From the Botanical Garden our guide mentions one more stop before dropping us back at the hotel. But before the last stop there is one more surprise stop when he notices a stand with coconut nuts. He asks us if we ever ate one and when we say no he stops and says that is not permissible and buys us one each and one for him. And then we have to wait for it to be cut so we can drink and then it is cut even further so we can eat it.
How to eat it though? No worries, our guide knows how to create a natural spoon that we use to eat the creamy interior of the coconut nut.
And then after the refreshing coconut drink it is a short drive to the last stop of the day, the National Park. The parking is anchored by a totem and it is quite popular with high school and college students that enjoy both the green place and the many kiosks at the entrance. The guide takes us inside showing us the bell from the former plantation and picking some grass, we find it quite weird but there is a reason behind as we will soon learn.
We then continue along one of the paved trails with the guide explaining that many Guyanese Olympic teams are training here, especially track and field given that the paved track is circular.
However our goal is a nearby pond, we are not sure why but then we notice the many herons. Given that we told him that we are birdwatchers we assume that this is the major reason but we could not be more wrong.
In fact we then notice in a sea of grasses some snouts. We look more closely and those are manatees, how cool is that? They seem to be rescue manatees that are receiving daily feeding from all the grass that is cut. Our guide brought grass to attract them but there is more than enough and they are really not that responsive. Still we get a close sighting, something we really enjoy. And then we return to the car and passing a forever development, a commercial center that already exchanged many owners according to the guide, we arrive at Cara Lodge where we have to end our very interesting and exciting tour.
We have a couple hours to rest and look at all the souvenirs we were able to buy before it is time for dinner and the start of our birding tour. Here we meet our guides and the other six members of our tour. There are two people from Australia and one from Italy with the rest from the US while the guides are from Canada and Guyana. Quite the multinational company. Then during dinner we get the laydown of the trip and we get the information for the next day. We have to wake up at 4:30 AM to drive to Mahaica for a boat tour first followed by other stops and then ending at the Botanical Garden, again, in the afternoon. We are looking forward to this, except the early start hour, and go to sleep as tomorrow seems to be a very long day.
