This was many years ago now, but this was one of the most interesting trips I have ever taken. I visited a friend in Georgetown Guyana and found the culture and country to be unforgettable. Not your typical tourist Caribbean destination, but I think my experience was so interesting because I was in a non-tourist local and didn't stick to the touristy things. Spent a week at a camp and came face to face with an 8 foot lizard.....which was both amazing and terrifying. Also saw a bug as big as my foot, which I know for a fact it was that big, because when I looked down it was directly beside my foot....and it was the same size. Umm....yeah. Again, amazing and terrifying.

One thing that has always stuck with me from this trip was the graveyards. Sorry, not trying to be morbid or anything, but Guyana is located below sea level and floods all the time. In order to deal with this reality, most of the cities and towns have about 4-6 feet deep ditches everywhere and cross over to their houses over little bridges. Or their houses are on stilts. But in order to keep let's just say people where they are supposed to be in the graveyards, they instead of burying them, encase the coffin in concrete. So when you drive by a graveyard, instead of seeing headstones, you see blocks of concrete. And all painted "happy colours". What was also interesting is unlike in North America or Europe where graveyards are well maintained and always look proper and respectable, these graveyards were overgrown with grass and weeds that covered over the graves and wild goats and dogs roamed free through the graveyards, often laying right on top of the concrete blocks (the graves). Definitely a start cultural contrast.

All in all though it was a very interesting trip. The food (being Caribbean food) was of course excellent. I was really happy to have had this experience that I never would have had if I only went to a Caribbean resort and did the typical Caribbean vacation destination.