The Blue View - Frustrated Broncos Fan

Having grown up in Colorado, I have always been a Denver Broncos football fan. Marcie and I have lived in a few places other than Bronco Land in our pre-cruising lives, but I could never get excited about the local teams. I wasn't as fanatical as some Denver fans – but, it's always been the Broncos for me.

Following the Broncos, however, has been a real trial during the last 15 years. When internet is expensive, slow, or non-existent, or Nine of Cups is in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a long passage, or our clocks are upside down and the game doesn't start until 2 am local time, catching even the score of the latest game, let alone a few game highlights, is difficult. Luckily, our youngest son, Brad, is a more devoted fan than I am and can be depended upon to send me a synopsis of the game via email. Not quite like watching, but better than nothing. I confess that in some years, had it not been for Brad, I'd have totally forgotten it was even football season.

A couple of weeks ago, however, we found ourselves in Georgetown, Guyana, in an air-conditioned hotel room with free high speed internet on a Sunday during football season. Our time zone was not so different than Denver time, and the Broncos were playing – OMG - the Boston Patriots! Was this the beginning of a new harmonic convergence? A grand trine? How lucky could I be? Even if it didn't start until 9:30 pm local time, I was up for it.

The only way to 'watch' the game in most other countries is via the internet. Other than the Superbowl, I don't remember ever being in a place in which we could literally watch a Broncos game on TV. Many countries have sports bars with a multitude of TV screens scattered around showing all the favorite sporting events, but rarely does American football make the cut. If you're interested in the local soccer, rugby or cricket game, you're all set, but no NFL games. I guess that's only reasonable – how many people in Denver would stay up till the wee hours to watch the Collingwood Magpies play the Sydney Swans in the Australian Football League?

Usually the internet has been too slow or we were paying by the byte, making it far too expensive to try to stream that much data. Instead, we tried to listen to the game on internet radio. In the past, we could listen to KOA radio in Denver and catch the live broadcast. Then, in the post season three years ago, I had rearranged my day, so that I could listen to a Broncos playoff game, Marcie had popped a big bowl of popcorn and I was all primed for the game when I discovered the NFL no longer allowed internet broadcasts of the playoff games. Last year, this extended to the regular season games, and I couldn't find a way to listen to any of the games.

Sure, I could buy an “NFL Season Pass” which would allow me to listen to the game broadcasts, but it is expensive, and we haven't been (and probably won't be) in many places this season that had reasonable internet. I certainly wasn't going to buy the package, so I could watch one game, even if it was the Broncos-Patriots game.

I did find a site that displayed the play-by-play action via a cryptic line of text. Every thirty seconds or so (longer if a timeout was called or a commercial ad was running), a message like “2-10-Den 38 (4:15) 23-R.Hillman left tackle to DEN 42 for 4 yards (97 – A.Branch)” would appear on the screen. It's hard to get excited 'watching' this way. No KOA radio team with color commentary and enthusiastic play-by-play action - no instant replays - no crowd noise... but it was a lot better than nothing.

For the first half, I followed the game while working on a few other things. During the third quarter, I time-shared between play updates and reading on my iPad. During the fourth quarter, and then overtime, I was pretty much glued to the game, waiting patiently for the next play update, cursing the longer delays while a commercial ran. Marcie had long since gone to sleep. It's really hard doing my cheering silently and my fist-pumps and touchdown dances without actually moving, but I managed without waking her. It was a great game, especially since Denver squeaked out the win.

So, soon we'll be in Trinidad. Internet is slow and expensive, and whoever the Broncos are playing, it probably won't be as exciting as the Patriots game. On the other hand, every game is important for the Broncos between now and the playoffs. Maybe I'll just watch a little of it...

Signs of the Guianas

I've been collecting signs throughout the Guianas and, since we'll be leaving soon, this seemed as good a time as any to share them with you.

Kaieteur National Park, Guyana

Described as the world's widest, single drop waterfall, Kaieteur is considered a must-see while in Guyana. Located on the Potaro River in the Amazon rain forest, its cascade plunges 226m (741ft) in a single drop and a total of 251m (815ft) before reaching the gorge below. That's about five times higher than Niagara Falls and more than twice the height of Victoria Falls. According to the World Waterfall Database, the average volume of water flowing over the falls is somewhere around 23,000 cubic feet per second, making this a rare combination of a very tall waterfall on a high volume river.

Gem drove us to Ogle Airport in Georgetown, an airport used expressly by tour planes. Along with the pilot and 10 other passengers, we crammed into the tiny, single prop Grand Caravan C208B plane for a one hour flight to Kaieteur. It wasn't the safest looking plane. The pilot mumbled something about seat belts, revved up, and we were airborne. No peanuts … no beverage service.

We took off right on time, without incident (the best kind of take-off). The views from the plane were excellent until the clouds moved in. Once away from the city, David remarked that the rain forest, when we could see it, looked like broccoli florets.

We landed on a tiny airstrip at the national park headquarters where two AmerIndian guides, Max and Omar, were waiting for us, ready to whisk us away on a 90-minute hike through the rain forest to the falls.

We struck out immediately for Kaieteur with Max in the lead. We stopped quite frequently to observe and learn more about some of the unusual, endemic plants and animals in the area. The red drosera kaieteurensis (yes, Max knew all the Latin names), a member of the sundew family, is a carnivore, that invites insects to dinner, luring them with its bright color and sweet, sticky sap, then gobbling them up.

We also learned a little about the history and legends associated with Kaieteur. Charles Barrington Brown, a British geologist, was the first European to see the falls and record its location in 1870. AmerIndian legends concerning the falls abound, but Max told us this one. Kaie was an old Patamona chief who sacrificed himself to the great spirit, Makonaima, by paddling over the falls in his canoe in order to save his people and bring peace between them and neighboring tribes. “Teur” is the AmerIndian word for falls, hence the name Kaieteur. It's also referred to as Old Man Falls.  A stone formation at the edge of the falls is said to be the face of Kaie.

There were three separate trails which took us to different views of the falls. The first trail was quite straightforward, except for the labbaria (fer de lance) snake that was curled up against a stepping stone in a narrow part of the trail. Max watched as we all carefully passed, avoiding the snake as best we could. They're said to have grumpy dispositions. Their venom is particularly lethal and fast acting although treatment is usually possible if the victim receives medical attention soon enough. Hmmm … how far were we from Georgetown? The guides took it all in stride.

We could hear the thunder of the falls and feel the vibration before we saw them.

The second viewpoint was a bit more strenuous to get to. We went over a narrow moss-covered plank bridge, ducked down under huge boulders, around massive tree roots, through dense foliage and finally up a steep, muddy incline before reaching our destination. It was well worth the effort.

Along the trail we saw huge bromeliads (Brocchina micrantha); some were 8-10' (2-3m) tall. Within the tanks (axis of the leaves) of these giants live rare, tiny golden frogs (Anomaloglossus beebei). The frog is born, lives and dies here and in all the world, is only found on the Kaieteur Plateau. Indigenous people once collected poison from the slime that oozes from the frog's skin and used the toxin on blowgun darts and arrows. The curare-like toxin  is said to be 160,000 times more powerful than cocaine and kills nearly instantly. Omar pointed one out to us. It was so tiny, it was difficult to see as it peeked out at us. Unfortunately, with 11 other people waiting to see it, we were rushed (I hate that!) and the photo opp was only seconds long per person before we were rushed along to another viewing point.

We reached the third viewpoint on an easy trail which opened to a wide, level area from which to view the falls. Signs cautioned us to stay at least 8' from the edge since there are no rails, but most folks ignored the caution, as did the guides. It wasn't until after our visit that we realized we had only seen three lookouts and not the four that are usually on the tour. It appears there have been two suicides in recent months by young girls leaping from the edge.

All too soon, it was time to head back to the park headquarters. Cold water and plantain chips were waiting for us and then we re-boarded our tiny plane to head back to Georgetown. On the return, the visibility was much improved. The pilot flew over the falls providing us with a good aerial view.

We could see a network of brown rivers snaking their way through the dense jungle below. Every once in awhile a mining settlement popped into view, an unsightly blotch in the greenery below.

We caught sight of the Demarara as it meandered its way toward Georgetown.

Several Georgetown landmarks came into view including Stabroek Market, the Demarara Harbour Bridge and the Georgetown Lighthouse.

Before we knew it, we were landing at Ogle Airport once more.

Gem and Kit met us and whisked us off to the brand new Giftland Mall, Guyana's first mall and quite a novelty. The mall was bright and shiny and all decked out for Christmas. A local comic, Jumbie Jones introduced local entertainment, Guyana's Prime Minister gave a short speech and then the moment we'd all been waiting for … the lighting of the Christmas tree.

A very, very full and memorable day and by the time Kit and Gem dropped us off, we were too tuckered to go out for dinner. We had a “picnic” of crackers, cheese and apples (and a little wine) in the room and prepared to head back to Bartica in the morning.