A ferry runs from Suriname to Guyana once a day at 8:00 a.m. or rather, it departs as soon as it’s full. If you miss it, you’re out of luck and have to wait until the next day. We arranged to leave at 4:00 a.m. As I mentally prepared myself for an early departure without breakfast, a message came saying the driver wanted to leave at 2:30 a.m. to ensure we made it in time. I had just caught up on my sleep, so by midnight I was wide awake. By the time I finally drifted off, it was already time to get up.
We all boarded the bus feeling sluggish. Fortunately, there were few of us, and the bus was large, equipped with fold-down aisle seats. It took us a moment to realize that if we unfolded them, they formed a soft bed across the width of the bus. Soon, the group stretched out on them and dozed off.
We were among the first to arrive at the crossing at 7 a.m. The ferry from the Guyana side was not there yet. However, a stall near the dock was doing a brisk trade in coffee and egg-and-bun sandwiches, so we were able to have breakfast.
The ferry didn’t appear until nine o’clock. By then, a large crowd gathered, almost entirely locals. Border processing was excruciatingly slow; the staff were unfailingly polite but in no rush whatsoever. They let all the locals through first. Our group was left standing there in a forlorn little huddle before they finally took our passports.
The ferry crossing took about half an hour. On the other side of the border, the same scenario played out: local residents were processed first, presumably because the paperwork for them was simpler. By the time our turn finally came, we were exhausted from waiting.
In Guyana, another bus was waiting for us. We missed the window to cross a bridge that closes between 12:00 and 2:00 PM, so we did not rush and made stops for lunch and at various points of interest along the way. We arrived in Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, at the end of the day.
