Destinations in Guyana

Guyana divides naturally into three parts. The coast is where nearly everyone lives: Georgetown, the great river mouths and a ribbon of rice and sugar villages. Inland, the rainforest and highlands cover most of the country, cut by rivers and broken by waterfalls and tabletop mountains. In the far south-west the forest opens into the Rupununi savannahs, cattle country shared by ranchers and Makushi and Wapishana villages.

Distances look small on a map and are not. Only the coast has paved roads throughout; the interior is reached by small aircraft, by the single long road to Lethem or by river. That is why most itineraries pick two or three destinations rather than trying to cover everything — our sample itineraries show how they fit together.

Places we mention but do not cover in full

A few areas see so few visitors, or change so quickly, that a full guide would promise more than we can check. The Essequibo Coast and Pomeroon River (Lake Mainstay, Charity) are covered briefly in the Essequibo guide. Santa Mission and Arrowpoint, on the black-water Kamuni Creek, appear in the Georgetown guide as a day trip. The Pakaraima villages and the upper Mazaruni come up under Mount Roraima, and the far south — the Wai-Wai country around Gunns Strip — is expedition territory arranged entirely through specialist operators.