Linden

Linden is a bauxite town on the Demerara, built in two halves on opposite banks and joined by a single bridge, with red dust in everything and worked out pits that have filled with startlingly blue water. It is the second largest town in the whole country and the last real settlement before the long laterite road south. The highway up from the coast is lined with creek resorts where the capital comes to swim at the weekend in water stained the colour of tea. Mining here still sets the rhythm of the entire place.