Prior to January of this year, Navindh Baburam, who was born in England to Guyanese parents, was the average young man living a relatively comfortable life in the United Kingdom. He had a job teaching and coaching football teams, both which he lived for. However, when his best friend, a female from Argentina invited him to that country, it was the beginning of a new passion.“When she asked me to visit Argentina I asked myself, why not go North and head to Guyana where my parents were born?” With that in mind, Baburam said his next thought was finding an interesting way of getting to Guyana, that is, other than the comfort of an aircraft.“I wanted to do something daring and different, and at the same time fun…so I was also working at a cycle shop and then the idea hit me, why not ride all the way to Guyana.”After fifteen days of intense planning and research, on January 15, last, Baburam started his journey after spending a few weeks in Argentina. One of his main aims along the journey was to learn Spanish and Portuguese by the time his journey ended in Guyana.After leaving Argentina, Baburam said he headed to Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and then back to Guyana. While each country had its own experiences and uniqueness, Baburam recounted that the most challenging was Brazil, since it was the largest and it took him almost one month to complete the area he chose to traverse. Recounting his experience there, Baburam said while the country was quite interesting and he did meet some “nice people” he was robbed, and that was the downside of his journey.Baburam related that some of his nights were spent in hotels,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, some in trees with his ‘old hammock’, in people’s homes, and in some instances at abandoned settlements. Baburam said he also fell ill and that slowed up the journey which ended in April of this year.Ever since, Baburam said he has been coaching football teams in Orealla. He said his team made it to the final of the Heritage Month competition but lost to the first place team from Lethem.Baburam will he heading back to London in a few days, but plans to return next year with the hope of leading his charges at Orealla to glory. (Jenelle Carter) |