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of Macapá sitting at the mouth of the Amazon river and right on the equator.
The road from Boa Vista towards the border with Guyana was a breeze, only for it to turn into dirt once passing Lethem, the border town on the Guyanese side and where I spent the night.
I had heard that the local fire station in Lethem welcomes overland travellers, and I wasn’ t disappointed as they offered me a simple room with mattress, mosquito net and even a bathroom. After four months in Brazil and getting only somewhat fluent in Portuguese, it felt like a bit of a relief to arrive in a country where English is spoken for a change. Guyanese English is quite fast and can sound amusing and less understandable when it merges with Creole, a local tongue formed by African and indigenous influence around the Caribbean.
The night was short due a perforated mosquito net and temperatures that just wouldn’ t come down. I got up and took another shower before crawling back under the mosquito net. As I woke up on the next day, the weather outlook didn’ t look great, with some pitch-
TRAVERSE 191