. However the generator does not run all day, and yesterday, when the connection failed, I began to think the power might go off (it does sometimes go off in the evening before the generator is turned on). However, this place is better than many lodges we have stayed in because there is power in the evening (so that you can read etc) and the internet is usually OK.
The main staple food here is cassava or manioc, which is a root, a foot or two in length. It may need grating and washing as when it grows in poor soil, it contains prussic acid (which is very poisonous) but this can be removed by washing grated cassava. Cathy is eating quite a lot of cassava products as it is gluten free.There are also yams and maize. I suppose people keep chickens, but I noticed at the airport that eggs were being flown in large quantities.
We met a lady who was a peace corps volunteer here who sad that she had not been able to get food reliably where she was posted - sometimes meat and chicken was offered but she did not always find out before it ran out. She had previouisly done two years with the peace corps, but was finding this assignment hard, as she was not getting enough to eat.