DESTINATIONS TIN AMERICA | GUYANA
expert ASK THE “Guyana has a lot to offer seasoned
travellers. It’s for those who are looking for a stunning destination, but want
to leave the tourist trail behind; those who are interested in wildlife but
aren’t afraid to work for it. They will also understand that locations in their infancy of tourism may sometimes be more of a challenge – but that is what makes Guyana magical! A tour
operator’s job is to inspire clients to visit these new areas, but also to ensure we manage expectations at the same time.”
Laurenne Mansbridge director, Pioneer Expeditions
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Georgetown; Kaieteur Falls; a jaguar PICTURES: Guyana Tourism Authority; Shutterstock
GETTING THERE
There are no direct flights from the UK to Guyana, so use connections from Gatwick through Barbados or Trinidad with Virgin Atlantic or British Airways, and Caribbean Airlines. Specialist operator Wilderness Explorers offers tailor-made and fixed-departure tours and pays 10% commission. A nine-day Guyana in Living Colour tour starts at $3,200, including transfers, twin accommodation, internal flights, guides, activities and park fees. Alternatively, combine Guyana with French Guiana and Suriname on Wilderness Explorers’ Discover the Hidden Guianas tour.
wilderness-explorers.com
48 20 FEBRUARY 2020
thundering waters that plunge 226 metres from flat- topped, jungle-wreathed mountain to valley floor still remain a relative secret. Despite ranking as the largest single-drop waterfall in the world, five times taller than Niagara Falls, I snapped photos of Kaieteur alongside barely enough tourists to form a football team. However, Guyana is a challenging destination to sell, as Tony Thorne, founder of pioneering local operator Wilderness Explorers, knows well. “It’s a country where high prices don’t necessarily translate on the ground,” he says, pointing to how accommodation across Guyana is comfortable but unwaveringly basic. This can mean everything from open-air bathrooms to pink-toed tarantulas in the front porch of your hut. It’s also a destination where you need to work for your wildlife and cover long distances to reach diverse ecosystems. But, as our encounter with the giant anteater demonstrated, the results are worth the effort.
SEEKING SUSTAINABILITY Perhaps Guyana’s greatest appeal is its place at the forefront of sustainable tourism. A leading example is the community-led, 24-bed Rewa Eco-Lodge. Managed by the neighbouring village, whose residents are part of the Macushi tribe, it’s a place where ancestral knowledge has been leveraged to forge a powerful bond between tourism and indigenous culture. Rewa guides employ every last bit of jungle wisdom to hunt out the blink-and-you’ll-miss-them burrows of
the Goliath bird-eating spider – the largest tarantula on the planet – while on boat trips up the Rewa River, they spot Guyanan red howler monkeys as they sneer down from their treetop domains, osprey deftly plucking fish out of the chocolate waters and, if you’re lucky, capybara and jaguar. Thanks to landmark conservation efforts by the community, the river thrives with arapaima, the world’s largest freshwater fish. Clients seeking another side to Guyana should head south to the dry savannahs of the Rupununi region. Karanambu Lodge is a former cattle ranch where visitors can encounter giant anteaters. What’s more, owner Melanie McTurk’s family has spent decades working to rehabilitate and protect endangered giant river otters. Rehabilitation occurs on-site and it’s sometimes possible to catch the newest arrivals lolloping down to the river to spiral through the water like razor-toothed harpoons. Like many in Guyana’s tourism industry, the McTurks
regard conservation as fundamental to its economic and cultural success: “Eco-tourism is a mechanism for development. We say that if you trap a bird and sell it, you’re getting one set of money. If you bring people to see this bird 10 times, you're getting 10 times more.” There’s a feeling across this country that, while
the rest of the world is just catching on to the benefits of sustainable tourism, Guyana has been quietly getting on with it. For the eco-conscious traveller, a challenging, surprising but, most importantly, rewarding destination awaits.
TW
travelweekly.co.uk
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