Alexis Rockman- day 3610:00 a.m.
Park Hotel, Georgetown
Park Hotel is part colonial luxury, part Third World apathy, but air conditioning & TV are a shock (I'm already used to it after being here only 22 hours!).Georgetown is totally relaxing. I know it a little and I feel comfortable--beach, the hotels, Guyana Market, b-ball court--it's all familiar. Drew on the beautiful porch, shopped a little. Started feeling anxious in the evening, impatient to go home. Mood swings are severe, from euphoria to melancholy, but I am relieved that there is no more bush. I'd had enough for this trip. I expected a lot from myself, and was perhaps too hard on myself in terms of expecting to feel certain things, to not feel bad or ambivalent.
1:30 p.m.
Then a little drawing of the moth with transparent wings and red thorax tip. I'm feeling antisocial, and just want to leave, but it's worth the time to fly over the Mazaruni and Kaieteur Falls (Saturday & Sunday). I'm just bored now and a little impatient and sick of being around people.Alexis Rockman- day 38
The flight this morning left at 7:30 and cost about US$275. It was a small Cessna that seated us three, Shark, and the pilot. We swung out of Georgetown, which looked really small from the air, and down past very organized geometric rice paddies, Demmerara River, and broken jungle to Bartica, where we could see Balkaran's house, Modern Hotel--everything--Shark's house too. Then we swung down the Mazaruni. Marshall Falls was quite clear water, and you could see everything in the river. Then I lost track of our journey. I just thought of all the life below me, hidden, unknown, most will never be seen by humans. It was just vast, endless jungle.
As I was looking down I saw the water change to creamed coffee and realized we were above Peruni River mouth with its silty water meeting tea-colored tannic acid.
We turned around at this point and started directly back to Oglefield (Georgetown). The plane went over terrain we had not seen, away from the river: rolling hills, a couple of spots where timber had been judiciously removed, nothing too severe, and we flew very low, a couple hundred feet above the canopy--macaw flying, parrot flying. Bob saw a vulture. Then we hit a bank of clouds and rain, which changed visibility to almost zero--no more turbulence--and landed on a tiny airstrip that as we approached got bigger and bigger.
Today I'll draw the final drawing of a dragonfly and go photograph stuff on the street with Bob. Maybe play b-ball.
Alexis Rockman- day 39
7:27 a.m.
Yesterday Bob and I hired a taxi and drove around looking for images in the sporadic rain. I'm pretty excited about the gutter/drain painting and the beach garbage scene. The only things we hadn't seen were water buffalo, which were living in a particularly wild, overgrown piece of land behind some streets, tons of vegetation. Mark and I watched Escape from the Planet of the Apes on TBS and it seemed so old and smartly campy, especially the explanation of the time warp, with the painter painting himself painting.I'm excited that I'll get 12 drawings done before I leave. I've really adjusted completely to being back in civilization and it's a little disappointing. I wanted to go back to NY as a dramatic cultural shift, but it will not happen. It's a combo of TV, food, etc.
Alexis Rockman- day 40
The flight back from Kaieteur yesterday was hellish. I was certain we were going to crash--the single engine was nerve-wracking, and I scrutinized my life to see how many regrets I had. Obviously I arrived safely back at the hotel.
Today final errands. Finished last pencil drawing, collected mud from the drainage ditch on Main Street for drawings and painting (plus one small fiddler crab). Went to the beach, where there was an enormous leatherback turtle shell. Collected stuff and went shopping for more gifts.