My partner John and I love South America, so, in November 2014, we decided to visit Guyana. It was a small group tour with Cox & Kings. Guyana is bordered by Brazil, Venezuela, and Suriname, yet it’s the only English-speaking country in South America!
The first Europeans arrived in the 15th century and, in the 17th century, Guyana became a Dutch colony. Then, in the late 1700s, the first British settlers arrived. The country was ceded to Britain in 1814 and, from 1831, was known as British Guiana until independence in 1966.
Guyana is about the same size as Britain but with a population of only about 750,000. Ninety per cent of the population live along the coastline, which is only about 3-4 miles wide. The rest of the country is mostly made up of dense rainforest and is relatively unpopulated outside of small villages, Amerindian communities, and migrant mining and forestry camps.
Guyana is an interesting place to visit. There’s very little tourist infrastructure and only around 2,500 tourists visit each year. This means travel isn’t always easy – the main road running North to South is still unpaved, so river travel is common and accommodation is in fairly basic lodges.
This was an energetic and adventurous trip, to say the least, and being up before dawn became the norm most days!
This article follows the journey we took. Here are nine amazing things to see and do in Guyana.
If you’d like to book this tour yourself, you can do so here…
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Cox & Kings Guyana: The Caribbean Amazon*
Georgetown - Iwokrama - Atta - Atta Rainforest - Surama - Rupununi - Karanambu - Caiman House - London
Guyana | 13 nights | Flights, Accommodation & Transfers Included
1. Visit the capital, Georgetown
We flew from London via Trinidad, to Georgetown, the chief port and capital city on the Demerara River. Once touted as the “Garden City of the Caribbean”, Georgetown was laid out on a grid system with wide tree-lined avenues and irrigation canals that cross the city (essential as the city is six feet below sea level!).
Most buildings are wooden with unique colonial architecture dating back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Many are adorned with demerara shutters.
Our hotel, the Cara Lodge, dates back to the 1840s. We had three nights here and took for granted electricity, hot water, and bug-free rooms. That would soon all change!
Cara Lodge with demerara shutters. Credit: Sue Ablett
A highlight of our stay in Georgetown was a visit with supper at the Roy Geddes Steel Pan Museum. Roy (pictured below) is a pioneer of the steel drums, having played for over 50 years. I love the sound of steel drums – it was fascinating to see how they’re made from old oil drums and how the different notes are incorporated.
Roy Geddes and steel pan. Credit: Sue Ablett
2. Waterfalls, frogs and ‘silver birds’
Day three and we find ourselves boarding a small 12-seater plane for a one-hour flight into the Interior – a vast area of rainforest, savannah, and swampland. We had the usual safety briefing and it felt reassuring to know that our little plane carried a full jungle survival kit!
Flying over dense jungle, we landed in a small clearing. Our first stop was Kaiteur Falls, Guyana’s most celebrated natural wonder. The water flows into a deep gorge – at its peak, some 30,000 gallons of water per second cascade over a 741-foot sheer drop. The isolated location means the falls are still as unspoilt as when the first Europeans spotted them in 1870.
Kaiteur and bromeliads. Credit: Sue Ablett
The area supports a unique micro-environment with enormous tank bromeliads, the largest in the world, and home to the tiny Kaiteur golden rocket frog. I’m not overly keen on frogs but they were cute!
Then, a 30-minute flight from Kaiteur took us from the jungle to the savannah. We had a gravel runway but let’s just say it didn’t feel quite long enough! This was a chance to see the smaller Orinduik Falls, right on the border with Brazil.
Orinduik landing strip. Credit: Sue Ablett
I’ll never forget the welcome here. We were greeted by a group of young Amerindians. They wore Western clothes and spoke good English but I was intrigued to be asked if we’d arrived in the big silver bird! Later, we returned to Georgetown for our last night in the city.
Amerindians – Orinduik. Credit: Sue Ablett
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Cox & Kings Guyana: The Caribbean Amazon*
Georgetown - Iwokrama - Atta - Atta Rainforest - Surama - Rupununi - Karanambu - Caiman House - London
Guyana | 13 nights | Flights, Accommodation & Transfers Included
3. Leave the city behind
The following day we were back at the airport for the start of our real adventure into the Interior. It was another savannah landing at a place called Annai. Here we stopped for lunch at Rock View Lodge, home to the somewhat eccentric Englishman, Colin Edwards.
Our means of transport then got interesting – an old Bedford army truck – certainly not the most comfortable on a road that was just about okay in the dry season but impossible to navigate when it rained.
The old Bedford truck on the road. Credit: Sue Ablett
Our destination for the next two nights was Surama Eco Lodge. Surama is a small village, inhabited mainly by the Makushi tribe, who still observe many of the traditional practices of their ancestors (hunting monkeys and fish with bows and arrows).
The huts were somewhat rustic but they did have cold showers, flush toilets, and mosquito nets. There was no glass in the windows. I lay awake most of the night because bats flew through the room chasing mosquitoes. Wildlife in the bedroom was suddenly the norm!
Surama Lodge. Credit: Sue Ablett
The following day, we were up early for a “gentle climb” in the “cool morning air” to the top of Surama Mountain. The climb was not gentle, and nor was the air cool. We were very soon drenched in sweat but the views from the top were good.
Mountain climb. Credit: Sue Ablett
4. Try spotting a jaguar
The following day we set off in 4×4 vehicles along the trail that’s reportedly the best place in Guyana for jaguar sightings. There’s a healthy population but none were to be seen that day. We did get a good view of the huge harpy eagle – a big tick for any keen birdwatcher.
After hours of bouncing around, we reached Iwokrama River Lodge, on the banks of the Essequibo River. The accommodation was timber cabins. The locals also love their hammocks, which are easy to get into but not easy to get out of. John chose to miss another mountain climb and spend the morning in his hammock with a good book. He picked up dozens of nasty bites that plagued him for days!
Guyana is a place of incredible wildlife and wildlife spotting was a big part of this trip. We did several night walks – here it was a night boat trip, looking for black caiman, frogs, and snakes! Not my idea of fun.
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Cox & Kings Guyana: The Caribbean Amazon*
Georgetown - Iwokrama - Atta - Atta Rainforest - Surama - Rupununi - Karanambu - Caiman House - London
Guyana | 13 nights | Flights, Accommodation & Transfers Included
5. Enjoy fast jungle Wi-Fi and walk narrow canopies
Sue braves the canopy walkway. Credit: Sue Ablett
Another day bouncing around in 4×4 vehicles on rough trails brought us to the Atta Rainforest Lodge. The camp is surrounded by pristine rainforest but not far from the road, so the Georgetown-Lethem bus dropped off fresh provisions daily! Bizarrely, this remote camp offered the fastest Wi-Fi we had all trip, though only when the generator was running.
I really don’t like canopy walkways, particularly when you have someone (John!)jumping up and down in front of you. I have to say, though, the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway was an engineering marvel. Four hundred and fifty feet in length, with suspension bridges and viewing platforms 100 feet above the rainforest floor. I won’t say I enjoyed it but it did feel incredibly safe.
After the trauma of the walkway, we spent a wonderfully relaxing evening around a campfire with a fantastic local guide. He was a master storyteller with one of the smoothest voices I’d ever heard. I was in heaven!
6. Colourful characters and colourful food
Vegetarian lunch. Credit: Sue Ablett
From the Rainforest Lodge, we made our way back to Rock View Lodge. Along the road, we stopped for views of the colourful Guyanan Cock-of-the-Rock bird. This is another big tick for any birdwatcher – not easy to spot despite being quite big and bright orange! And not easy to photograph either.
Englishman, Colin Edwards, definitely a larger-than-life character, is the vision behind Rock View. The son of a diplomat, he loved to chat and had an endless pile of stories. One of his favourites was about the time Prince Charles dropped in for a day in January 2000. Colin had never seen so many planes on the runway. When I asked if Charles had signed the Visitor Book, he promptly produced it, open at just the right page!
Colin with the guest book. Credit: Sue Ablett
The climate in Guyana is great for growing a wide range of fruit and vegetables. We weren’t always sure what we were eating but it was certainly very colourful and tasty.
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Cox & Kings Guyana: The Caribbean Amazon*
Georgetown - Iwokrama - Atta - Atta Rainforest - Surama - Rupununi - Karanambu - Caiman House - London
Guyana | 13 nights | Flights, Accommodation & Transfers Included
7. Take to the water
Sue and John heading upriver. Credit: Sue Ablett
Leaving Rock View we made our way to the river where we were due to board boats to take us to our next lodge. As our boats screeched to a halt, we half expected James Bond to step from one of them.
It was a three-hour boat trip to the most remote lodge we stayed in – Karanambu. I was beginning to get used to bats in the bedroom by now!
The nearby Rupununi River is also one of the last refuges of the giant river otter. It was here that Diane McTurk started her incredible work in rehabilitating the giant otters. We were fortunate to meet Diane, hear her stories, and watch her taking an orphaned otter down to the river. Sadly, Diane died two years later.
An early evening boat trip to view Victoria Amazonica, the world’s largest water lily and Guyana’s national flower, was another highlight. The leaves can grow up to three metres across. As the sun goes down, the flowers slowly open – a process that takes about 40 minutes but is magical to watch.
Victoria Amazonica. Credit: Sue Ablett
8. Go catch a caiman
Sue with a caiman. Credit: Sue Ablett
Another boat ride took us to Yupukari, a small and very traditional Amerindian village, with lifestyles little changed in decades. Here, we stayed at Caiman House. Research into black caimans, the largest member of the alligator family and an endangered species, is what draws most visitors.
This trip had been full of highlights but going out at night with the caiman spotters was just incredible. We watched as they hauled in an 11-foot caiman, got a noose around its jaw, and then brought it ashore to weigh and measure it, tag it, and then, very carefully, remove the noose and let it head back into the water. Holding a baby caiman was certainly a first for me – don’t look at the duct tape holding his jaws shut!
Waiting for our plane back from Caiman Lodge we experienced perhaps the neatest departure lounge that we’ve ever come across, but then this is Guyana. They even served cold drinks!
Departure lounge. Credit: Sue Ablett
9. Enjoy hot water and electric lights
Flooded Georgetown. Credit: Sue Ablett
After some incredible adventures, it felt strange to be back in Georgetown again at the end of our trip. The streets were flooded (remember it is six feet below sea level), so not much chance of any last-minute sightseeing.
I did get excited at the thought of a bat and bug-free bedroom, a hot shower, and a chance to read in bed. And then I opened my suitcase and two huge cockroaches jumped out!
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Cox & Kings Guyana: The Caribbean Amazon*
Georgetown - Iwokrama - Atta - Atta Rainforest - Surama - Rupununi - Karanambu - Caiman House - London
Guyana | 13 nights | Flights, Accommodation & Transfers Included
Final thoughts…
Tourism in Guyana is far from polished. It’s certainly not a destination for the fussy. As a lovely Swiss girl in our group said, “If I have to stay in another bedroom where every surface is covered in bat poo, I’m going straight home!” And, yes, there certainly was rather a lot of that.
But for lovers of adventure, incredible wildlife, interesting places to stay, and unusual forms of transport, Guyana is a real undiscovered gem.
Have you been to Guyana? Or perhaps it’s on your travel list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.