Explore Guyana 2015

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The Official Tourist Guide of Guyana 2015 EXPLORE GUYANA is designed and published annually for the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) in association with the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Guyana Tourism Association (GTA) by: Advertising & Marketing Services (AMS) 213 B Camp Street P.O. Box 101582, Georgetown, Guyana Tel: (011592) 225-5384 Fax: (011592) 225-5383 E-mail: info@amsguyana.com

Publisher & Editor:

Lokesh Singh lokesh@amsstlucia.com

Project Coordinator: Deomattie Seeram

Advertising Sales: Lokesh Singh Anupa Outar Deomattie Seeram Lesa Fleming Fiaz Yamin

Graphic Design: Heimant Ram

Editorial Contributors:

Michael Jordan Dr. Bob Ramdhanie Martina Johnson Dr. Rupert Roopnarine Deomattie Seeram Ruth-Ann Lynch Alicia Ramkirpal Indra Geer-Hazel Guyana Tourism Authority Treina Butts

Lokesh Singh Ian Lloyd Salvador de Caires Frank Lawson Chevon Singh Polly Rothstein Gerard Periera Major Gen. (Ret’d) Joseph Singh Dmitri Allicock Dr. Vindhya Persaud Ian Craddock

Contributing Photography: Ian Lloyd Andrea & Salvador de Caires Oswin Ambrose Leon Moore Keron Bruce Iwokrama Dr. Raquel Thomas-Caesar Colin Edwards Guyana Tourism Authority Polly Rothstein Gerard Periera

Patrick de Groot Major Gen. (Ret’d) Joseph Singh Amanda Richards Bushmasters Annette Arjoon-Martins Leslie Johnson Alicia Ramkirpal Graham Watkins Catherine Kello Mark Butler

On The Cover:

Lesser Anteater in Rupununi, Guyana

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Cover Photo: John Martin

© Copyright 2015. Reproduction of any material without the permission of AMS is strictly prohibited.

AMS and THAG wish to express sincere thanks and appreciation to all parties who have assisted in making this publication a reality.

ADVERTISING & MARKETING S E R V I C E S LT D.

The Official Tourist Guide of Guyana 2015

CONTENTS About the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) The Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) was established on January 6, 1992 by individual operators working in the industry.

THAG is a member of the Private Sector Commission and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.

It was initially called the Tourism Association of Guyana but evolved into Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana in recognition of the magnitude of the industry. It is the umbrella body of all tourism related restaurateurs, tour operators, travel agents, hoteliers, transportation services and community based tourism providers among others.

THAG has pursued a partnership with the Government of Guyana in the development and expansion of various aspects of the tourism industry; generic marketing, training and development; positioning individual members locally, regionally and internationally to operate with the highest standards in the industry.

THAG is headed by an Executive Board comprising a President, Vice President, Treasurer and four Committee Members.

The Secretariat is headed by an Executive Director whose responsibility is the day to day management of the Association. THAG’s permanent staff is the Executive Officer.

THAG has formed invaluable alliances with varying stakeholder groups for the enhancement of Guyana’s cultural, social, built and natural environment as a tourism destination.

Tourism & Hospitality Association of Guyana, Private Sector Commission Building Waterloo Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown, Guyana, South America.

Tel: 011 592 225 0807 / 225 0817 Email: info@exploreguyana.org thag.secretariat@gmail.com Website: www.exploreguyana.org Facebook: Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana

Guyana, South America. Undiscovered

INTRODUCTION AND WELCOME 6 8 11 12 18

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President of Guyana Message THAG Welcome Message Minister of Tourism Message Wild Guyana A Pioneer Retraces His Journey of 60 Years Ago

MAPS 23 24

- Map of Guyana - Map of Georgetown / Architectural Treasures

EXPLORE GUYANA 26 30 34 38 43 47 52

58 62

64 68 70

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Celebrating our Culture Confidently Polly the Rupununi Adventurer Victoria Amazonica The Wonderful Demerara River (Part 2) King Kaieteur Soothes India’s Living Musical Legend Adventures of the Cavemen and Crew Bartica- ‘The Gateway To Guyana’s Interior’ Dave Martins - Guyanese Cultural Icon Music Under The Stars - The 1st Rupununi Music & Arts Festival O Beautiful Guyana, O My Lovely Native Land Our Museums Stanley Greaves Renowned Guyanese Artist

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- Georgetown – Great for a Good Lime and a Fun Time!

- It’s Fun ! It’s Colourful! It’s Holi!

- What (Not) To Pack

FUN & FOOD 85

- Guyanese Recipes

ABOUT GUYANA 86

- Country Facts, Government, Travelling, Money & Business

THAG TRAVELLER 92

- Accommodations Georgetown & Environs 95 - Eco-Resorts, Interior Lodges & Attractions 98 - THAG Member Services 100 - Calendar of Events

Welcome to Guyana On behalf of the people of Guyana, I welcome you to visit this unique and beautiful land of ours. I invite you to explore, discover and experience a destination full of fun and adventure that will create moments to last a lifetime.

The Explore Guyana Magazine continues to promote Guyana as an ideal adventure destination and I am pleased to introduce you to the 2015 edition. This year the magazine has brought into focus Guyana’s nature-based and adventure tourism products. It is my hope that as you leisurely peruse its pages you are enticed to visit our un-spoilt wilderness and to explore our pristine forest, extensive savannahs and tumbling rapids and waterfalls.

With more than 85% of the country still covered with intact forests, Guyana is home to diverse flora and fauna including many rare and endangered species. The elusive Jaguar, the largest cat and top terrestrial predator in South America; the giant river otter, the world’s largest and rarest; and the majestic harpy eagle, South America’s largest eagle and the world’s most powerful raptor are but just a few. Filled with spectacular waterfalls, including Kaieteur Falls - the world’s largest single drop waterfall; rapids; and open ranges of savannah lands we offer you an educational, fun-filled, adventure of a lifetime.

Recognizing the value of our unique flora and fauna, Government has made significant efforts to conserve and protect our forest and biodiversity. Since the establishing of Kaieteur National Park in 1929, several other sites have been set up for conservation – principal among them are the Shell Beach Protected Area – the nesting area for four of the world’s eight endangered marine turtles, and the Kanuku Mountains, in the South Rupununi - known for its rich biodiversity.

H.E Donald Ramotar President Republic of Guyana

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Guyana has also recognized that our forests are worth more alive than dead and has developed an innovative model to conserve and maintain our forest resources while pursuing low carbon economic development. This vision is outlined in a Low Carbon Development Strategy which is currently being implemented and whereby Guyana is being paid for keeping its forest alive.

I wish to acknowledge the continuous efforts of the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana in promoting Guyana as a must-see tourist destination. Come and explore untamed natural beauty. Visit Guyana, South America. Undiscovered.

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A Warm Welcome I am delighted that you have chosen to spend some time with us in our beautiful land. Your personal copy of “Explore Guyana” will serve as a treasured repository of information, showcasing much of what we offer to ensure your stay is the most memorable, ever.

Shaun McGrath President

Andrea de Caires Vice President

Guyana’s natural environment is a jewel in the crown of South America and the Caribbean. Eighty percent of this vast and largely uninhabited wilderness is blanketed in thick virgin Amazon rainforest – home to hundreds of species of bird and mammals. Our rainforest lodges offer the opportunity to relax in comfort while savoring the delights of the natural environment right on your doorstep. In the south of the country the forest opens to rolling savannah with a completely different natural environment, season and personality.

Guyana’s rivers and waterfalls are legendary. The mighty Essequibo River, its length punctuated by 365 islands and graced by sparkling white sandy beaches and picturesque resorts, is an adventure by itself and a perfect base to moor your yacht and explore. Kaieteur Falls, the world’s highest single drop waterfall defies description and is a must for all visitors.

Treina F. Butts Executive Director

Mitra Ramkumar Treasurer

Amidst the splendor, don’t forget to eat! Our culinary delights reflect the rich cultural heritage of the six peoples that make up our nation and will appease your every whim and fancy. Make sure to keep a watchful eye for festivals and cultural activities where you can celebrate with our people and share in some much deserved fun and revelry. Some of these events include the Rupununi Music Festival in February, the Lethem Rodeo and Bartica Regatta at Easter and the Guyana Festival which is held in August.

Whatever you choose to do, I am sure you will take the memories home with you, memories that will make your heart warm, keep your smile bright and leave you longing for more of Guyana.

Annette Arjoon-Martins Committee Member

Colin Edwards Committee Member

Shaun McGrath President

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And, remember to tell all of your friends!

Teri O’Brien Committee Member

Roderick Westmaas Committee Member

Welcome to Guyana Over the past year, we have witnessed a great turnaround in our tourism drive with increasing investments and interest within the sector.

This reinforces our belief that the expansion of Guyana’s economy lies in Tourism; towards this end we have sought to ensure that the sector is propelled onto the international front and that the necessary infrastructure to catapult the sector forward, is in place, this includes the CJIA Expansion Project, the Hospitality Institute and the Marriott Hotel.

National Geographic has declared that Guyana may be the best kept secret in South America, ‘with stunning natural wonders stretching from newly restored mangroves near Georgetown to, the mighty Kaieteur Falls to, the pristine Iwokrama rainforest’, this is a direct result of a combined marketing effort, involving Government and private sector representatives.

In this regard we reiterate our commitment to Public Private Partnership in our quest to secure Guyana’s future growth and development.

Additionally several new documentaries were filmed and major publications have featured Guyana in 2014, highlighting several aspects of the growing tourism industry; these include an eight page spread in COPA’s in-flight Magazine, a Feature in the Washington Times among others, while filming was completed by CNN Big Earth, Electric Sky Production, National Geographic, Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation, UNICEF, Whisper Films and the BBC. This growing popularity coupled with the implementation of several new initiatives in 2014 , including the inaugural Guyana Festival held from August 8th-10th, has resulted in an increase in arrival figures - from 23,257 in July 2013 to 24,753 in July 2014; an increase of 6.4% over the same period last year.

These achievements are certainly impressive when one considers the performance of other Caribbean countries and differences in the dynamics of our respective tourism industries.

As we celebrate, we must also reflect on the additional strides made to develop the sector; these include the continued registration of tour guides, tour operators, interior lodges and resorts, tourism and accommodations establishments and continued training within the hospitality industry.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage the tourism stakeholders to continue their hard work and push towards the sustainable development of this very important industry.

I would also like to use this occasion to salute our discerning tourists, visiting friends and families for choosing ecologically friendly destinations and to say a hearty WELCOME to Destination Guyana.

Hon. Mohamed Irfaan Ali Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce (ag.)

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Tayra

By: Ian Loyd

F

Tour Consultant at Reef and Rainforest Tours

or me there are few countries left in our overcrowded world that can offer the natural riches that Guyana can. The very fact that almost seventy five percent of the country’s landmass remains untouched rainforest is enough to make the country special, but its extreme biodiversity, un-commercialised natural attractions, proud and traditional rural communities and its sustainable outlook make it truly unique.

The Wild interior As a naturalist and photographer I was very excited to explore the wild heart of the country and curious as to what wildlife we might encounter. We started our week long journey at Karanambu Lodge the home of Diane McTurk, widely known for her work rehabilitating orphaned giant river otters. Unfortunately we never had the opportunity to meet Diane but did meet Trib, an orphaned giant otter that she was rehabilitating at the time.

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Yellow-Bellied Road Racer

Karanambu sits on the edge of vast Rupununi savannahs in central Guyana. On our first morning we made our way out into an area of rolling grassland dotted with termite mounds and seasonal ponds. This is the domain of one of South America’s oddest and yet most iconic species; the giant anteater. The savannah at Karanambu is home to a healthy population of these

Giant Harpy Eagle Red Howler Monkey insectivorous mammals and it took us very little time to track one down. With some patience we were able to approach quite close downwind on foot as they rely almost entirely on their sense of smell to avoid predators.

That same morning Salvador and Andrea, the wonderful hosts at Karanambu informed me over breakfast of a tayra that was making frequent visits to the mango trees at the back of the ranch.

A tayra is a large member of the mustelid family (the same family as badgers, otters and weasels) that has a diet mostly consisting of fruit. It is also a creature I had almost given up hope of ever seeing in the wild, despite many wanderings through areas they occur, because of their unpredictable habits and large territory size.

However my luck was definitely in when, after some patient waiting it silently emerged from the dense undergrowth that borders the ranch to enjoy a sizeable mango. This is the same deliciously sweet mango that we were enjoying for breakfast earlier on.

Bush Hogs on the Run

Our journey took us next to the Amerindian village of Surama, set within five square miles of savannah and surrounded by the densely forested Pakaraima Mountains. Surama’s inhabitants are mainly from the Macushi tribe and still observe many of the traditional practices of their forebears. We were told the story of how the enterprising community first set up and now manage the lodge we stayed in and how it provides them with a sustainable income.

Explorers moving on the River

We then made our way to the Iwokrama River Lodge and Research station in the heart of the country. The centre was established to protect and manage a huge (one million acres) rainforest reserve. The station is surrounded by pristine rainforest, home to a staggering diversity of plant and animal life. Iwokrama boasts world records for the number of bat (90) and fresh water fish (420) species and has an avifauna of over 450 species, including the full spectrum of Neotropical families. I was especially thrilled by the abundance of large macaws here, and was treated to multiple flights of blue and yellow, red and green and scarlet macaws. One of the specialty birds we saw here was the capuchin

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Royal Amazonian Fly catcher Sloth

Explorers with a Mata Mata Turtle Ocelot

bird, a strange-looking member of the cotinga family that creates a song during its mating lek that resembles a faulty chainsaw.

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One of my favorite experiences at Iwokrama however was the hike we made to the summit of Turtle Mountain. Although a strenuous walk in humid conditions, the stunning views of untouched rainforest as far as the eye could see in every direction from the top was unforgettable.

Unfortunately my pictures did not do justice to the exceptional views and incredible sense of wildness that I experienced on the summit of this mountain. There was plenty of wildlife to be seen here too and we were rewarded with great looks at black spider and red howler monkeys feeding in the canopy as well as a performance from the rare orange-breasted falcon and a fly past of macaws, parrots and oropendolas.

Another of the Iwokrama highlights is the thirty five metre high Canadian built canopy walkway. We visited the walkway twice while staying at the beautiful Atta Rainforest Lodge. The walkway gives a completely different perspective on the forest ecosystem and allowed us a chance to see shy canopy birds such as the elegant

pompadour cotinga and green aracari. However what happened on our early morning visit, will live in my memory forever.

Not long after our group had just finished joking about how great it would be to see a harpy eagle as if on cue, the holy grail of the Neotropical bird world itself majestically flew into view just 10 metres past our heads and conveniently landed in a nearby tree. I almost fell off the platform, I was so excited. I had secretly hoped we might see this most powerful of all birds of prey, knowing they have occasionally been seen at a nest near to Surama and from this very platform in the past, but of course I count myself extremely fortunate to have had such a remarkable view.

Atta Rainforest Lodge has deployed camera traps along the trails close to the lodge which are always a great way of discovering just what is out there. They had recorded a plethora of large and small mammal species, particularly cats which was a very encouraging sign. Studies have shown there to be a high density of jaguars in Iwokrama, which as a top predator is an excellent indicator of the overall health of the forest.

Although we were not lucky with a live sighting of a jaguar on this trip we did see very fresh tracks and others have been lucky in the past.

The next stage of journey took us to the Amerindian community of Annai where the very comfortable Rock View Lodge was our base. Although the lodge is not in the most strategic position for wildlife, even here we saw a surprisingly high diversity of

Giant Anteater carrying a Baby

with abundant Victoria Amazonica (the world’s largest water lily) as well as scores of enormous black caiman and osprey.

The force of the falls Our first view of Guyana’s number one attraction was just a cloud of mist rising from a clearing in the sea of rainforest below us. As we neared, a Mexican wave of gasps of awe spread through the plane as we were treated to our first view of magnificent Kaieteur Falls. Almost every visitor to the falls arrives by plane with this unforgettable low fly by over the very top of the cascade. Kaieteur thunders over a precipice, plummeting two hundred and twenty four metres, making it the longest single drop waterfall in the world.

Magnificent Kaieteur Falls

Amerindians Preforming a Traditional Dance wildlife including giant anteaters, several species of hummingbird, huge millipedes, clearwing butterflies and the striking black and yellow banded poison dart frog.

Lastly we made the lengthy but fully worthwhile journey to the remote community of Rewa. The community of approximately 220 people is predominately Macushi with a few families of the Wapishana and Patamona tribes. Villagers practice

subsistence farming, fishing and hunting with little opportunity for cash employment.

In 2005 the community constructed the Rewa Eco-lodge where we stayed so that they could establish a sustainable ecotourism business. The community was exceptionally friendly and even invited us to see their school. Community guides took us to some stunning spots such as Grass Pond. This seasonal lake is about 3 km long and was a beautiful setting for photography

Once on firm ground, we wasted no time in making the most of our two hours to explore the trails and viewpoints. We first made our way to Johnson’s viewpoint which is furthest from the falls and this gave us the greatest sense of scale. It was here we were told the most enduring story for the name of the falls which was that of Kaie, a great old chief of the Patamona tribe who to save his people from being destroyed by the savage Caribishi, sacrificed himself to the Makonaima, the Great Spirit, by canoeing himself over the falls. We then passed through the unique cloud forest created by the microclimate of the falls. Here we enjoyed the impressive tank bromeliads - the world’s largest and themselves home to the tiny, endemic golden rocket frog which we eventually tracked down hiding deep inside one of shady bromeliads. We finally emerged at the aptly named rainbow viewpoint which for me was the most impressive with the changing light moods that were created when a violent rainstorm arrived. The very final viewpoint however is from the very top of the falls, which allows you to walk right up the edge and look down on the dramatic view below. The most special part of Kaieteur that is relevant to all of Guyana though is that it has remained natural, un-commercialised and still gives you a feeling of adventure and discovery.

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“The Rupununi was the most beautiful place I had experienced�

Frank Lawson

Kurupukari Crossing

Story by Frank Lawson & Salvador de Caires

M

ike Ideman an Engineer with the Demerara Bauxite Company [DEMBA] led an expedition in March and April 1955 to drive a Ford Wyllis jeep from Georgetown to Boa Vista through the Rupununi Cattle Trail. The expedition came about over drinks in a Rum Shop in Georgetown with Caesar Gorinsky, a rancher from Good Hope Ranch in the north Savannahs. Ideman boasted that he could drive to Boa Vista in Brazil and even placed a $1000 bet on it. In 1955, $1000 was a great deal of money.

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The cattle trail from the Rupununi ran through dense rain forest of some 175 miles from the Macushi village of Surama to the Berbice savannahs. It crosses both the Essequibo and Demerara rivers. The trail was established by the Rupununi Development Company [RDC] following the First World War. The RDC was based at Dadanawa in the south Savannahs.

The history and use of the trail is well documented by H.E. Turner who was a longtime employee of the company and From left Mike Ideman, Caesar Gorinsky and Frank Lawson Manager for many years.

Breakfast at Cara Lodge with Vitor before the near 600 mile journey

Ideman’s plan was very ambitious; he claimed that he had pioneered a vehicle track from the then Atkinson field [Cheddi Jagan airport] to McKenzie [Linden] which probably led him to believe that he could drive through the cattle trail.

I was invited to join the expedition as a radio operator; to enable him to keep in touch with base. I was serving with the Black Watch soldiers stationed in B.G. at the time. Ideman estimated the journey would take about seven days. We would spend a week in the savannahs at Good Hope having fun shooting duck etc., and then another week to get back. He did explain however, that “it would be tough”.

This would turn out to be the biggest understatement of my life.

The adventure began on the 16th of March 1955. The first part was fairly easy.

Motoring 110 miles to McKenzie and a further 40 miles to Ituni and Yakaburi creek. At this point we entered the Rain Forest and progress became very slow, averaging 10 miles a day, the best day 23 miles. In order to cross creeks, 3 bridges were built, other creeks with steep banks had to be negotiated with the winch and could take up to three hours. In many places there were fallen timber that had to be cut with axes and winched out of the way.

It took 6 days to reach Cannister Falls where the trail crosses the Demerara River. Since Ideman had figured it would only take 7 days to get to the savannahs and we were not even half way, rations were getting low. Gonsalves the expedition woodsman, responsible to procure live rations, came up with a plan.

He packed explosives into two empty tin cans wired to a battery, and blew up about 40 fish the size of trout - our diet for two days.

Frank Lawson reconnects with Colin Edwards

Having fed well we sized up how to cross 50 meters of river with an island in the middle. I swam across to assess the depth. It became obvious that we would need a raft. A further eight days was taken to find and cut suitable timber back through the trail and pulled to the riverbank by the jeep covering 25 miles in haulage alone. Finally a suitable raft of 28 timbers was lashed together.

Needless to say I had been in daily contact on the radio with Georgetown; Ideman now had specific requests. A new Winch cable, a spring for the starter, Kerosene for the Tilly lamps and food provisions all to be dropped by air. Since the explosive fishing incident there had been nothing but a cooked Macaw Ideman shot one evening as it flew across the clearing.

By the 30th of March everything but the jeep was safely on the other side of the Demerara. We waited for the plane to drop our supplies before crossing the jeep. The plan was to drop them among the trees to break the fall and it worked.

We only lost one can of Kero, two tins of orange juice and a tin of condensed milk.

The plan was to convey the jeep onto the island and drive over to the other side.

Take the raft around on the river and reload the jeep onto the raft. Then the jeep could winch itself to the other side, except the jeep winched itself off the raft into seven feet of water. Ideman was not beaten. We block and tackled like men possessed and got the motor out of the water. We only lost Mike’s camera but the photographs were a much bigger loss. Linton Gonsalves was an expert with an axe and Ideman was an expert mechanic. Removing the cylinder head and drying out the whole engine we were on our way in less than thirty hours.

Three days and 21 miles of rough going and we were at Kurukapari, the crossing

Frank overlooking the Ireng River

on the Essequibo river. We were glad to meet the three men building a pontoon for the RDC. The first people we had seen in nearly three weeks. They welcomed us warmly and fed us but also warned that the trail on the other side through the Iwokrama forest was even worse than what we had already come through.

It turned out to be all true. We ended up abandoning the jeep after various mishaps and parts breaking. We had to abandon the trailer first. We could walk much faster anyway. We realized we needed to walk

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I returned in 2013. Reading in John Gimlette’s book “the Wild Coast” of his meeting a Dr. Pixie Gorinsky. I was able to contact her, but she and her husband were soon leaving the Rupununi for retirement in Canada. She remembers her parents welcoming me. She introduced me to the ever-resourceful Colin Edwards, proprietor of Rock View Lodge in Annai. He arranged my return and along with his son Vitor and my son Andrew, we had the most amazing trip.

The remains of the Ford Wyllis Jeep

Frank and Tom looking at the Scrap Book

out as fast as possible or not survive. We carried what provisions and personal kit we could. We had only one hammock between us; Mike and I slept in it head to toe whilst Linton slept on the ground. We walked and walked, occasionally stopping to feed on wild nuts and plums. A marudi bird was shot and boiled.

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We struggled into the Surama savannah and the village warmly welcomed us.

They fed us and provided us with bedding to sleep. Ponies were arranged to go back for what could be salvaged of our gear. Mike and I had to keep going.

We set off on the further 10 miles to the open Savannah. Mike was in bad shape and could go no more on foot. Luckily we were able to hire two ponies and a guide to get us the last 5 miles to Annai. The ride was the most uncomfortable ride I had ever done in my life, and remains so to this day.

Frank and Andrew arrive at Dadanawa

We ended up in a rum shop in Annai trying to figure out how to get across the savannah to Good Hope Ranch. The whole village seemed to have been there even the Lance corporal. We finally were able to secure the help of a local rancher to drive us in his jeep for the final 38 miles to Good Hope Ranch, which was close to Brazil and the Ireng River.

Two weeks were spent in the Rupununi.

Caesar Gorinsky and his wife treated us royally and Mike soon was in good shape after the ordeal. We retrieved some of our gear and Ben Hart of Pirara Ranch bought the jeep “as is”. In a letter to my parents I wrote that “ The Rupununi was the most beautiful place I had experienced and if the opportunity ever arose I would return.

It would be 56 years later that I did. A set of circumstances fell into place and

The four of us left Georgetown in Rock View’s Toyota Surf, on the 5th of April, to journey 585 miles in six days. The first day we drove 260 miles taking 11 hours to get to the Kurupukari crossing and Iwokrama. In 1955 it had taken us three weeks and a plane drop of supplies. We visited the Iwokrama field station. We then went the further 50 miles to Rock View Lodge in Annai all in one day. How times had changed. I remembered having to abandon the jeep and walk through the Iwokrama reserve to Surama. Revisiting Surama I saw how the village has grown.

The Lodge is so beautifully set in a small savannah overlooking the hills.

We headed for Lethem and took the old road to Good Hope. Colin spotted the cluster of old mango trees that always say a settlement is or was here. Only the concrete floor is left of the old ranch.

For me it was a most emotional revisit.

We headed to Lethem, which was now a “city” from what it was in 1955. The old Guyana Airways building is still standing over by the airstrip and the abattoir too.

We headed south to Dadanawa Ranch, once the largest ranch in the world and still a working ranch. The name had not changed as it was still the Rupununi Development Company [RDC]. They had started the old cattle trail. In its day Dadanawa could boast 45,000 head, if founder H.P.C. Melville is to be believed.

There are very few Ranches left in the Rupununi. An uprising in 1969 and two outbreaks of foot and mouth disease shortly after, decimated the cattle industry, and it is now only regaining its original numbers.

Back in Lethem we went looking for Champagne, but two bottles of Johnny Walker had to suffice and we did them justice into the wee hours. We heard that there was an old Red Wyllis skeleton at Karanambu. So the next morning we drove the 60 odd miles to the lodge.

Colin was very proud, and I may add justifiably so, of what is called the Hunt Oil stretch from the main road into the village of Yupakari. He was involved in every aspect of its construction. We paid a visit to Caiman house and had a very informative discussion on the state of the local population of black Caiman.

Frank and Andrew celebrating at Karanambu

Frank and Bunting with the Scrap Book

Diane McTurk at Karanambu was most informative. We were sad to hear it was not our Wyllis jeep. That one was at the back of Pirara Ranch for many years.

Karanambu’s legendary Rum Punch was still as good as it gets. Diane and I reminisced into the night. She is one of the few people still alive who actually did the cattle trail. She told me all about the

Gorinskys and the whole Melville clan and all the players who were there in 1955.

The morning of my departure from Karanambu back to Georgetown, I was talking to the foreman overseeing the re-thatching of one of the cabins, and he knowing I was leaving, actually

asked me “when you coming back”.

I was moved. I felt accepted and it brought a tear to my eye. That Guyana had not changed. The people everywhere were as welcoming in 2013 as they had been in 1955.

I think I will be back.

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“Yours to Experience, Explore & Enjoy” Guyana

Arrowpoint South America

Hurakabra Resort

Charity

ANNA REGINA

Barima - Waini

Pomeroon - Supenaam Essequibo Islands - West Demerara

Fort Island Demerara Harbour Bridge

Demerara - Mahaica

CJ Internat’l Airport

Cuyuni - Mazaruni Hurakabra

Fort Zeelandia

Jubilee Resort

Bartica

Mahaica - Berbice

No. 63 Beach

Sloth Island Berbice River Bridge

Rockstone

ssau

Orealla Upper Demerara - Berbice

Potaro - Siparuni

Kurupukari Crossing

Iwokrama River Lodge

Fair View

SOUTH PAKARAIMA DISTRICT

Governor Falls

747,884 (Census 2012)

Governor Light Falls

Atta Lodge

Lodge NRDDB

V Town/Community Lethem Hotels

Rewa Lodge

Pirara

Karanambu NORTH Lodge RUPUNUNI Yupakari DISTRICT Caiman House

Nappi

(GYD) East Berbice - Corentyne

Takatu Bridge Administrative Regions Major Bridge

Ori Hotel The Rupununi Eco Hotel Savannah Inn Takatu Bridge

Lethem Area

Shea Rock

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SOUTH RUPUNUNI Upper Takutu - Upper Essequibo DISTRICT

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Konashen u Sip

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Rive

T: (592) 225.5383 - 4 F: (592) 225.5383

Email: info@amsguyana.com, Website: amsguyana.com

T: (592) 219.0096 - 6 • F: (592) 219.0093 Email: info@guyana-tourism.com Website: www.guyana.tourism.com www.guyanabirding.com

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THE CATHEDRAL OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION Was designed by an Englishman, Sir Leonard Stokes.

Granite obtained from the quarries of Dalli and Wolga on the Essequibo River and sand from Leguan was used in the construction of this structure whose foundation stone was laid on 15 August 1915.

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DENOTES CITY HOTEL LOCATIONS Please refer to page 94 for details of Hotel listings

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STAL HOTEL

TO GRAND COA

This 280 mile wall is a Dutch-designed and British-built dyke that protects Georgetown against flooding. It is a favourite “liming”, jogging and kite-flying spot.

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RAILWAY STREET

LAMAHA STREER

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MIDDLETON STREER

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The monument was designed by renowned Guyanese Artist Philip Moore.

ANIRA STREET

LALUNI STREET

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Celebrating our Culture Confidently …inaugural

Guyana Festival mesmerises

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local.

By: Chevon Singh uyana’s rich cultural diversity was on display this August when the Guyana Festival fever swept across the nation, leaving in its wake a renewed appreciation for all things

Thousands of Guyanese and visitors of all ages converged on the National Stadium to share in the festivities surrounding the opening of one of the biggest national events for 2014 depicting the sound, soul and taste of the destination.

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Over the past few months, the local and international airwaves kept the nation and the world at large in suspense, with promises of a grand cultural festival never before seen; the show did not disappoint and the audience was rapt from the get go with the spectacular display from GDF Air Parachuters which set the momentum for the events to follow.

This massive three day celebration commenced with a National Concert on August 8th , where confetti and merriment marked the official opening of the inaugural event.

The theme of the National Concert, ‘Myths and Legends …Sweet, Sweet Guyana’ was presented through a parade of Guyanese folkloric figures including Moon Gazers, Mother Sallys, stilt men, Chinese Dragon, Mad Cows, Masakouriman, Fayemaid and a

range of colourful male and female costumes - these aspects of stadium, including an exhibition, live music, kids zone complete with our cultural heritage were portrayed through dance, drama and Coney Island and daily displays of art and craft. song.

While the first day’s events wrapped up way after midnight, “ We have the ability to fuse a unique Guyanese culture by preparations heated up for the second day which featured the Festival building on what our foreparents gave us and this is what will Cricket – Masters vs President’s XI and Football - GDF vs Slingerz define us,” His Excellency, President Donald Ramotar declared matches and the highly anticipated Night of Legends Concert. as he addressed the gathering at the opening.

Despite the anticipation that surrounded the Night of Legends concert, The President stressed on the importance of the preservation of nothing prepared the patrons for the heady dose of music dished culture and traditions to national life. He said that notwithstanding out by Guyanese musical icons and not even the rains prevented Guyana’s diversity, the national festival brought out the true the thousands gathered from enjoying the likes of Sammy Baksh, meaning of the country’s motto of “One People, One Nation, One Yoruba Singers, Johnny ‘Braff’ Braithwaite, Celia Samaroo, Gordon Benjamin, Big Red, Winston Caesar, Ivor Lynch, Carol Graham, J. Destiny”.

Lall, Glenn ‘Fluff’ Miller, Sach Persaud, Shakti Strings and Terry Meanwhile, Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister (Ag) Hon. Gajraj among others.

Irfaan Ali urged all present to wear their cultural identity proudly.

They sought shelter under the nearby tents, many used their He said, “This is the best opportunity for us to celebrate, in upturned chairs as barricades from the rains but no one gave up the chance to witness the Legends in action and while the rains pelted confidence, who we are and what makes us this diverse.” the performers belted out their tunes to the rapt audience.

Undoubtedly the audience had its fill with over three hours of powerful cultural presentations reflecting the folklore of yesterday The curtain came down on the three-day Guyana Festival on August and the influences on modern day culture; this concert was 10th with a Generation Next concert and a National Cook Out. complemented with a host of other events and attractions at the

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During the course of that day, the excitement of the festival continued with the successful staging of the Festival Cook Out Competition, which was another component of the event.

This activity not only brought Guyanese love of food to life through a spectrum of local dishes, but it was also a celebration of the local culinary landscape by the chefs, who managed to defy the inclement weather to compete in the festival.

The evening gave way to the Generation Next Concert and rousing performances by the younger generation of artistes including Jomo, Vanilla, Kwasi ‘Ace’ Edmonson, Jackie Hanover and the Heat Wave Band , Charmaine Blackman , First Born, Alabama and a guest performance by Guyana’s rising singing sensation Lisa Punch.

There were also saucy performances by reigning Chutney King Pooran Seeraj, Rajesh Dubraj, Vanilla, Jonathan “Lil Red” King, Geneses and Roger Bowen, among others.

The main aim of the “Generation Next” concert was to provide a platform to showcase local talents to the rest of the world.

The Guyana Festival covered three days and featured the country’s most celebrated legends in sports, culture, art, music, food, and entertainment.

As the curtain came down for the Guyana Festival, patrons were in high praise and support of the three- day event.

It was the general opinion of participants that the Guyana Festival, like the Building Expo and GuyExpo, will be able to give recognition to the Guyanese people for all aspects of business and tourism.

While there, visitors were invited to take a stroll down memory lane, revisit their “boyhood days” and revel in the sounds, tastes, scents and sights that tugged at the nostalgic strings in their hearts.

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Polly Riding a Caiman

By: Polly Rothstein

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ne might think that it would be impossible, but traveling through Guyana is not difficult if you are disabled. There may not be the same “handicap accessibilities” that one would find in London or New York, but the hospitality you find in Guyana makes anything and everything possible.

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I was not disabled when I first came to Guyana in February 1994. This avid birder went on a birding trip to Guyana with Davis Finch, a world renowned ornithologist.

When Davis phoned a month later, inviting a few people whom he thought would be “happy camping in the jungle of southern Guyana for three weeks, sharing expenses for the crew he’d need while he recorded bird vocalization.” I didn’t say I’d discuss it with my husband and call him back. I just blurted, “YES! I’ll go!”

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That adventure was so extraordinary that we repeated it many times throughout the 1990s.

On the first trip and many of the subsequent such trips, we visited Karanambu Lodge,

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home of Diane McTurk, who was known worldwide for caring for orphaned Giant River Otters, an endangered species, and returning them to the wild. We stayed overnight and met the boats and crew for our river trip at Karanambu’s Rupununi River boat launch. Diane and I became good friends on those short visits, and remain so to this day.

My last trip with Davis, November 1999, was fraught with pain from a herniated disk. Unsuccessful back surgery in 2000 led to a Karanambu Lodge Cabin surgical fusion of two vertebrae in January, 2001. That surgery wasn’t traveling alone made it acceptable. became infected and I was disabled for I decided to bring my rechargeable electric life. This was no minor inconvenience, but scooter with me, so that I could do solo did it keep me from returning to Guyana? birding and do photography on my own. As Noooooo!

I have no balance, I can’t use binoculars while standing and using a walker, so the In 2004, Davis revisited Guyana, and I went scooter has proved its worth. Not every along, and had a long stay at Karanambu disabled person needs a scooter, but for Lodge. My kids worried, but the fact that I me it’s absolutely necessary.

Capuchin Bird

Jabiru Stork

Black Collared Hawk

Burrowing Owl

Polly on the Rupununi River

Crested Oropendola In preparation for my arrival, my cabin including the bathroom was outfitted to cater for my disability and give me added comfort. I’ve stayed in the same cabin every year from my first visit in 1994. Other disabled guests use it as well. And now there are two cabins at Karanambu Lodge which are equipped for disabled guests.

In 2006, I decided to return to Guyana’s interior alone. My family and friends thought I was very brave to travel alone, it’s actually very easy and safe. At JFK Airport in NY, I ask for a wheelchair. I’m given remarkable assistance in Guyana. Once at Cheddi

Jagan International Airport, I get down the plane’s stairs by holding the railing with one hand and a person with the other. A wheelchair is waiting at the bottom of the stairs, with a person assigned to getting me through immigration and finding my bag and walker. It is always prearranged that once through customs, someone is always waiting at the airport to pick me up and bring me to the Pegasus Hotel, where I always stay a night at each end of my stay.

Believe it or not, before I arrive, the Pegasus management makes some changes for me: because I can’t get onto the bed with the new pillow-top high mattresses, they

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Giant River Otters

“I was disabled for life. But would this stop me from returning to Guyana?

Noooo!”

Polly

replace it with one of the older, lower ones; they remove the spring hinge on the door to my room, so I can get in and out without asking the desk for help; They pile the throw rugs in a corner so I will not trip, and because I can’t bend to reach the electrical outlets low on the wall, they put an extension cord on the bed so I can charge my iPad while I sleep.

At Karanambu Lodge, a staff member is selected to help me unpack and pack my suitcase, and others know the moment to lift my leg to get me into the boat; they keep a stool in the pickup truck so I can get in, and again assist with a leg lift. Trans Guyana Airways always puts me in the back row, which is easiest for me to get in and out of, and the pilots and passengers are always so kind and helpful, even though it takes longer for me to disembark. I wouldn’t even dream of such kindness anywhere in the U.S.

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During my 2006 visit, two American alligator enthusiasts visited Karanambu to go on the river with the Caiman House team, from Yupakari Village, to study Black Caiman at night. As they pulled their lassoed specimen onto a sandbar, I was just returning from viewing the night-blooming water lilies, Victoria Amazonica. Stopping by to watch the action, I asked if I could feel the Black Caiman’s spine. “Want to take a ride?” “Yes!” Thus this fearless 69-year-old disabled woman was photographed astride a Black Caiman, a photo used the following year on the invitation to my 70th birthday party given by my kids.

My next visit was 2010, when I began coming to Guyana twice a year. My arrival was memorable because the usual greeting contingent was not waving at the airstrip

when my TGA plane landed. When I was off the plane, I assured the pilot that they had never failed to come, and tried to convince him to just leave me there, which he refused to agree to; he said he’d just bring me to Lethem. But the plane’s long time on the ground and the small group standing around it caught the attention of Mike and Fernando from Caiman House, who were fishing in a Savannah pond nearby. They offered to drive me, my suitcase, and my scooter to Karanambu Lodge. As we pulled up to the main house, I was met with mouths and eyes wide open in consternation: “But Polly, you’re scheduled to arrive tomorrow!!”

My gratitude goes out to the wise pilot who refused to listen to me and leave me in the middle of the savannah.

I love coming into the interior of Guyana.

There’s always something interesting to do.

My favorite is a boat ride at Karanambu from about 4:30 to 7:00 pm, as day turns into night; watching monkeys go to bed, welcoming the nighthawks’ collective sudden appearance, listening to the distant minor-key calls of the Undulated Tinamou; and on the way back, observing the ubiquitous red eyeshine of the Black Caiman, spotting the double white eyeshine in the trees, indicating tree boas, which are easily photographed from underneath; seeing Boat-billed Herons in the dark, and trying to focus on a fish-eating bat.

Not to mention enjoying a juice or rum punch and homemade pastry as we experience the river. And someone at the Lodge listens for the sound of the outboard motor so that when the boat arrives the truck is there to drive me back to my cabin.

Not long ago, my daughter Amy posed this question: “Mom, isn’t there any place you’d

like to go besides Guyana?” My answer was “No. The hospitality allows me to do things I love, I have great friends there, it’s all accessible, eco-guests and I share interests — and the food’s great.”

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Victoria Amazonica

By Salvador de Caires & Gerard Pereira

Wattled Jacama on the Water Lily Pad

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s a youngster growing up in Georgetown, I spent many an afternoon exploring the Botanical gardens.

My mother was a firm believer in fresh air for growing children, especially boys, and every afternoon we were either on the Seawall or in one of the gardens, Promenade or “Big” (the Botanical Gardens). We would collect grass near the Kissing Bridge and feed the manatees. Sometimes we would tease them until they came onto the bank, almost to their waist. We would roam along the canals looking for snakes and fish and frogs in among the Lily pads of the largest Water Lily in the world. We would get the frogs to jump from pad to pad and the one that jumped on the most was the winner. We would see the pink flowers and always many unopened buds.

And of course we always dared each other to try to stand on one and always imagined walking across the trench stepping on the pads like the Wattled Jacana birds.

19th Century Georgetown

The lightest among us actually lasted a whole second, but then got scratched badly when his foot went through. The entire plant is covered in thorns except the flower petals and the tops of the leaf pads.

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The Botanical gardens always closed its gates at six in tune with the six o’clock beetles, [Cicadas], so I never saw Victoria Amazonica in its full glory; that, I would come to see many years later in the ponds and lakes of the Rupununi savannahs and wetlands.

The first European to mention the giant water lily was the Bohemian botanist and doctor, Thaddäus Hänke (17611817), who came across it in 1801 during an expedition to Peru (Ayensu 1976). However, he died before he could make a scientific description of his discovery. It was next described by Prussian botanist, Edward Pöppig named the lily Euryale amazonica.

Five years later the Prussian explorer and botanist, Robert Schomburgk, “discovered” this lily on 1st January 1837, in British Guiana while on an expedition to the upper Berbice River (Riviére 2006). It was Schomburgk who announced this lily to the world and made it famous. It was later described by John Lindley, in 1837 and named Victoria regia, in honour of the reigning Queen Victoria of England (which was suggested by Schomburgk). Later in 1850, the English botanist, James DeClarle Sowerby, reviewed this plant and concluded that it belonged to the genus Victoria and gave it the correct name Victoria amazonica (Pöpp.) J.C. Sowerby (Riviére 2006).

Today in Guyana you still have the opportunity to see this amazing flower perform in the ponds and oxbow lakes of the Rupununi and Rewa rivers in the Rupununi, as well as the Upper Berbice.

As the sun goes down each night, the buds start to open.

As they open the flowers give off an amazing fragrance that attracts an inch long Scarab Beetle.

The first night the flowers open very slowly.

They are completely white and female. The full performance takes about forty minutes.

The following morning they close up. The next night they open again, but now it starts to have a little pink in the middle.

The following morning, they close again and reopening the following evening, they are now a brighter pink. The third morning the larger petals remain open. The center is very dark pink and has many long narrow petals, which close tightly coming to a peak in the center.

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The next night these open straight up and a most amazing sight is seen. The scarab beetles emerge through the opening and are covered in pollen. And they keep coming having spent the last two to three days trapped in the flower. The flower has now changed from female white flower to a male pink flower. On the first two nights the flowers produce syrup in the inner chamber, which the beetles feed on.

Karanambu Lodge’s Diane McTurk has always maintained that these beetles have a drunken orgy going round and round this phallic pillar in the chamber. Pollination is achieved by this species of Dynastid beetle, the Golden Scarab or Cyclocephala colasi (Seymore and Schultz 1997). It is not unusual for up to thirty beetles to enter one flower. At Karanambu Lodge, ninetyseven beetles were once counted entering one flower (Diane McTurk and Kenneth Mandook, Personal Communication).

Lily Ponds are noted for having lots of fish, Black Caiman, Spectacled Caiman, Giant River Otters and Birds. The fish, especially the small ones like to hide under the large lily pads for protection. The large wading birds like the Jabiru Stork, Cocoi Heron, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Striated Heron, Boat-billed Heron, Black-crowned Night Heron and the Neotropical Cormorant like to fish from the large lily pads or nearby floating grass islands, waiting for fish to

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pass by. Black Caiman and Giant River Otters frequently hunt for the abundant fish under the lily pads. The arapaima (Arapaima gigas) fish can also often be observed in the lily ponds in the Rewa and Rupununi Rivers.

I remember my Grandmother telling me of the way it was when the well to do of Georgetown society strolled the avenues

admiring the flowers and leaf pads in the trenches and canals, and inhaling the sweet perfume carried by the afternoon breezes around the city. Many of the children will never see the Victoria Amazonica in its full glory in the ponds and lakes of the Rupununi savannahs. But I do wish that our National Flower could return to a few of Georgetown’s canals.

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The Demerara River – origin of its name, its profile and its significance The early Spanish explorers referred to this river as ‘Rio de Mirar’, the wonderful river, but it was the Dutch who christened the river, the Demerara, from the word ‘Demirar’, the wonderful.

The wonderful Demerara River originates from the rugged, rain-fed, forested northern slopes of the Makari Mountains, located slightly right of centre of the narrow waist of Guyana.

Experiences in the Demerara River Several persons have shared their knowledge and experiences of their travels and inter-actions with communities in the Demerara River:

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Henry Kirke, a former Sheriff of Demerara, in his 1898 book: “Twenty Five Years in British Guiana”, wrote of his travels up the Demerara River around 1870. He refers to Sebacabra where a granite hill rises abruptly from the river, blocking its course and forcing it to make a sharp curve to the left. It was once home to an Arawak tribe in the 1800s that was decimated by a flu epidemic. The survivors moved higher up the river. An isolated tribe of Macushis also lived around Seba. When Kirke visited there, Seba belonged to a woodcutter George Allicock. According to his descendant Dmitri Allicock, he was known as Peg Leg George because of a logging accident resulting in the loss of a leg. He was married to a woman – a Forsythe of Scottish descent, and they had two children - Eleanor Agnes and George. The family, through their children and George Allicock’s siblings, produced famous descendants –the Allicocks, Lorrimers and Westmaas, well known around Guyana and the world. Sebacabra or Seba became a quarry and most of the quarried stone in 1940 was moved to Atkinson Field 45 km from Georgetown on 28 ha of land formerly known as

Hyde Park on the Demerara River. The forest was cleared and hills leveled and a concrete runway and weather station activated. On June 20, 1941 the airfield was officially opened and named after Lieutenant Colonel Bert M Atkinson, a US Army Air Service WWI Aviator .

William Hillhouse, ethnologist, Sworn Land Surveyor and a former Quarter MasterGeneral of Amerindians in the 1820s, who was himself married to an Akawaio princess, first mentioned that Akawaios (approximately 700) lived in the Great Falls area in 1823 and that they were a nation of peddlers carrying on a constant trade with coastal tribes and those in the interior.

They found that the Great Falls area was good hunting and fishing ground and they frequented the area with their families to fish for haimara, tibikuri, lukanani and tiger fish and to hunt deer and soon they were lured to the area to settle there because of the abundance of fish and meat.

Desrey Fox and Ken Danns, University of Guyana researchers, provided other insights on the settlements at Great Falls and Mabura, based on conversations with elders of the Amerindian communities in the upper Demerara River. Contracted

by Demerara Timbers Limited to engage in consultations with Amerindians living in proximity with the company’s forest concessions, they revealed that the early Akawaio settlers fled permanently to the Great Falls area following the wars with the Caribs over monopolising of the Amerindian slave trade, a business they were involved in with the Dutch colonists.

The Dutch and the British engaged them in acts of exterminating Negro camps and capturing runaway slaves. It was the Akawaios and the Caribs who were asked to assist in curbing the 1763 slave rebellion in Berbice. It was easy for them to flee to the Great Falls area because they already knew the territory. With the Caribs in hot pursuit, they fled over Great Falls and beyond in their lighter canoes leaving the Caribs behind to struggle in their heavier corials in an unknown terrain.

Many Akawaios hid in caves while others fled up numerous creeks surrounding the Great Falls area. Some of the Elders

interviewed by Fox and Danns spoke about the Kanaimo Cave or Kanaimoyeng where the Caribs took their Akawaio victims. There they sacrificed and ate them. The cave is reportedly very large and big enough to accommodate furniture. It is always dry despite the rains. The only thing the Caribs left inside this cave was a huge stone upon which they sacrificed their Akawaio victims. Oral history indicated that an Akawaio community in Great Falls named ‘Enee Euda’ was wiped out by a strange flu epidemic in 1914. Following this epidemic, remnants of those who survived came to settle at Mabura Mission in the 1940s .

Missionary activities along the Demerara River saw Mission stations being established by the Anglican Church which also constructed schools and health facilities - St Aidans by Wismar and St Oswald’s by the Great Falls. Bishop Austin had established three Missions above Malali but these were subsequently abandoned. Mabura Hill Mission at Great Falls was an indigenous settlement of the Akawaio Tribe who had escaped from marauding and cannibalistic Caribs. Located at the mouth of the Mabura Creek , approximately 180 kilometres from Georgetown, Mabura got its name from the Mabauwa Tree which is a feeding tree for the Monarch butterflies which are plentiful in the area. The settlement was started off by three main families –the Couchmans (Ronald and Hilda) who were mixed with Dutch, Portuguese and Akawaio, the Daniels who were Akawaio, and the Williams family who were mixed Arekuna and Akawaio.

The Mabura Mission therefore, no longer comprises a homogenous ethnic group but includes Akawaios, Arawaks, Patamona and Macushi and the Mission school was subsequently taken over by the government.

The Amerindian population living along the upper Demerara River engaged in their traditional subsistence activities but also provided workers for the logging and river transportation businesses and they traded their traditional outputs of food items and craft with the foreign employees of the bauxite industry.

Traditional foods among communities in this area of the Demerara River include cassava, casareep, tuma pot - a form of

Demerara River

Chapman, on July 6, 1964 at Horadaia in the Demerara River.

Legends of the Demerara River

Hopetown Georgetown Madewini Timehri (Hyde Park) Christianburg Linden (McKenzie) Three Friends Seba Mabura &Great Falls Makari Mountains & Canister Falls

Following is the Legend of KariKuya, the River Landing referred to earlier in this article, as told by Toshao (Village Captain) Leonard Fredericks: “There was once a huge monster living in the river bay just above KariKuya Landing.

Above his bay on a tree lived a macaw who was employed by the monster as a ‘lookout”. Whenever persons were in sight, this macaw would alert the monster which in turn would emerge out of the bay and devour the unsuspecting victims. This continued for some time until one brave Carib Piaiman destroyed the monster through spiritual means thus rendering KuriKuya Landing safe, as it remains today.”

Matthew Young shared his experiences as follows:

pepperpot, smoked meat and fish, and they imbibe drinks such as paiwari, cassiri, and sakura which are typical Amerindian drinks.

Subsistence agriculture is based on shifting cultivation using the slash and burn method.

The farms produce bitter cassava which, when processed into cassava bread, is sold to miners and loggers. They also produce dasheen and sweet potatoes, bananas, plantains, sugarcane and pineapples.

Access to the mission is from Linden along the Linden-Mabura Road for 3 hours to the river landing and from there to the mission is 45 minutes by speed boat. The Karikuya Landing should really be pronounced KawareKuiya - meaning monster horse and it is the subject of a legend to be explained later.

Lower down the Demerara River, in the Kamuni Creek tributary, there were attempts at establishing a Chinese settlement through the initiative of O Tye Kim, who arrived in the Colony in 1864 as

a missionary from the Church Missionary Society. By October 1865, there were approximately 150 Chinese residents at the settlement of Hopetown in the Kamuni Creek and the main economic activities – 2 charcoal production and rice cultivation, led to a brief period of prosperity but then these activities sadly declined. The decline was as a result of reduced immigration, flooding as a consequence of the empoldering of the Boeraserie Scheme around 1887 to provide water for the sugar estates on the West Bank Demerara, lack of easy access to wood for charcoal production, the destruction of the rice by birds, failure to plant permanent crops, and a scandal involving O Tye Kim who subsequently defected and by 1914, the settlement went into decline.

The Demerara River was also silent witness to the racial troubles of 1962/1964 manifested in ethnic violence - murder, arson, and evacuation of affected persons, and also the loss of lives from an explosion aboard the motor launch, the Son

“The rivers of Guyana have always held a fascination for me, their hidden dangers perhaps a challenge I could not resist.

For instance, taking an Easter holiday at Wismar on the Demerara River with some friends, I used to bathe every morning at the riverside, then take a swim over and back again. It was during the same Easter weekend that a group of Boy Scouts from Georgetown were swimming on the McKenzie side of the river when one of the boys just disappeared without a sound. His body was later found on the mudflat, his chest ripped open and his heart and liver missing. The creature that did this must have had enormous strength. On another occasion, in the upper reaches of the river at Clemwood, some school children were crossing on their way to school when a girl gave a piercing scream, pointing to a large hairy hand with long nails clutching the gunwale of the boat. One boy had reacted quickly, bringing down the paddle he was holding in a sharp, cruel arc to hit the hand with a sickening crunch. The thing let loose of the gunwale and broke the surface of the water to disclose a feline face with two protruding fangs. Its head and chest were covered with hair. It did not surface again. There were several other instances over the years of drowning of children, mostly boys, in the Wismar-Christianburg area. In many cases, according to medical testimony, the heart had been dug out of these victims by the time their bodies were recovered. Is it possible that a monster, the masacuraman or water tiger, unknown to zoology, actually exists? I am inclined to believe so, for it brings to mind my first visit to the interior in 1925 when I saw a

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Overhead view of Demerara River from the East Bank.

grown Amerindian woman, whose face had been hideously disfigured by such a creature when she was a child, bathing by the river”.

Vincent Roth in his book: A Life in Guyana, Volume 1, wrote of life on the Demerara River between 1909 and 1913 when he was the Land Officer based at Christianburg. Accompanying him on his trip from Georgetown to Christianburg on the Sprostons Steamer ‘New Amsterdam’, were M.P. Comacho - the wealthiest Portuguese in the Colony, the Mayor of New Amsterdam - Mr Wreford, A.H. Goring - the Secretary of Sprostons Ltd, and his clerk.

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Roth provided the following insights into the people, places and activities, as they were nearly one hundred years ago: “Wismar was the steamer terminus and station for the Demerara – Essequibo Railway, the road to the Potaro gold fields”.

“The railway was a single track which was laid on a permanent way of glittering white sand. Presently a tiny engine came puffing and snorting around the bend and up the hill,

the four little coaches rocking behind it. They were full of pork knockers from the Potaro”.

witnessed the following event at Hyde Park stelling (the old Timehri river stelling):

“Travelling in the Demerara River in a tented boat crewed by three oarsmen and one steersman, I went up river and passed Three Friends on the right bank of the river where, on top of a little hill, I saw an old fort with a couple of antiquated cannons grinning through the embrasures”.

“There was a cry on the stelling: ‘Sursion!

Scursion! Mr Rote, look de scursion (excursion) steamer’, and then I heard the strains of a brass band rapidly approaching from down the Demerara River. Seizing my camera I rushed out and got a snap of Sprostons’ steamer ‘Essequibo’, the daintiest of their fleet, steaming up the river with band playing and flags flying and a load of Portuguese excursionists on board bound for Wismar”.

“At Bootooba Point, where the river takes a sharp bend to the west and narrows a great deal, we passed the Malali-Wismar launch, a small steam boat which made a great puffing noise on its way down river”.

Roth went on his boat trips on the Demerara River and its tributaries such as the Kamuni and Waratilla Creeks, inspecting wood grants and charcoal grants. He visited the local ‘coal depot’ of H.T. De Freitas where there was a steam shingle-making plant capable of producing 25,000 shingles per day. He saw bread being baked in a ‘Dutch oven’, which was a wide shallow pot on short legs, with a fire being laid underneath and also on top of the lid. It was while he was on one such inspection trip that Roth

He visited the Seba quarry, mentioned by Waterton in his Wanderings as the ‘Rock Seba’ - a hill of granite gneiss. It was being quarried by one Francis Harvey, a ‘brokendown white man’ who had been in Panama during the French occupation and had spent some years in Colombia. Harvey invited Roth to watch some blasting. Roth wrote: “Five holes were bored in the face of the rock and into each he put two sticks of dynamite, a mercurial chloride detonator being attached to the upper stick, to which in turn were attached two electric wires.

When all the wires were joined, and the two main ones carried to the top of the hill and attached to a blasting battery, he hoisted a red flag and shouted to all and sundry to “ Look out!” He then grasped the battery handle in both hands and rammed it down hard. Instantly there was a roar and a great tearing sound and out of the face of the quarry flew tons of rock of all sizes right up into the air. They splashed down into the river turning it to foam.

Some pieces went right over the river and crashed down among the forest trees on the other shore. When all the fragments had descended to earth we walked down to the scene of the explosion, a mist of thick pungent smoke still hovering over it. A solid lump of rock, weighing about fifteen tons, had been dislodged, as well as several tons of smaller pieces. Harvey told me that to split the big loose pieces like this, they laid a fire underneath and burnt it for several days, after which it was easily broken up with a sledge hammer”.

In 1932 when Roth had to return to the area to do surveys for the Demerara Bauxite Company, his description of the journey gives a vivid insight into the life and times of that period and of the wonderful Demerara River. He described the journey from the Public Works Department by the Lighthouse to Christianburg as follows (edited): “I finally decided to leave for the Demerara Bauxite Company’s survey on Saturday 13th February, 1932 and the family wanted to give

Martin (his nephew) a send-off but because of the small size of their house, Phil (Roth’s wife) decided it should be held at ours. After a night of farewell parties, I boarded the tug ‘Seba’, owned by the Public Works Department which went up twice weekly with her string of barges to the Seba quarry, and got underway at 3 a.m. When the eastern sky began to lighten, I retired to a cabin and awoke after 7 a.m. for left-over party food of cold roast chicken and potato salad, just as the tug was passing Sill’s landing at Sandhills. I spent the day reading Edgar Alan Poe’s Tales of Mystery, dozing and watching the scenery which had not changed much since I used to patrol the river sixteen years before. At some points, houses I remembered had disappeared, at others their number had increased. The most remarkable change to me, however, was the absence of timber punts drifting downstream laden with their unslung cargo of greenheart timbers, or empty ones returning upriver. Not a single one did I see during the course of the day; the only signs of present activity in this former chief timber-producing district of the colony were a couple of rafts of light wood floating down river. Just below Horodaia, the R.H. Carr overtook us, taking care to give the string of punts a wide berth.

Towards six o’clock we came into view of the ‘Christianburg Lighthouse’, the two famous cabbage palms that towered above the forest on the east bank of the river just below the corner from which Christianburg can be seen.

A few minutes later the old Christianburg House came into sight and we were soon tied up to the wharf and then settled down in the Government Officers Quarters upstairs”.

Roth’s tour of the various rooms of the ancient house brought back many old memories: There was the Commissary’s room occupied

by Legge and Low until their office was abolished and the duties handed over to Roth as Land Officer in 1911. There was one which was old Spence’s, the manager of the sawmill. The sawmill was driven by a huge waterwheel fed by a creek. The saws were not circular but worked on the ‘up and down’

principle. A number of saws were set in a frame, about an inch or more apart, and then a great log, already ‘squared’ by another set of saws, or else by adzes whilst still in the bush, was hauled up to them, and gradually came out the other side in a mass of boards”.

Roth recalled that: “the big bedroom in the south east corner used to be the Public Officers’ dining room, which had now been changed to the one nearest the head of the stairs. The next room was where Kim Mansfield, then Agricultural Inspector, fell asleep with a candle burning next to his mosquito net and all but burnt himself and the whole building, had it not been for the sharp nose of the watchman, old Black Jones, now long in his grave. Behind the kitchen, the graves of the old Pattersons, feudal lords of the river, the original builders and owners of the house, were overgrown and dank, their occupants forgotten. Their massive oaken furniture and heavy gilt-framed pictures, brought from their ancestral home in Scotland, had been removed; their mill had been dismantled and their water conservancy destroyed to provide the bauxite of which its dams consisted. Truly was the glory of Christianburg departed”.

Sources: 1 Rev. L. Crookhall, British Guiana or Work and Wanderings among the Creoles, the Africans and Indians of the wild country.

(London: T. Lester Union Ltd.) 2 M F Young (1998), Guyana: The Lost El Dorado. Peepal Tree Press, UK 3 Richard Schomburgk: Travels in British Guiana during the years 1840-1844. Vol 1. (Leipzig: J.J. Weber, 1848), 4 Vincent Roth: A Life in Guyana, Volume 1 - A Young Man’s Journey 1889-1922. Ed. Michael Bennett (2003). Peepal Tree Press, England.

5 Dmitri Allicock (2013): Peg Leg George of Sebacabra.

6 Desrey Fox and George Danns (1993): The Indigenous condition in Guyana, (University of Guyana).

7 Cecil Clementi (1915): The Chinese in British Guiana, The Argosy Co. Ltd, Georgetown.

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King

Kaieteur

Soothes India’s Living Musical Legend Sonu Nigam Visits The Majestic Kaieteur Falls Story By: Dr. Vindhya Persaud

“Visiting Kaieteur Falls was an experience beyond words. I would like to visit the place again next time.”

Sonu Nigam

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ollywood superstar Sonu Nigam first visited Guyana in 2012 for a Mega Concert at the Guyana National Stadium. He was astounded by the turnout for the show and the love and affection from a doting crowd who were thrilled by his stage performance and rendition of many popular Bollywood hit songs.

His Guyana experience hit a soft spot and he vowed to return. He confirmed his return trip for another Mega Concert in May 2014 as part of Guyana’s Indian Arrival Day Celebrations.

On arrival at the Cheddi Jagan Airport on the morning of May 4th 2014 he said, “This is a home coming.” He expressed this sentiment again at the opening of the Guyana Hindu Dharmic Sabha’s Bal Nivas Children’s Shelter in Berbice and emphasized the affinity and affection he felt for Guyana.

But, it was the majestic splendor of the Kaieteur Falls and its pristine beauty which had him spellbound.

“Visiting Kaieteur Falls was an experience beyond words. The beauty of the place coupled with its inaccessibility, made it a one of a kind, rare, blissful experience of my life. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the presence of such a massive Falls in Guyana. I would like to visit the place again next time.” Sonu Nigam

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Sonu visited Kaieteur Falls with his troupe and trekked along the scenic trail. He spent a few hours enjoying the serenity of the place and took the opportunity to snap many pictures at the various vantage points and enjoy the cool soothing waters before the undulating waves went crashing down over the Falls. It was the perfect climax to his hectic weekend of performance and travelling and an unforgettable gift from Guyana. Everyone delayed the moment of departure as long as possible to bask in the peace and tranquility that the Falls never fails to arouse.

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Adventures of the Cavemen and Crew The Awesome Experience of Filming a Documentary in Guyana

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By: Ian Craddock

uyana has been known for its amazing interior of savannah, jungle, mountains, river and waterfalls by an adventurous group of tourists for a few years, but a new gang has recently discovered that Guyana can offer the perfect location for them. TV production companies.

There are a vast number of shows that offer the viewer adventure, natural history, survival and other insight into some of the most remote places of the World and Guyana ticks all these boxes for a series producer researching places to film a new show.

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But, you don’t just pick a place off the map and go! However minimalist the show may appear, there is a lot of work behind the scenes to make it happen and that starts with getting permission. You cannot just turn up in any country with 100 pelicases of kit and start filming. You need permits from the Government, permission from the people or villages that own the land, from various environmental agencies and of course from the people that appear on camera.

For TV companies that often can only confirm their plans at the last moment, lengthy bureaucracy can be a killer and would literally make them move to a new country. The delivery date of the show to the broadcaster is key and everything works back from that, no matter the issues.

They approach a fixer (TV Lingo) in country to help support the shoot. Bushmasters has provided this service for a wide range of shows, some for a just a week, others for 8 months. A production company needs several things from any fixer. Clearly a great knowledge of the country and resources available for the show they have in mind.

An ability to enable the shoot prior to arrival and whilst in country, to ensure everything goes according to schedule. A full crew can cost up of $25000 a day so delays are a no no! Obviously you need to be able to do what the show is about. No point advising on a survival show if you can’t light a fire in your own backyard. And in the Western world governed by endless rules, health and safety and litigation you need to tick all the correct boxes with skills, qualifications, licences, insurances, etc.

But the key requirement is to get the bureaucracy and permits in place to let the team get to country in the first place.

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Guyana understands this and makes life easy for a production company. Film permits are straightforward and issued swiftly by the Guyana Tourism Authority (GTA). A simple application process involves basic information on the shoot and the requirement for written permission from the areas where the filming is taking place and an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreement if required. The permit is issued swiftly, often within days. The GTA then goes onto support the shoot, with TV crew details sent to Home Affairs for visas and kit list to the Revenue Authority for duty exemption certificates. A 3D camera worth $250000 may attract up to 40% duty, a sum any TV company would balk at and just go elsewhere. So given it is in country for a specific job for a short period the Revenue Authority can issue an exemption, if supported by the film permit. It sounds easy and obvious, but many countries do not do this. A hassle free process with minimal costs is just what a production company want, and given most spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in Guyana during a shoot, it’s good for the country too.

Let alone the positive PR worldwide when the show airs on TV. Additionally, TV world is small, many of its people freelance and they move from production to production and everyone seems to know each other, or knows a man who does, so word spreads.

On several occasions we have had contact from companies making shows that often starts with, “I know blah blah who filmed in Guyana last year and he said it was awesome and simple and now we want to make a show there……” word of mouth is critical.

This happened in March 2014 when I literally received an email saying “Martin suggested I get in touch about a TV shoot” Martin and I had worked on a shoot in Belize called Celebrity Alone in the Wild. A great guy, who was intrigued by Guyana.

Fast forward three years and a new show he was working on had major problems, when the country they were due to film in became a no go at the last moment. With three week’s notice the whole production switched to a focus in Guyana on Martin’s say so. And it was all shot in 3D! The show for Discovery channel is called Cavemen and it follows two amazing people to remote places in the World.

Leo Holding is a world renowned climber, who many believe to be the best climber ever. A true 21st century Spiderman. And if that wasn’t enough he’s also decided to start jumping off the things he climbs, so has become an accomplished skydiver.

Recently he threw his gear out of a chartered plane with parachutes he bought off ebay, then jumped from the plane down the wall of a mountain thousands of feet tall,

then climbed the wall for the first time, then jumped off it again – in Antarctica!

His partner was Monty Halls. A former officer in the British Royal Marines Commando, Monty is a zoologist who has made many wildlife shows around the World. He has a particular enthusiasm for some of the most dangerous creatures on the planet. His day job is literally spent swimming with great white sharks!!

In Guyana the concept was for these two crazy men to explore the jungle and waterfalls of the interior, to skydive from helicopters, climb trees with Harpy Eagles, rappel down 800 foot waterfalls, then climb back up again and of course to get lifted out of the jungle, on a long rope hanging from a helicopter, all with three weeks planning….easy!

Well in Guyana it was, even though many of these things had not been done before.

ASL brought an instructor helicopter pilot in from the US to fly the skydive, rappel and long line extractions, the GDF were great in supporting the helicopter scenes, especially with the skydiving elements.

The Civil Aviation Authority moved swiftly with GDF backing to authorize everything.

The villages of Yupukari, Surama and Puraima Mission were brilliant in their support and enthusiasm and providing the critical local staff and expertise.

And of course the GTA facilitated everything, licences, permits, duty exemptions, visas and much more.

The shoot was awesome, 18 hour work days in the jungle, flying plane to plane film scenes over Mt Roraima, shifting an

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entire crew into the middle of nowhere by helicopter, Spiderman climbing a never before attempted 800 foot waterfall, Monty wrestling black caiman and all of it captured in 3D. The show will be released to Discovery in September. As per film permit requirements a copy will then be released to Guyana to be aired on local TV. Stand by for an amazing adventure show, filmed right here.

And make sure you have some 3D specs, it’s truly awesome!

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By Dmitri Allicock

S

ome of the greatest cities of old and modern times owe their rise and grandeur to their positions in the fork between great rivers, which gave them unrivaled advantages for defense and commerce. Lyons of France, St. Louis in the U.S. and Belgrade of Serbia are three striking examples. Bartica occupies such a unique natural location in north-central Guyana where the mighty Essequibo, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni rivers meet.

Bartica is situated at a junction of the Essequibo River, 50 miles (80 km) inland from the Atlantic Ocean, and is considered the “Gateway to the Interior”, the town has a population of about 15,000 and is still the launching point for Guyana’s gold and diamond miners.

British Guiana Gold Prospectors 1896 There is no doubt that the bulk of Guyana’s precious gold and diamond reserves are embraced by that wide stretch of highland which is drained by the Essequibo, Cuyuni and Mazaruni rivers and their tributaries. The three rivers converge at the area called Bartica and the vast flood of their united waters is carried by the mighty Essequibo, past her hundred isles, 21 miles wide at her mouth, into the basin of the Atlantic. Washed on two sides by the waters of the two great rivers, Bartica faces the Atlantic breeze, tempered by a passage of 50 miles of tropical verdure forest.

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Bartica was originally granted for religious uses and was one of the earliest Anglican missionary settlements in the colony under British rule. The name ‘Bartica’ comes from an Amerindian word meaning ‘red earth’, abundant in the area and probably spawn from the belief, accordingly to the ancient Babylonian Talmud text, which man originated from.

The original site was about a mile to the west of Grove, where a grant of land was obtained from Governor Sir Benjamin D’Urban.

The mission was removed to its present position in 1837, where a grant of five hundred and sixty acres was obtained from the Crown.

Under the fostering care of the Rev. Thomas Youd, the mission

Bartica Grove 1910

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Banking Made Easy.

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201 Camp & Charlotte Streets, Lacytown, Georgetown

Tel: +592 226-1705/6

Fax: +592 226-1719

Early days of gold mining in British Guiana

Travelling up river to the goldfields of Guyana’s highlands

Aerial View of Bartica

fed by the three rivers and their tributaries dotted in all directions with islands, varying in sizes from the huge Hogg Island called Varken Eiland by the early Dutch, to the lovely Sail Rock, the smallest of the islets.

North of Bartica is the ruins of the Dutch fort Kyk-Over-Al, former government seat for the County of Essequibo. Bartica is also close to Marshall Falls. To the south stretches over two thousand miles of pristine rainforest and savannah, intersected by hills, mountains, deep rivers and scores of massive and thundering falls and rapids, forest rich in invaluable hardwood and lands with bountiful gold. An esteemed land associated with the lost city of El Dorado in 1595 by Sir Walter Raleigh, Captain of her Majesty’s Guard, Lord Warden of the Stannaries, and her Highness’ Lieutenant general of the County of Cornwall.

The great difficulty with gold mining lay with the tortuous and deadly journey from Bartica to the goldfields of Guyana highlands. The rivers are sown with countless rapids and dangerous passes where many lives were lost to the lust for gold. It seems that the ancient Amerindian legends were true where these rushing waters dragged down into their dark depths all those who attempt passage without appeasement.

obtained a certain amount of success. It was visited by Bishop Coleridge of Barbados in 1838 and a church was built dedicated to Many ideas were suggested to avoid loss of life and possessions St John the Baptist, the evangelist of the desert, and consecrated by including a light, narrow-gauge railway from Bartica, up the left the Lord Bishop of Guiana on 5th of January,1843, in the presence bank of the Essequibo, bypassing the rapids to the smoother water of Governor Light and distinguished company. up the Potaro and other gold bearing rivers and creeks. This railway would open the vast areas of valuable timber and a branch could The major discovery of gold in the l850s, described as very Pactolus, be constructed up the right bank of the Mazaruni, past Calacoon, brought many from all over Guyana, including the Caribbean skirting the Marshall (Marechial) Falls, up to the Puruni gold fields and led to the formation of the British Guiana Mining Company, and even connecting with a line from the Yuruari Valley, a branch whose fortunes were sought in the rich Gold and Diamond fields of of the Cuyuni River, bringing the wealth of that great district through Guyana’s Highlands. It was found necessary to establish a town at the channels of Essequibo to the port of Georgetown. the little settlement of Bartica on the Essequibo and an ordinance for that purpose was passed in 1887.

Perhaps it was the Venezuelan’s border issue or more practicable reasons which may have led to an alternative plan and a railway Bartica was chosen and founded as a central depot from whence was indeed constructed in 1897, but from Wismar, Demerara River the gold industry could be regulated, a place where laborers westward to Rockstone, Essequibo, forming a more direct route registered, where boats inspected and licensed, where magistrates to Upper Essequibo and Potaro River, diminishing the prospects adjudicate upon gold disputes, where hospitals for the sick could be and importance of Bartica. established, a lock- up for the disorderly, where the dead could be buried and the living entertained.

Today, Bartica remains a small town and is still associated with gold and diamond mining of Guyana Highlands and Timber extraction.

Bartica’s unparalleled natural location is one of the most intriguing Bartica is linked to Georgetown by air and can be reached from sites for a city. To the north stretches a mass of fresh brown water Parika, Essequibo and Linden, the Denham Suspension Bridge,

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also known as the Garraway Stream Bridge, links Bartica to Mahdia.

Its small population consists of a harmonious mix of Guyanese.

The central town is about one square mile and consists of seven avenues and nine streets. The avenues run north to south and the streets east to west.

During the Easter weekend every year, Bartica hosts the famous Bartica Regatta with a growing variety of entertaining holiday activities including water sports, cricket boxing, soccer, talent shows, a street parade, and a Miss Bartica Regatta Pageant. The Regatta attracts people from all parts of Guyana, and even from other countries. There is also a summer Regatta, which is held annually in August.

As fate and gold would determine the birth and destiny of Bartica, dreams of it becoming a more vibrant gateway to the interior and a larger city were not attained. Perhaps the natural wonder and fork in the river that is uniquely Bartica may yet still bear upon its full potentials and future.

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“ Dave Martins

An elephant bowling off a half-mile run-up to a cricket-loving donkey? A flock of sex-starved hens harassing a rooster to death?

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Guyanese Cultural Icon

By Michael Jordan

W

”

elcome to the world of singer/songwriter Dave Martins, a Guyanese icon who has been making us laugh, reflect on our shortcomings, and take fierce pride in our Caribbean heritage for over five decades.

He’s produced over 100 songs, several advertising jingles, and an awardwining play.

And with the creative ideas still flowing at the age of 75, he has no intention of slowing down.

Dave Martins grew up at Hague and Vreed-en-Hoop on West Coast Demerara; the third of four children and the only boy in the family.

He attended the Sacred Heart Primary School and later St. Stanislaus College, travelling the long journey by bus and ferry.

He insists that he was a quiet student, instead of the prankster that some of his witty songs made me envisage him to have been.

Growing up in the country, young Dave had none of the luxuries that children now take for granted.

“It was a very simple life. Nothing much to do; no electricity, no running water, not even a radio in the house,” he said. “At Hague, I lived in an uncle’s house, which had a big yard and lots of trees.”

His interest in music began when the family moved to Vreed-en-Hoop. “There was nothing going on at Vreed-en-Hoop in those days. There was one cinema, and by eight o’clock everybody was in bed.”

But there were two brothers, Joe and Jack Henry. They knew to play box guitars, and, around the age of 14, young Dave was fascinated by the sound that would eventually lure him into his career.

Family members were encouraging, though his mother, Zepherina Barcellos, referred to the calypsos he sometimes sang as ‘jungle music’. Nevertheless, she never stopped him from singing.

He graduated from Saints Stanislaus at the age of 16 and began to work at Booker Shipping for a year and then at Atkinson Field (now Cheddi Jagan International Airport).

The love for music was still intense, but he still saw his guitar-playing skill as merely a hobby.

All that changed dramatically when, at 21, a sister, who had migrated to Canada, suggested that he join her there. He studied some music theory and made friends with a musician from the Bahamas and another from Toronto.

The three friends started a group called The Debonairs.

“We were just doing it for fun, but people who heard us rehearsing said, “You boys are good. So we auditioned at a couple of places and got a few jobs, and before we knew it we were having enough work to play music full time.”

songs for a music publisher in Toronto.

They were all North American songs, and in that process, I found I wanted to be writing Caribbean stuff, so I formed the Tradewinds in late 1966, which was a kind of an oddity. We were living in Canada, and I had formed a band aimed at Caribbean people.” And when stardom came, it arrived quickly.

The Tradewinds, which included two Trinidadians, decided to make a trip to the birthplace of calypso music. By then, Dave had written and recorded four songs, including “Meet me in Port of Spain” and “Honeymooning Couple.”

“We…thought ‘Meet me in Port of Spain’ would be a big hit, but nobody paid any attention to it,” Martins remembered with a laugh.

“Then we went back to Canada, played a lot of free shows, and we thought that was that.

“But about two months later I started getting calls from Trinidad. “Honeymooning Couple” was a big hit; all the stations were playing it.

“We played a lot of Latin music, a few calypsos. We used to go to people’s houses to play just for fun…Vreed-en-Hoop, Poudroyen; we even went to Berbice a few times.”

“I started hearing these guys. They would go around the village playing music. I fell in love with the sound and that drew me to them.”

The upshot was that they formed a fiveman instrumental group.

“We played a lot of Latin music, a few calypsos. We used to go to people’s houses to play just for fun…Vreed-enHoop, Poudroyen; we even went to Berbice a few times.”

He was a West Indian in Canada but the music from the Caribbean kept drawing him back to his roots.

“In the space of six months we went from being a nonentity to a chart-leading band in the Caribbean.”

“What happened was that from playing these different types of music—some R&B, some Caribbean—in the process of playing in that band, I gradually began to feel more of a pull to the Caribbean, which eventually led to me giving up that band for a couple of years and forming a band to play nothing but Caribbean music.

That was followed by a string of hits such as “Mr. Rooster,” (about 16 ‘sexy chickens’ chasing a rooster) “You Can’t Get”, “Copy Cats”, “Cricket in the Jungle.”

“The parallel to that was I started writing

“Fortunately, I was able to continue writing songs over the next 12 years.”

But where do these ideas come from?

“Music is how I express things, but they come from the fact that I am an observer, and this is where the artistry comes in.

“I notice things that other people might not notice. It is the gift; it is something I was just born with…I was born with this gift to be able to look at something and be able to see it in a different way and describe it in a way that is acceptable.

Dave Martins Preforming

“You have to not fall into the trap of settling for second best. Some of those lines that seem so obvious take weeks (to put together). You have to be your own best critic, to decide ‘no, that ain’t good enough, try and make it better.’”

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listen to you,’ and I said: ‘I still don’t see any song in it’.”

But the conversation stuck in his head. He recalled reading about a native-American chief who had vowed not to give up his land, mountains, or even a blade of grass to the invading Whites. Those lines gave him his idea.

“The song I wrote said nothing about Venezuela, nothing about a border, it’s just talking about pride in what you have.”

Dave Martins and the Tradewinds have performed at venues such as Madison Square Garden and Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

Dave Martins and his wife Annette Arjoon-Martins “And the reason a lot of them (the songs) connect so strongly with people is that they are observations of things that come out of the culture.”

An example of this is his song “Play de Ting” which he created after travelling by ferry to New Amsterdam and seeing a blind man making music by blowing on a comb covered with silver paper, while playing a guitar.

“The guy was good, the music was raw but it was good.”

If there’s anything that irks Dave Martins, it is the lack of pride that many Caribbean people have for their culture.

‘Copycat’ is an example of this denial of one’s culture and the annoying mimicry of another’s.

“That is what is behind a lot of these songs.

I am saying, ‘Look at what a wonderful culture we have, look at our sense of humour, look at how we react to things, look at how we adapt, at how innovative we are, what I call examples of excellence.

“I have to say that I don’t think I would have ended up doing what I am doing if I had stayed in Guyana, because here you are continually getting the message that you are not worth very much, that you are second-rate.

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“It’s when you go outside and start interacting with these other people that you begin to realise that you are not second rate at all, you are just made to believe that by the colonial people who were in control at the time.

“That’s why I wrote ‘Where Are Our Heroes’, because it’s not that there are none, they are there, you are just not told about them.

“I preach that all the time, don’t be ashamed of your dialect, it is a powerful (means of) communication…it’s a language, it’s not ignorance.

“Jamaica is the best example of this (pride); they have a greater degree of pride in their own thing.

“You have examples of excellence in every part of the Caribbean, we’re just not told about it enough.”

And what does Dave Martins see as his contribution?

“I think if you are making your people feel better about themselves, then you have succeeded as an artist.

“I remember when we took ‘Raise Up’ (a play he wrote) to the Cayman Islands , a woman said afterwards, ‘Boy, you make me proud to be a West Indian.’

“If what you are doing is creating that feeling in people, then you have succeeded. When I am in Guyana and somebody shout out a line from a song ‘Chip sugar-cake and saltfish and bake is we own,’ (lines from one of Martins’s songs) then you have reached them.

“You have to have a people who believe in themselves, and it is artistes who make you believe in yourself by holding up a mirror and saying look how funny you are, how creative you are, how innovative and persistent you are.”

And in the eighties, when Venezuela was making threatening noises over the Guyana/ Venezuela territorial issue, Dave Martins wrote the fiercely patriotic song “Not a Blade of Grass.”

“I was doing an interview with (the late radio announcer) Pat Cameron, and afterwards, off the air she said: ‘You should really write a song about this (the Venezuelan issue)’.

And I said, ‘ Pat, I don’t write that kind of song. That is a song about politics’, and she persisted. She said: ‘You write it how you want to write it. But you can find a way to express it, the Guyanese people would

His country has shown its appreciation for his contributions by awarding Martins the Golden Arrowhead of Achievement.

In 2002, the Guyana Folk festival Committee presented him with the Wordsworth Mc Andrew Award.

Dave Martins, who has five children, returned to Guyana about a year ago and insists that he’s here to stay.

On how has he managed to continue this hectic pace at the age of 75?

“I am active. I like to plant…I like to fix things. I never got interested in liquor, or drugs. I have seen very talented people in the Caribbean and North America who have been wrecked …They are walking around practically begging, or they are dead.”

And after producing some 100 songs, Martins still has many creative ideas on the horizon. They include a lengthy song medley about Kaieteur, to be sung by a choir, and he’s written a similar piece on climate change.

“I still enjoy playing outside now and then with Tradewinds, and I do a few select things here in Guyana with three musician friends, Oliver, James and Abdool. I’m also writing a weekly column for Stabroek News that is essentially just like the songs – pieces about Caribbean cultural life, some with some humour, some making a point.

Actually that’s what I’ve been doing all my life, and it’s been a great run.”

“You have to have a people who believe in themselves, and it is artistes who make you believe in yourself by holding up a mirror and saying look how funny you are, how creative you are, how innovative and persistent you are.”

By Dr. Bob Ramdhanie

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he rhythms of the young tassa drummers travel beyond the confines of their benab. It’s 6.00 am and the blend of their musical patterns, the bright sunshine and the wind that dissipates the sound, integrate peacefully and seduces you to wake up…. on this…the first morning of the camping music and arts festival in the Rupununi.

The campsite, understandably, is not a hive of activity but the voices of many performers can be heard as the word ‘coffee’ travels the sound waves. As if by telepathic communications, Brazilian capoeira - dance, music and songs - take up where the tassa drummers ended and one has a sense of a powerful source of energy that is unique to music festivals….a sense of camaraderie, of love, of sharing, of caring, of being awake and alive…early in the morning!

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This was the start to Saturday February 15 at Annai.

Celebrated by many as Valentines Day, February 14 also witnessed the opening of this 1st festival. The Hon, Sam Hinds Prime Minister and The Hon Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Irfaan Ali, Andrea de Caires of THAG and Colin Edwards from Rock View Lodge all warmly greeted locals and visitors to launch this ‘gutsy entrepreneurial endeavour’ over the Valentine’s weekend.

Without a doubt…”Love was in the air, everywhere I look around” the John Paul Young song sprang to mind.

Thus was the launch of this pilot, ‘world music’, camping festival in 2014. Located in an area peopled predominantly by Makushi Amerindians…..the people, like the environment itself, welcome and surround you with a warmth that is infectious.

The Festival began on Friday night and ended in the early hours of Monday morning. It was an ideal way to celebrate the beauty of Guyana’s interior landscape, and the grasslands with the mountainous backdrop, provided the ideal stage for a range of Guyanese and international artistes from the UK, the USA, Brazil, Ukraine, and Zambia.

A wonderfully choreographed opening event - music and dance from five different cultural strands of the Amerindian communities - was integrated with musical offerings from those who came later,

the Europeans, Africans and Indians… infectious rhythms from Europe, Africa, India and the Caribbean that today is….

Guyana.

Without the support of the Government, Banks DIH, ASL, TGA, Rent – a – Tent, GT & T, The Republic Bank, Scotiabank, GBTI, Dalgety, The USA Embassy, EU Guyana, Cara Lodge, mapz Arts Management, Rock View Lodge, National Hardware, Bounty Farms, Silverbait Design, Giftland Officemax, SESC of Brazil and some personal contributions, it would have been impossible to establish this unique event.

And so energies and thoughts are focussing on 2015 …another Valentine’s weekend and the 2nd Rupununi Music & Arts Festival at Annai. There will be workshops, booths and stalls, displays and music from the Caribbean, Africa, Brazil, Canada, South America and more. The festival will provide an insight into Amerindian culture and the tranquillity of the Rupununi and also offer everyone the opportunity to join in the Mashramani (carnival) festivity on February 23.

What a package for visitors, local and internationals, as the dynamics of music and the simplicity of nature merge seamlessly to offer the 2nd Rupununi Music & Arts Festival, 13 – 15 February 2015!

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O Beautiful Guyana, O My Lovely Native Land My Trip of A Lifetime Exploring a Guyana I Never Believed Existed By: Martina Johnson and Leslie Johnson

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eslie Johnson never thought of his native land Guyana as a destination for tourism during any of the 22 years he lived there. In fact, when he moved from the ‘Land of Many Waters’ to Antigua in 2005, the stories he told his colleagues about life in the South American country seemed dismal in comparison to the ‘sea, sand and sun’ experiences in Antigua.

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Nonetheless, several years later when he learnt that his boss, who operated Caribbean Helicopters, needed to send a team of staff to Guyana via helicopter for a business trip, he was ecstatic.

“I remember the room growing quiet that November morning in the office when Mike came and said a decision had been made about who would be traveling from the engineering department,” Johnson recalled.

“Leslie we need you there as the engineer.

Your experience is needed and since you

are Guyanese it would be fitting for you to go. It might help to make things easier for the guys and you could show them around.

And Marcus (Wollke), we brought you in because we need your long lining skills for this job,” the boss Mike Flemming told them.

After two days of flying in the Bell 206 Longranger V2-LEP helicopter, which included a fuel stop in St Lucia and spending the night in Trinidad & Tobago, the two finally arrived at the Ogle airport in Guyana.

They overnighted at a city hotel and the next morning were joined by another colleague, “Chris”. The trio then flew to Port Kaituma and that’s when Johnson was exposed to a whole new world within Guyana. The city where he grew up bore no semblance to the untainted, remarkable beauty of Port Kaituma – an area city folks call “bush.”

“When we landed on the mud strip in Port

Kaituma there must have been at least 300 people awaiting our arrival. I could see the excitement and sheer curiosity in everyone’s eyes, especially the children” Johnson said.

The guys got down to business that day conducting the aerial surveys to determine the levels of uranium content in the ground which they had to report to authorities in Guyana.

“After all that hard work, at the end of each day we looked forward to walking around Port Kaituma. By the end of the first week of our three-week trip, we found the river where villagers went to swim or sometimes bathe. It wasn’t long before we traded hot showers at the hotel in the morning and afternoon for the cool swim in the river,” Johnson said.

“There was such peace and tranquility in the Port Kaituma river that every morning

we walked through the town and then about another two miles to bathe in the river. One morning in particular while at the river we saw four canoes, each with school children all neatly dressed in uniform, paddling in unison and making their way to school,” he said with excitement.

Johnson’s group was so enthralled by this that they had to ask questions and hope for an opportunity to travel on one of the canoes.

“After a while children were taking us fishing in the canoes after school every day. They became our tour guides who delighted in taking us up and down the river to meet their parents and just about everyone they knew living on the river banks,” Johnson said.

The children even taught them how to make bamboo fishing rods and how to fish.

“In the time it took the three of us in a canoe to catch one fish, the children in the other canoes caught five. When we were done fishing, we explored the banks of the river and often found the most beautiful wild parakeets. We tried to catch one of them

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with no luck but of course the children somehow managed to hold them.”

Port Kaituma, he recalled, was always “very cool” and the sunset and sunrise were magnificent.

As they continued the adventure, this time in the skies, they maneuvered through mountain ranges at altitudes of 1000 ft where Johnson, Wollke and “Chris” came upon a double drop waterfall.

“I was mesmerized. Utilizing the advantage of vertical flight, we landed on the first drop of the waterfall and of course I was the first one out. The adrenaline rush I experienced was second to none. There I was, standing at the edge of the first drop, looking down at least 300 ft and up approximately 500ft.

I know that if I’m not the first human being to ever step foot there I’m definitely among the few.”

Johnson said he remembered that during the 10 minutes spent at the waterfalls, he saw many colourful living organisms of varying sizes, which he had never seen before.

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“Unfortunately for Marcus, he could not get out of the helicopter because he was at the controls. But he said he was happy with just being there,” the engineer said.

It was “Chris’ idea to leave that waterfall for the majestic Kaieteur Falls. The three aviation workers flew between and over a few mountains to get there. They stopped in a hover about two miles out from the 741 ft single drop waterfall and slowly approached it from the front.

“We thought we had seen it all until we saw Kaieteur Falls. I felt connected to the land

of my birth…as we got closer we could feel the sheer power of the water cascading down before us. I got to fulfill one of my dreams and that was to take a photo with Kaieteur Falls behind me,” Johnson told Explore Guyana.

After that stop, the trio went back to the village where they enjoyed the local cuisine and fresh fruit which was always in abundance - from mango to pineapple, cashew to star apple, five-finger to sowerie and lots of bananas.

“I left Guyana with a very different perspective of my native land and its unspoilt beauty. It was the greatest trip I’ve ever had and I’m looking forward to doing it again. This time, I want to spend more time touring the pristine forested land and perhaps run with a jaguar.”

Conferences Training Sessions Symposiums Group Discussions Receptions Business Meetings

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OUR MUSEUMS

A Treasure Trove of our Heritage and Culture The diversity of the Guyanese heritage is nowhere more dramatically represented than in the museums across the country. Artefacts from the early years across cultural lines and boundaries are found therein; from the Dutch bottles, to the coal pot stove to the kerosene lanterns, it is the history lovers’ paradise. So be sure to visit some of the many Museums within Georgetown and environs when next in Guyana.

The Guyana National Museum The Guyana National Museum is located on North Road in a building complex which opened in 1951. The Museum’s collections were housed previously in the Carnegie Building.

The Guyana National Museum in Georgetown has a collection of flora and fauna, precious stones found in our land formation, archaeological findings, and examples of Amerindian arts and crafts. This museum is the largest and house most of our general artifacts.

Address: Company Path, Georgetown (opposite the Hibiscus Plaza and the Guyana Post Office) Tele: (592) 225 7191 Email: guyananationalmuseum@gmail.com Opening Hours: from Monday to Friday - 9:00 hrs to 16:00 hrs, on Saturday from 9:00 hrs - 14:00 hrs.

Admission: Free N.B. Persons who wish to donate to the Museum can do so via the box found at the entrance to the Museum.

Find us on Facebook at Guyana National Museum

Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology The Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology, the first museum of anthropology in the English-speaking Caribbean was founded in the year 1974 with the collections of Guyanese Archaeologist, Dr. Denis Williams.

An ethnographic collection of the Wai Wai, one of the nine indigenous tribes found in Guyana, was presented to this Museum in 1991 by Guyanese Cultural Anthropologist, Dr. George P. Mentore. The Museum’s collections also include excavated artifacts from all of the ten Administrative Regions of Guyana.

Address: 61 Main Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown Tele: (592) 225 8486 Opening Hours: Monday to Thursday 8:00 hrs to 16:30 hrs and on Friday 8:00 hrs - 15:30 hrs Admission: Free A donation box is available for those wish to make a contribution to the work of the Museum. Publications and other tokens are also available for sale.

Castellani House

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The home of the National Gallery of Art. This large wooden building was designed by Cesar Castellani. It was once the residence of the Director of Agriculture in 1888. In 1965 the building was converted as the official residence by Mr. Linden Forbes Sampson Burnham, then Prime Minister of British Guiana. In 1993 the inaugural collection of the Art Gallery was held.

Address: Vlissengen Road & Homestretch Avenue, Georgetown.

Tele: (592) 225 0579, 225 6638 Fax: (592) 225 5078 Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs, Saturday 14:00 hrs - 18:00 hrs Admission: Free Donation box is available for those wish to make a contribution to the work of the Museum. Publications and other tokens are also available for sale.

The Museum of African Heritage Founded in 1985, this museum was originally called The Museum of African Art and Ethnology. However in 2001, it was renamed the Museum of African Heritage, in order to open their doors to a wider audience and begin to fully address the African experience in Guyana.

The existing collection includes items on African Art, mostly West African, from the wooden mask to the carved door of secret societies, helping to educate people about the meaning and reasons behind African art traditions. The museum also boasts more practical pieces like the brass weights used for measuring gold dust, drums, musical instruments, games and clothing within its vast collection.

The most recent donation included a wooden replica of the 1763 Monument.

Address: 13 Barima Avenue, Bel Air Park (between KFC and Pizza Hut) Tele: (592) 226 5519 Opening Hours: Mondays to Thursday - 8:00 hrs to 16:30 hrs and on Fridays 8:00 hrs - 15:30 hrs Admission: Free

John Campbell Police Museum Uniforms, musical instruments, photographs and other police artifacts dating back to colonial times are on display.

Address: Headquarters of Guyana Police , Eve Leary Compound, Georgetown, Guyana Tele: (592) 227 6472, 225 3017 Opening Hours: Mondays to Fridays - 08:00-12:00 hrs and 13:00 hrs to 16:00 hrs Admission: Free

The Guyana Heritage Museum Irons, enamel lunch carriers, ice-shavers, three-legged iron pots, 18th and 19th century maps, coins and stamps, other artifacts and an impressive collection of books

by Guyanese authors awaken a sense of nostalgia. It was obvious that the collection of these artifacts at the Guyana Heritage Museum, situated at Kastev, West Coast Demerara was as a result of love for one’s country, dedication and hard work over a number of years.

Address: 17 Kastev, Meten-Meer-Zorg, W.C.Dem. Tele: (592) 275 0028, 275 0331 Opening Hours: 07:00 hrs - 17:00 hrs daily Admission: GY$500.00 Adults and GY$300.00 for children under the age of 14.

The Philatelic Museum

The Philatelic Museum - A branch of the Guyana Post Office was established in 1860 and was closed in 1962 when the Post Office Training School was opened. The building is located on Lamaha and Carmichael Streets, Cummingsburg, currently houses an Internet Cafe and Post Office operated by the Guyana Post Office Corporation.

Address: Robb and Savage Streets, Robbstown, Georgetown.

Tele: (592) 225 0212 Fax: (592) 225 0211 Opening Hours: Monday to Fridays 07:00 hrs- 16:00 hrs On Saturday open from 07:00 hrs - 11:00 hrs Email: annwood975@gmail.com Admission: Free

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Stanley Greaves Renowned Guyanese Artist By: Dr. Rupert Roopnarine

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he most recent series of paintings

by Stanley Greaves, Dialogues with Wilson Harris, with their range, complexity and confidence of execution, confirm Greaves’ place in the pantheon of not just Guyanese and Caribbean but of world art. When these paintings go on show at Castellani House in November 2014, commemorating Greaves 80th birthday, it will mark the 63rd year since his first contribution to the annual Working Peoples’ Art Class Exhibitions in 1951.

Major exhibitions were to follow over the decades in the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, the UK, France, and the USA. On show in the major art capitals of the world were not only paintings, but works in ceramics, welded sculpture, wooden carvings, pen and ink drawings, prints and mixed media constructions.

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His formal academic training at the University of Newcastle and Howard University was in sculpture, and over the years he has produced, in addition to the better known wood carvings Political Gift, Orissa, Sonya, and Man and Bird, scores of constructions making creative use of a wide range of materials, such as glass, aluminium, formica, steel, wool, wire, plaster, and canvas. “Ideas and concepts,” he has written, “to a significant degree, determine the materials and techniques required to give them form.” The word versatility is inadequate to capture the sheer mastery of technique and the wide variety of materials he transformed into vibrant works of art: “There is no excuse for not pursuing mastery of technique”, he wrote in the catalogue notes for a 1994 exhibition to celebrate his 60th birthday.

Stanley Greaves was born to Priscilla and John Greaves at 6 am on November 23, 1934 at the Public Hospital, Georgetown.

Priscilla knew the exact time because the 6 o’clock gun went off. (A cannon shot fired from the seawall near to the lighthouse announced Daybreak in the colony). The boy Greaves was raised in a “tenement yard” in Carmichael Street just over 80 years ago. In the words of Professor Vibert Cambridge, echoing a line of Martin Carter, “he leapt from that confining space and became one of Guyana’s creative geniuses.” It was in this yard at Lot 132 Carmichael Street, a stone’s throw away from St George’s Cathedral, that Greaves experienced the sense of community and the solidarity with the down-trodden that were to be central to his philosophical and ideological formation. The yard, where working class tenants lived cheek by jowl, was a little world of its own, with an enforced but genuine sense of community.

Every yard, with the standpipe as its social centre, had its characters and its dramas, acted out in deadly earnestness. Reflecting on the yard experience of his childhood many years later, he remembered, “in each yard there was a matriarch or a patriarch. In our yard it was Miss Alder- a tall red woman with a panama hat and white head tie. When Miss Alder walked through the yard, it was like Queen Victoria.” Miss Adler was a stern disciplinarian who used her standing in the yard to ensure that there was no cussing in front of children and that girls and young women were accorded dignity and respect.

It is little wonder that his earliest paintings, the group entitled The People of the Pavement, beginning with the 1958

Preacher, and including Beggar and Urchin, The Weeding Gang and ending with People of the Garden City, are centred on the lives of the working people. Given all that has befallen the Garden City and reflecting on its current state of dereliction and neglect, there is a tragic prescience in Greaves’ 1962 presentation. Commenting on this painting in my 2005 full length study of Greaves’ art, I wrote: “With its images of despair and dislocation, the ironically titled People of the Garden City, is at once the most achieved and the most disturbing of the early paintings: no drama, no narrative, no sense of community; only starkness, stasis, isolation.”

People of the Garden City [1977] These early paintings, very much the work of the public painter, are perhaps the best known to the Guyanese audience. With their bold social themes – labour, poverty, popular religion – they are dramatically expressed in a readily accessible idiom.

With this early group of paintings, Greaves embarked on what were to become his life long preoccupations and researches.

But for the young Greaves, the yard was also the first exposure to his other life-long passion: music. He was surrounded by musicians. His father, “Sweetie” Greaves, and his uncles on his father’s side were musicians. Their friends were musicians.

The yard was also within earshot of St. George’s Cathedral. He was to remember that St Georges would be lit up on special nights when he would sit with his father on the grass in front of the cathedral and listen to the “heavenly choir.” The people

who played music with his father are immortalized in his painting Old Time String Band where their names are inscribed: Joe Rowe, Taylor, “Sweetie” Greaves, Glen, and Campbell. Greaves inscribed their names as a mark of commemoration

and respect for these sons of the working people “who were determined not to allow a life of drudgery to destroy their sense of the beautiful and their ability to express this feeling through music.”

Old Time String Band, 1977 Completely dedicated to music, Joe Rowe was the true professional in the group. Taylor was a cabinetmaker and sawmill worker.

“Sweetie” Greaves was the leader of the band, a man of many talents -- rope worker, maker of cargo slings and nets, furniture builder, sign painter, dice maintenance technician. Glenn was also a cabinet-maker who lived in Tiger Bay. These men were all highly skilled artisans and exercised a powerful and lasting influence on the boy Greaves as he watched them construct their guitars, mandolins and drums. Years later, under the guidance of Louis LaRoche, master cabinet-maker, guitar-maker and cello-player, Greaves was to construct his own “creolized” Spanish Guitar.

Vibert Cambridge, in his valuable essay on Greaves and Music, has noted that the band was popular in the pre-jukebox, pre-electronic era: “Its repertoire included popular English songs such as “Down by the Old Church Door” and medleys of waltzes, calypsos, and folk songs.” The band was much in demand at the dinner parties of Georgetown’s upper classes as well as at funerals of friendly societies when Sweetie Greaves and Joe Rowe would be engaged to play the snare and bass drums to send off the deceased to the final resting

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place. As a young man, Greaves extended his interest to singing, the steel pan and, most lastingly, the classical guitar. His parents had introduced him to the guitar and the mandolin while still a boy.

friendship with Martin Carter of revered memory, he has so far published two books of poetry, with a new book of haiku poems slated for publication in the near future.

In 1984-85, Greaves studied with Francisco Gonzalez of Cuba, who came to Guyana to teach classical guitar as part of an inter-governmental cultural agreement.

The accent was on technique. Although Greaves’ knowledge of music theory was at this time very rudimentary, Gonzalez took great interest in his progress, even suggesting, half in jest, that he give up his art work and concentrate more on the guitar and begin studying theory. In 1994, to celebrate his 60th birthday, he bought a relatively expensive guitar in New York. He had been captivated by its tone at a time when he was making a serious commitment to the instrument. He later became a student of Pam Frost, a trained classical guitar tutor, and for the next six years pursued serious studies in theory and practice. His playing improved to the point where, in 2000, he did a performance for the visiting examiner of the Royal School of Music. He was commended for his performance and for his own compositions. In 2001, he treated himself to an expensive Ramirez guitar.

It comes as no surprise that Greaves has journeyed deep into the Harris heartland and come back richly energized by the experience. When we recall his trip to the interior in the mid 1970s, travelling up the Mazaruni River by boat and on foot to Imbaimadai, Maipuri, Chinakruk, Jawalla: “Water, rock, giant trees. For about three days I was lost in space and time. Chronological time just disappeared. I had strange dreams.”

It was for Greaves then a transforming and liberating experience, bringing to an end the long drought that followed his return from Newcastle in 1968. There has been no drought since. We need only think of the astonishing outpouring of work over the years – large and small format paintings, ceramics, carvings, pen and ink drawings, reams of poetry.

This most recent surge of production, the Dialogues with Wilson Harris, confirms what we have long known: that Greaves is a modern master, unmatched in his exemplary devotion to the creative life.

Over the last several decades of an astonishingly and continuously selfrenewing productive life, Greaves has fruitfully combined this passion for music and for artistic expression in all its myriad forms. Inspired by his long and deep

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Sweet Point

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eekends in any Caribbean country including Guyana is a time when as the saying goes “The People Come Out to Party”. If you happen to have the good fortune of being in Guyana and in particular the capital city of Georgetown for a weekend then you are guaranteed to have a great time with fond memories of great food, fine wine and a variety of night spots to party into the wee hours and if you are well connected it can be right through the entire weekend.

Palm Court The hospitality of the Guyanese people has been legendary and is influenced by a potpourri of ethnic groups and cultures.

The fusion of cultures has created a unique Guyanese lifestyle and it is easy to make friends and become immersed into the fun loving, free spirited party atmosphere.

Most weekends start early on Friday afternoons with the Lime beginning at a variety of watering holes. These can range from the popular corner shops or beer gardens to a variety of hotels, pubs and nightclubs.

Altitude Sports Bar

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You cannot help but notice the busy tables on the outside of the many beer gardens at popular corner shops where the tables are stacked with empty beer bottles of the popular brew of choice.

When in Guyana it is recommended that you enjoy the local brew. As they say, nothing goes down better than a cold “Banks Beer”.

You will find a variety of local and imported beers also available.

The more sophisticated folk would frequent the popular hotels, bars and clubs which would offer “Happy Hour” specials on specific drinks or feature special promotions of wines and alcoholic drinks to include the popular world renowned El Dorado and XM Rums of Guyana.

Some folks may choose to Bar Hop moving around the city and environs to the popular watering holes and liming spots. At most locations you can sample a range of finger foods or “cutters” such as fish and chicken fingers, chicken wings and the ever popular “plantain sticks”.

You may also choose to visit one of the many hotels or restaurants and have dinner before making the rounds to the major party spots which generally would start to get busy later into the night.

Palm Court

Pegasus Ignite Bar

You may find that there are live bands playing at some places or specially themed parties are happening at various clubs. If you are lucky you may even enjoy a “Mega Concert� hosted at the Guyana National Stadium.

Ask any Guyanese and you are sure to get the full brief on all of the happenings across the town for the weekend.

Enjoy. Have Fun and Be Responsible when consuming Alcohol. Know your limits.

Concert at National Stadium Providence

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It’s Fun ! It’s Colourful !

It’s Holi !

Enjoy Our Culture and Heritage. Be Part of the Festivities Story By: Deomattie Seeram & Photos By: Amanda Richards

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nephew Prahalad consumed in fire at the command of her evil brother, the King Hiranyakashyapu. Prahalad however, escaped unscathed and Holika was reduced to ashes instead. This event symbolizes the triumph of good over evil.

oli or Phagwah as it is commonly called is an annual Hindu Festival of Colours celebrating the arrival of Spring. This Festival was brought to Guyana by our East Indian foreparents who first came to Guyana some 176 years ago. Holi is said to be the most joyous and colourful of festivals and today has become a part of our national psyche and is celebrated by all Guyanese.

On this night throughout our country, chowtaal goles lead processions of not only Hindus but members of their communities to a chosen site where puja is done. It is in this manner Hindus usher in Phagwah or Holi and the Hindu New Year.

Holi celebrations start on Basant Panchmi which is the fifth day of the bright half of the Hindu month ‘Magh’. On this day, in keeping with tradition, homage is done to Saraswati Devi the goddess of knowledge and a castor oil tree is planted as a symbolic act. During a period of 40 days from Basant Panchmi to Holika Dahan, melodies of chowtaal ‘dhamaar’ and jati renditions can be heard across the country at Hindu temples and homes.

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Holika Dahan or burning of the Holika (castor oil tree) takes place on Phalgun Purnima or the full moon day of the Hindu month Phalgun. It is the last day of the Hindu Calendar year and forty days after Basant Panchmi. On this day, a pyre is built around the castor oil tree which is ignited at the appropriate time as a symbolic act recalling the day when the sister of the tyrannical King Hiranyakashyapu, who had a boon which made her immune to the effect of fire, sought to have her own

On Phagwah morning, a member of the Mandir would collect some of the ash and place it on the forehead of members of the Mandir who would also be present there. This represents renewal, hope and confidence in life.

In Guyana, it is customary in the morning that you see citizens wishing each other

The burning of Holika

Indian Sweetmeats

Happy Phagwah and dousing each other with buckets full of water and spraying abeer from their water guns. The men from the Hindu communities will walk around their villages singing chowtaal while the women are usually at home preparing Indian delicacies such as gulaab jamoon, gojha, gul-gula, pholourie, etc.

In the afternoon, everyone is usually dressed in white and carries around with them containers or bags filled with abrak,

President Ramotar celebrating the colours and spirit of Holi powder, perfumes and water guns filled with abeer. Hindus would visit their families to greet them and also take delicacies they would’ve prepared the morning after which, they would go to events that are organized by the various organizations across the nation. Here many people would see their friends and relatives and enjoy the remainder of the festivities with them.

On passing at these events, the many different colours can be seen on people

and in the air. You can feel the happiness of the time reverberate through your entire being. The entertainment by live bands and the well choreographed dances add to the pomp of this joyous festivity where Guyanese of all walks of life celebrate and renew the spirit of goodwill, togetherness, love and unity!

If you are visiting Guyana during Holi celebrations, join in the fun and enjoy the colourful and festive spirit.

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By: Ruth-Ann Lynch

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s a travel writer who has covered a fair amount of the world’s real estate, you would think I’d have this packing thing sussed. However, I’ve recently had to admit that if packing is a fine art, I am no Picasso!

Usually, I spend ages beforehand choosing, organising and packing things that I swear I can’t live without, including the kitchen sink, yet still managed to pack items that never get used, whilst forgetting really important stuff, like a toothbrush. Having packed the lot, I then spend much time, money, energy and an ever dwindling supply of patience lugging my heavy luggage across continents. Given that other travellers seem to get by quite happily with a lot less, I clearly need to rethink this packing thing!

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If you stop to consider the savings in cost, time and energy, then there are several excellent reasons for travellers to learn how to pack sensibly and more importantly, lightly. However, here is an additional thought. Have you ever stopped to think about how much cash is spent on excess luggage fees? Recent reports have pointed out that our love of carrying not just our make-up bag but the dressing table as well, is playing a key role in supplementing airline profits. So, if our ultimate desire is not a pat on the back for services to the airline industry, then we all need to change our packing behaviour.

First of all, you must do your research.

Where are you going and why? What are you planning to do when you are there?

Once you are clear on these things, consider the tips mentioned in this article, which are designed to help you think before you pack for short and long trips, whether domestic or international. Remember, it’s often easier and cheaper to purchase some of the items suggested before you travel, whilst others can wait until you get to your destination.

Many of the tips provide are general (and in some cases, fairly obvious) whilst others are specifically geared towards travelling to Guyana. Just cherry pick the ones that apply to you and let’s all start packing with a bit more care than before.

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Trust me; it all starts with your luggage, which can be quite weighty even before you throw in your first stick of deodorant!

Airlines allow one or two free pieces of checked-in luggage weighing between 20 – 23kg each. However, the average weight of a suitcase ranges between 3 – 6 kg, which can represent as much as a quarter of your weight allowance!

So, opt for a lightweight brand.

Use 4-wheel suitcases, with retractable pull handles and a hard casing to protect your goods from baggage handler angst. You’ll find it less stressful to navigate crowded airports whilst clutching travel documents, food, dutyfree shopping (and children), if your

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suitcases can be easily manoeuvred.

Caribbean Airlines allows two free pieces of checked-in luggage at 23kg each on flights from New York or London to Guyana. If travelling with another airline, check their allowances as I have often found it cheaper to pay to carry an extra suitcase rather than incur extortionate overweight fees.

With this in mind, pack a lightweight canvas bag in your luggage so that if you are caught out at the airport with potential overweight fees, it can be used for hand luggage or checked-in luggage.

For excursions on domestic flights (small planes) into Guyana’s hinterland areas and tourist spots such as Lethem, Kaieteur Falls and Rock View, the number, size and weight of items you may carry on board are restricted.

As such, use the lightweight canvas bag mentioned above, to carry what you need on such trips and leave the rest of your luggage somewhere safe while you are away.

Finally, most suitcases on the luggage carousel will be black and look alike, so either buy a bright orange suitcase or tie a lime green or hot pink ribbon on the handle so you can spot it a mile away!

Now to pack the suitcase! When I visit Guyana, I’m often doing travel research as well as catching up with family and

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friends so there are lots of things that I need to take with me. In the old days, I used to rely on a packing list I created in an Excel spreadsheet, but recently I’ve discovered a number of websites that offer comprehensive, adaptable and interactive packing lists that help work out your specific needs for particular trips. These include: www. dontforgetyourtoothbrush.com; www. listfortrip.com and www.theholidaylet. com/checklist.

I will deal with gadgets and gizmos separately but for now, you need to figure out which items are vital for your proposed itinerary and how to pack them. Given that packing too much can be equally stressful as packing too little, consider the following when deciding what to take and what to leave behind: Start planning what you will need way in advance. I tend to ship gifts and heavy stuff to Guyana ahead of my arrival date. Unless someone asks for a specific item from the UK, where appropriate, I give money instead as this is often far more appreciated and causes me less hassle in the long run.

Spread the items on your list out on the floor, grouped into categories e.g. shoes, toiletries, clothing, gadgets etc., then decide what will go into either the hand or the checked-in luggage and what stays behind … Memo to the Ladies; you don’t need ten pairs of shoes and ten matching handbags!

The more valuable an item, the greater the need to take it in your hand luggage, along with travel- sized toiletries, underwear, a T-shirt and flip flops, in case there is a delay or your luggage goes AWOL. How you pack your luggage can make a huge difference. My friend, Carol, rolls all clothing up and sticks them into or around something so it’s all nice and snug. Store small items like medicine,

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cosmetics, medicine, batteries and small pieces of equipment into socks and shoes to save space.

Constantly remind yourself of where you are going, when and why. A sturdy pair of waterproof walking boots or trainers is more useful in the jungle than three pairs of stilettos! Better still, save on the weight by wearing those heavy boots on to the plane then change into your flip flops.

Place travel-sized essentials in your hand luggage and all weighty cosmetics and toiletries in your checked luggage. Things that could leak e.g. hair products, Cassareep, Achar and pepper sauce should be taped up securely and wrapped in plastic as they are sure to spill on your favourite outfit!

Don’t over pack as many things can be bought or replenished at your travel destination. In Guyana, this can be done at supermarkets, shops or even petrol stations. Left over items can be given away or dumped to reduce weight on your trip home.

My friend, Adele, claims that she has managed to carry extra hand luggage by simply putting stuff into a large gift bag. Apparently, no one bothers you.

She may have been lucky, but it’s worth a try. I have also found that after going through security, no one weighs your duty-free purchases so this may be a good time to buy any toiletries and other essentials before boarding your flight.

Adele also suggests that for the girls, seven dresses, one or two swimsuits, and a pair of shorts or skirt is all you really need for a relaxing week in the Caribbean. Dress these up or down with high heels, pretty sandals, ballet pumps or comfortable slip-ons.

Anything else can be bought when you get there. My male friends assure me that they need no advice on how much

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clothes to pack!

Jeans are very versatile, but they can also be heavy, bulky, keep you hot, get dirty quickly and take long to dry. Buy some wrinkle-free, lightweight tops and pants that converted from long pants to short pants via zips, which are designed to wash and dry easily, and need little or no ironing.

Rubber flip flops are light and pretty ones can even dress up an outfit.

They are useful on flights or in dubious places where you don’t want your bare feet to touch the ground. However, be warned that they become very slippery when wet, which can be dangerous in certain terrain.

Besides clothing and shoes, here are some useful things to pack that can make the world of difference: • A small backpack; • A sturdy battery-operated or paper fan; • A light, hooded raincoat that covers your bottom and a small umbrella are good for rain and sun; • Protective clothing for jungle trips should include at least one longsleeved shirt, long socks, a cap, sun visor, UV sun glasses or prescription sun glasses if needed and walking shoes with good grip; • A small torch is useful in the jungle or during a power cut. Your mobile phone may also have a torch, but this will only be available as long as your phone remains charged, and no electricity = no charge!

• Noise-cancelling earphones, ear plugs and eye masks can help you sleep better; • A few zip-lock or ordinary plastic bags for liquids, and dirty or wet clothing and shoes; • A mini-stationery kit, notebook and a few pens for jotting down your thoughts

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or important information, although I often use my camera or mobile phone to record images and data; Games such as dominoes, cards, travel scrabble etc. to play in your down time or when there is no internet or electricity available. You can also download music and a few e-books pre-travel.

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GADGETS AND GIZMOS Technology moves on so quickly that it’s hard to keep up and I am certainly no expert, but there are a few very important things to think about before you travel, as you will no doubt be considering taking along your iPod, iPad, iPhone, Smartphone, camera and other gadgets.

Recent changes to airport security rules in many countries mean that all electrical items, such as laptops, mobile phones, cameras etc. must be fully charged before you board a flight. So, charge these up before you leave home or at the airport (if you have time), or you may have to leave them behind, at the airport.

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It’s also important that you find out the voltage and the type of plugs required for your gadgets to work in the country to which you are travelling, or their ability may be severely hampered. For example, the UK and the USA use three-pronged and two-pronged plugs, respectively. UK equipment tends to work with 240V whilst US equipment works with 110V (voltage range may vary depending on the type and make of equipment). However, the voltage is usually 110V in Georgetown and 220V elsewhere in Guyana, with differing plugs sockets, so depending on where your equipment originates from, it may not work properly without the correct plug or adaptor, or worse, may be destroyed if the voltage is too high.

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needed for your various gadgets. My friend, Earl, advises that you purchase a multi-use charger and a universal all-in-one adaptor, with a power surge protection.

• Take along a power strip capable of taking several plugs, which means that you actually only need one adaptor and to find one electrical plug in order to power up a number of gadgets at the same time. It may seem like overkill but you will thank me for this advice when you travel!

• Some parts of Guyana and other countries may not benefit from a continuous supply of electricity, if any at all, which will eventually render all your ‘must-have’ equipment useless. So, pack spare batteries for your camera, phone, torch or other equipment as there might be no shops nearby.

My iPad-carrying friends assure me that they work well as cameras and video cameras, and today’s mobile phones can take great pictures, as I discovered when my actual camera ‘died’ in New Zealand.

Downloading Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, Blackberry Messenger, Facebook and other useful Apps to your phones, laptop and Ipads will allow you to communicate with people worldwide, often for free.

Take a cheap, SIM-lock free mobile phone instead of your expensive one, then purchase a local SIM card and some prepaid charge cards from the local communications provider. This way, if you drop or lose your phone, it’s no big deal!

If you plan to work or do research, pack extra memory cards, an external hard drive or memory sticks for backup copies. Further, if the internet will be available, regularly upload pictures and other data to online storage providers such as Dropbox or a Cloud, so sign up before you leave.

‘CamScanner’ or similar Apps allow you to scan useful documents instead of having to carry them.

You can keep the many equipment cables tangle-free with a rubber band or small cable tidy.

MEDICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Guyana, like other tropical countries have their share of health issues, so do consult your GP or a travel clinic a few weeks in advance to see if you will require any vaccinations to ward off infections.

Some medical supplies can be bought in Georgetown but are less readily available outside the capital, so remember to pack your malaria tablets or any medication you usually take at home. For additional peace of mind pack mosquito repellent; small tubes of insect bite, antihistamine and antibacterial creams; waterproof plasters and antiseptic wipes; painkillers and diarrhoea pills; wet wipes; no-wash hand sanitizer; lip balm and suntan lotion – yes, because you will burn!

If you have back or neck issues, packing a lightweight or inflatable rests will make your plane, car and possibly speed boat journeys much more comfortable. Some people even bring their own life safety vest for river trips … it may sound a bit over the top but do whatever makes you feel safe and happy!

OTHER THINGS WORTH NOTING! Most destinations have hairdressers, barbers and ‘beauticians’, who charge a fraction of the prices you would pay at home. However, for a ‘no fuss, low stress’ trip consider cutting your hair short, a wig, plaits, twists, or some other option that will exist happily in all types of weather. This will avoid bad hair days and reduce the need to pack heavy items such as curling tongs and numerous hair products.

Within reason, you can find most things in Guyana unless you have specific brand, physical or technical requirements, so avoid loading yourself down with things you can buy when you arrive Please, please, remember to take out comprehensive travel insurance including repatriation and walk with the policy documents.

Some travel guides also suggest bringing two photocopies of your passport, visa (if required) and your ticket, and do keep them in separate places, just to make sure.

Finally, particularly when returning home after you wonderful and exciting trip, exercise great caution when accepting gifts from anyone, even family and friends, to give to someone else. Local delights such as Guyana’s famous award-winning local rums and liquors can be bought at the airport on your way out.

I hope you now have a few more tools to help with packing for your next trip to Guyana or elsewhere, but, if you really must pack that kitchen sink, then you’d better take the microwave along for the ride as well!

For information on Ruth-Anne Lynch, things to do, where to eat and places of interest in Guyana, visit: www.supanovatravelwriting. com. Email travel tips and updates to rlynch@supanovatravelwriting.com.

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Coconut Choka

Callaloo Cookup

By: Alicia Ramkirpal www.inner-gourmet.com

Ingredients

Ingredients

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Onion/garlic seasoning one large yellow onion one head of garlic 2-3 wiri wiri pepper or scotch bonnet thyme leaves 1/4 cup water Choka 2 coconuts 4 tbsp pureed onion/garlic seasoning 2 tsp hot pepper sauce 2 wiri wiri pepper chopped finely 1 tsp salt *Coffee grinder needed

Hot Pepper Sauce

Salt

Onion/Garlic Seasoning

Preparation

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½ lb pickled pig’s tail (1 large tail) or pig’s foot 1 lb beef stew meat, cubed 2 tbsp oil ½ lb tripe (may substitute chicken) 5 cups water 1 med onion, peeled and chopped 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped 1 lb taro leaves, chopped ¼ tsp chopped fresh cayenne or jalapeño (or more to taste) 5 oz can coconut milk Salt and pepper 1 lb Uncle Ben’s long-grain rice ½ cups chopped red bell pepper, for garnish

Preparation

1. Break coconut in half. Drain water. Remove coconut flesh from shell.

Chop into large pieces.

2. Roast coconut until edges and back are dark brown/black. Let cool.

3. Scrape off burnt pieces as much as you can. Wipe with a damp paper towel.

4. Chop into 2-inch pieces and grind using a coffee grinder. Empty into a large mixing bowl.

5. Puree onion, garlic, pepper, thyme leaves, and water using a blender.

Use 4 tbsp of the mixture and add to ground coconut. Refrigerate remaining seasoning for another use.

6. Add salt and freshly chopped pepper, mix thoroughly with hands.

7. Adjust salt and pepper to suit your tastes.

8. Press mixture down into a bowl, mixture should be moist enough to keep its shape.

Roasted Coconuts

1. Put the pig’s tail in a pot and cover with water.

Bring to a boil, and continue to boil for 1 hour.

Drain and set aside.

2. Brown the beef in oil, then add tripe and water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cook at a gentle boil for about 1 hour. Add pig’s tail and cook until the liquid has reduced to about 3 cups.

3. Cut the tripe into pieces, and cut the meat from pig’s foot; return the meats to pot.

4. Add onion, garlic, taro leaves, pepper, coconut milk and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add rice. Cover the pot, reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, until mixture “looks nice and green.” Garnish with chopped red pepper.

6. Recommendation : one derivative of this recipe could be the addition a pound of either pigeon peas or black-eye peas, soaked overnight, and added to the pot with the rice.. Canned black-eye peas should be avoided.

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About Guyana Country Facts

EMERGENCY NUMBERS Police: 911, 564, 225-6411 Police: Emergency Response Unit: 225-6411(24hrs), 226-4585 Impact: 225-2317, 227-4064-5 CID Headquarters: 225-3650, 225-8196, 226-6978 Police Headquarters: 226-2487, 226-2488, 227-4656 Traffic Headquarters: 227-2272, 226-9431, 227-2349 Operations Brickdam: 227-1270, 227-1149 Fire: 912, 226-2411-13 Ambulance: 913 TIME ZONE GMT - 04:00 LOCATION Guyana is located on the North East Coast of South America and is its only English speaking country. Between 1o & 9o North Latitude and 57o & 61o West Longitude, bordering Venezuela to the West, Brazil to the South, Suriname to the East.

GEOGRAPHY Guyana is the fourth-smallest country in South America after French Guiana, Suriname and Uruguay; it has four distinct geographical areas: the Low Coastal Plain; the Hilly Sand and Clay Belt; the Highland Region and the Interior Savannahs. The area is 214,970 sq.km.

Approximately 75% of the land area is still intact forest, and 2.5% is cultivated. The coastline is 1 metre to 1.5 metres below sea level at high tide necessitating an elaborate systems of drainage canals.

The most valuable mineral deposits are bauxite, gold, and diamonds. The main rivers are the Demerara, Berbice, Corentyne and Essequibo.

CLIMATE Guyana is a tropical destination that is pleasant and warm for most of the year, humid, moderated by northeast trade winds; two rainy seasons (May to mid August, November to January). Mean temperature of 27 ° C and the average temperature range from 24 ° C to 31 ° C. Rainfall is approximately 2,300mm a year in Georgetown.

CLOTHING Lightweight, causal clothing can be worn throughout the year. However longs are recommended for the evening along with mosquito repellent to safeguard against mosquito bites.

HEALTH There is a risk of malaria in certain parts of the interior. Consult your doctor for the required precautions if you intend to travel there.

Georgetown and coastal areas are Malaria-Free.

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Municipal Hospitals and Health Care Centres exist within rural and outer lying communities with medivac services available in cases of emergency.

Further information can be obtained from the Ministry of Health on Telephone Numbers: (592) 226 7338 or (592) 226 1366.

INTERNET For most customers, internet service is available nationally through independent providers. Service is also available in most hotels and at many internet cafés which have been established across the country.

Some hotels and restaurants provide Wi-Fi at no charge to patrons using their laptops.

The informative home pages of these service providers have useful links to other sites. The sustainable development programme site, www.sdnp.org.gy has links to several NGOs, conservation groups, and international organizations as well.

There are four daily papers; Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, Guyana Times Newspaper and the national paper; Guyana Chronicle Newspaper.

There are over twenty (20) Television Stations and five (5) privately owned radio station and one (1) government operated radio station LANGUAGE The official language is English, often spoken with a Caribbean Creole flavour. Guyana is also the only English speaking country in South America.

PLACES TO WORSHIP The predominant religious groups are Christians, Hindus and Muslims.

Each is well represented with its own churches, temples, mosques.

They are found across the country where the major landmarks featuring traditional architecture may be seen.

POPULATION Guyana’s population is approximately 747,884 (Census 2012) of whom 90% live along the coastal strip and banks of major rivers.

Government

Guyana became independent from Britain in 1966 and a Co-operative Republic in 1970, when a non executive President replaced the Governor-General. A new constitution in 1980 gave the President wide executive powers. The Cabinet is headed by the President, and there is a 65-member National Assembly elected by proportional representation.

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Travelling ENTRY REQUIREMENTS What you need to know before you travel • All visitors to Guyana are required to have a valid passport to enter and depart Guyana.

• All visitors to Guyana should ensure that their passports have at least six months of remaining validity. Those arriving by air require an onward plane ticket.

Visa Exempt Nationals • Visas are necessary for all visitors except nationals of the following countries : Commonwealth Countries, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and United States of America.

• The maximum duration of stay any visitor will be granted by Guyana Immigration, will not exceed thirty days.

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Non Exempt Nationals • All visitors to Guyana who require a visa for travel should visit the Ministry of Home Affairs website: http://www.moha. gov.gy/ prior to making their travel arrangements. All details regarding the Visa Application Process might be found on the Homepage of the Website under the subheading Immigration Services.

• Applicants are encouraged to apply three (3) weeks to (1) one month in advance of travel.

• The process period is one (1) week however this varies depending upon the nature of the case • A letter notifying the applicant of the visa being granted will be sent to their address provided in the application. Visitors must have in their possession the original/ or copy of the document stating the visa has been granted to show to Immigration upon arrival at Cheddi Jagan International Airport -Timehri.

• Payment for the visa might be made to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Guyana or upon arrival at Cheddi Jagan International Airport – Timehri.

• Visitors who wish to extend their stay must contact the Ministry of Home Affairs in advance of the date he/she is expected to depart Guyana. The Ministry of Home Affairs is located at 60 Brickdam Street, Georgetown. Guyana. The Central Office of Immigration, where the extension is granted, located on Camp Street, Georgetown, must also note the extension in the visitor’s passport.

• Travelers for purposes other than tourism should check with the Ministry of Home Affairs for information about requirements for work permits and extended stays.

For further information, visitors are encouraged to contact the Head of Immigration Support Service, Ministry of Home Affairs, Guyana on Tel : (592 ) 223 7867 or contact the Guyana Foreign Office nearest to you .

in allocated zones for which there is a wellregulated fare structure. This arrangement extends to all mini bus routes throughout the country. Taxis afford freer movement around the city.

TRANSPORTATION

Travel around Georgetown by Bus: Short stops within the limits of the city are approximately G$60.00 and longer stops G$80.00.

DRIVING IN GUYANA Traffic drives on the left. Seat belts are necessary by Law. If travelling to Guyana and wish to rent a vehicle during your stay, please enquire with the Customs Officer at the Airport, upon arrival into Guyana. The permit will be immediately issued to you provided you have your international driver’s licence with you.

So be sure to remember to walk with it. The permit is issued free of charge.

TRAVEL VIA TAXIS FROM THE CHEDDI JAGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT-TIMEHRI Tourists should ONLY use the official taxi services registered to operate at CJIA. They can be identified by their uniforms (Crème ShirtJackets, Black Pants and ID Badges. Fares are listed at the Airport and are fixed).

If a decision is made to use one of the other taxis, please agree upon the fare for the trip into Georgetown before entering the vehicle.

Fares charged from Airport to Georgetown rate between US$20.00 and US$25.00.

TAXIS AND BUSES Georgetown is well served with taxis, operating throughout the city and to and from other urban centres.

Before embarking, do enquire of the rates for travel to destination of interest. Use only recognized yellow taxis bearing the logos of respective taxi services. Alternatively, do seek the guidance of the front desk staff in your selection of those that are already contracted to the facility.

There are also ultra –cheap minibus running around town and along the coast, or to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and Linden.

Check and confirm the fares before entering the vehicle.

Transportation around the city is provided by privately owned mini buses which operate

Travelling by taxi for short distances: approximately G$300- $GY400.00; longer drops G$500.00 and upwards determined by the distance and destination. Prices will vary from location to location. Rented cars are also available.

RIVER BOATS & FERRIES With the opening of the Berbice Bridge between East and West Berbice, travelling time is lessened for commuters from Georgetown to Berbice and onward travel to Suriname via the crossing at Moleson Creek.

A toll is charged for the Berbice Bridge based on vehicle capacity. The fee per passenger crossing with the Canawaima Ferry at Moleson Creek travelling to Nickerie, Suriname is US$11.00 one way and US$15.00 return.

Commuters to West Demerara have a choice of road transport via the Demerara Harbour Bridge or by the Demerara River Ferry from the Stabroek Stelling to Vreed-en-Hoop which is obliquely opposite each other. Be sure to check the bridge opening schedule one day prior to travel.

The highway which begins on the West Coast of Demerara is heavily trafficked since it provides a link to Parika on the East Bank of Essequibo River which has become an important centre of economic activity in the Essequibo region.

For example, speed boats or other types of transportation can be hired to take passengers as far as Bartica or other hinterland resorts and back in a single day.

TRAVEL TO GUYANA’S INTERIOR Travel arrangements may be made with local busing service, jeeps, chartered planes and speedboats. A guide is advisable for longer distance travel to interior locations.

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DOMESTIC AIR SERVICE Air transportation is readily available for traveling to several parts of the hinterland, whether for business or for pleasure. Several local airlines depart from Ogle Aerodome on the East Coast of Demerara and from Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.

Information on their availability and movement is easily obtainable from their office and from tour operators. Private charter companies operate flight into the interior from soon to be completed Ogle International Airport.

(For further information please see THAG Membership Listings) INTERNATIONAL & REGIONAL CARRIERS Guyana’s international airport, named after the late president, Cheddi Jagan is located at Timehri, 25 miles south of Georgetown. Flights from Europe are routed through Antigua, Barbados, or Trinidad. There are direct flights from Miami, New York, Toronto, Brazil, and Suriname.

CAMBIOS

These are licensed currency exchange houses.

Most cambios are open from 8am to 5pm, and on Saturdays from 8am to 12pm, sometimes to 2pm. keep your cambio receipts, you will need to produce them in order to change Guyanese dollars on departure.

MONEY & BUSINESS GUIDE ATM Machines are accessible to persons with ATM Debit Cards. Persons in possession of international CIRRUS credit cards that is Master Card and Visa Card might utilise the ATMs at Scotia Bank for cash advances when in Guyana.

Further assistance might be offered at the counter if unable to do so.

BANKING HOURS 08:00 and 14: 00 hrs on Monday to Thursday and 08:00 and 14: 30 on Friday BUSINESS ATTIRE Men wear long or short sleeved shirts, a Jacket

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is optional. Shirt and tie attire is common in most offices. Females are expected to dress conservatively.

CURRENCY The Guyana dollar is the only legal tender accepted in this country. It is a floating currency and the value fluctuates in accordance with the changes in the value of the US$. Visitors may exchange their currencies at banks, cambios and most hotels. The rate of the dollar fluctuates and the exchange is approximately US$1 – GY$202.00. Major credits cards and traveller’s cheques are generally accepted at many resorts, hotels, gift shops, restaurants and tour operators.

TAXES DEPARTURE TAX There is an exit tax of G$2,500.00 plus a security charge of G$1,500 (being a total of G$4,000).

This is paid at the airport at the GRA booth.

(The US dollar equivalent for this exit tax may vary with exchange fluctuations.) Please note that this is payable in GY$ or foreign currency.

VALUED ADDED TAX Valued Added Tax (VAT) is charged to a value of 16% on most items save those that are 0-Rated or VAT exempt.

ECONOMY The agricultural sector accounts for half the national GDP, producing sugar and rice for export, with extensive timber operations and a range of other products, from coffee to fish and fruits, and fresh vegetables well –respected brands of rum. Gold, bauxite and diamonds are mined.

INFORMATIVE SITES ON GUYANA Travel and Tourism: • Guyana Tourism Authority- www.guyanatourism.com • Tourism & Hospitality Association of

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Guyana- www.exploreguyana.org Iwokrama International Centre – www.iwokrama.org Kaieteur Park and Fallswww.kaieteurpark.gov.gy

Investing in Guyana: • Guyana Office for Investment www.goinvest.gov.gy • Guyana Lands & Surveys www.lands.gov.gy • Private Sector Commissionwww.psc.org.gy • Georgetown Chambers of Commercewww.georgetownchamberofcommerce. org • Guyana Manufacturer’s & Services Association - www.gma.org.gy Non Governmental Organizations (Conservation): • Conservation International Guyana www.conservation.org • World Wildlife Fund ( Guyana) www.wwfguianas.org/ • Iwokrama International Centre www.iwokrama.org • Kaieteur Park and Falls www.kaieteurpark.gov.gy

About Guyana MONEY & BUSINESS

CREDIT CARDS

Major credits cards and traveller’s cheques are accepted by most hotels, restaurants, car rental agencies and tour operators.

International VISA, Mastercard, Maestro and Cirrus credit and debit cards can be used to obtain cash from Scotiabank in Branch during banking hours or at ABMs. A similar service is also available at the Guyana Bank for Trade and Industry (GBTI) at their branches and at select ATM locations.

BUSINESS CONTACTS & ORGANISATIONS Berbice Chamber of Commerce and Development 12 Chapel Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice • Tel: 333 3324 Consultative Association of Guyanese Industry 157 Waterloo St, Georgetown • Tel: 225 7170, 226, 4603, Fax: (592) 227 0725, P.O.Box # 10730 Email: goolsarrancagi@gol.net.gy, ramchancagi@gol.net.gy

Guyana Rice Millers’ and Exporters’ Development Association 216 Lamaha St, Georgetown • Tel: 225 5353

Guyana Rice Producers’ Association

104 Regent St, Georgetown • Tel: 223 7248 Guyana Tourism Authority National Exhibition Centre, Sophia, Georgetown Tel: 219-0094-6 • Fax: 219 0093 Email: info@guyana-tourism.com Website: www.guyana-tourism.com Institute of Private Enterprise Development 253 South Road, Bourda, Georgetown • Tel: 225 8949 Email:iped@solutions2000.net Linden Chamber of Industry and Commerce 84 Riverside Drive, Watooka, Linden • Tel: 444 2901

Forest Products Association of Guyana 157 Waterloo St. Georgetown, Tel: (592) 226 9848, 226 2821 Fax: (592) 226 2832 Email: fpasect@guyana.net.gy

Ministry of Tourism Industry & Commerce 229 South St., Lacytown, Georgetown Tel: 226 2505 • Fax: 225 9310

Georgetown Chamber of Commerce & Industry 156 Waterloo St, Georgetown • Tel: 225 5846 Email:gccicommerce2009@gmail.com Website: www.georgetownchamberofcommerce.org

CARICOM - The Caribbean Community Secretariat Turkeyen East Coast Demerara Tel: (592) 222 0001-75 Fax: (592) 222 0172 Email: piu@caricom.org, caricompublicinfo@gmail.com

GO-INVEST(Guyana Office for Investment) 190 Camp & Church Sts, Georgetown Tel: 225 0658/227 0653 • Fax: 225 0655 Website: www.goinvest.gov.gy E-mail: goinvest@goinvest.gov.gy

Private Sector Commission Umbrella organization for more private sector business and employer’s organizations.

More major companies are also members.

157 Waterloo St, Georgetown Tel: 225 0977 • Fax: 225 0978 E-mail: office@psc.org.gy Website: psc.org.gy

Guyana Association of Travel Agents Wm Fogarty Building, 34-37 Water St., Georgetown Tel: 227 7225 • Fax: 225 2513 Email:jimbacchus@inetguyana.net

Guyana Manufacturers & Services Association 157 Waterloo Street, Georgetown • Tel: 223-7405/6 Email:gma_guyana@yahoo.com • www.gmsagy.org

Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana (THAG) 157 Waterloo St, Georgetown Tel: 225 0807 • Fax: 225 0817 E-mail: info@exploreguyana.org / thag.secretariat@gmail.com Website: www.exploreguyana.org

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ACCOMMODATIONS Georgetown and Environs

All of these properties are members of the Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana, and offer the quality service we know will meet your satisfaction.

TOURISM AND HOSPITATLITY ASSOCIATION OF GUYANA

Private Sector Commission Building, 157 Waterloo Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown The Tourism and Hospitality Association of Guyana is a private sector-led organization dedicated to lobbying, marketing and advocating for sustainable tourism development by fostering professionalism and quality service, providing benefits to members, representing membership interests and collaborating with Government to influence tourism policies.

Contact us: Tel: 592- 225 0807, 225-0817 Email: info@exploreguyana.org, thag.secretariat@gmail.com Website: www.exploreguyana.org Facebook: Tourism & Hospitality Association of Guyana

WIFI ZONE

AMENITIES ICONS KEY HAIR DRYER

No Smoking

CREDIT CARDS

Television

DINING

MONEY EXCHANGE

Wheel Chair Access

AIR CONDITIONING

GYM

Airport Shuttles

COFFEE MAKER

LAUNDROMAT

EMAIL ACCESS

24 HR. SECURITY

ROOM SERVICE

BAR

SWIMMING POOL

CAFE

IRON

SECURE STORAGE

CASINO

Cycling

Fishing

Bird Watching Transportation Water Slide

Smoking

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294 Quamina Street, P.O.Box 10833, Georgetown Tel: (592)225-5301-5 Fax: (592)225-5310 Email: caralodge@carahotels.com Website: www.carahotels.com

Hiking

1. Aracari Resort

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2. Cara Lodge

160 Versailles, West Bank Demerara, Guyana, (1 Mile North of the Harbor Bridge, WBD) Tel: (592) 264 2946-8 Fax: (592) 264-2949 Email : info@aracariresort.com Website: www.aracariresort.com

3. Grand Coastal Hotel 1 & 2 Area M Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara Tel: (592)220-1091/ 220-1288/ 220-2046 Fax: (592)220-1498 Email: reservations@grandcoastal.com, ceo@grandcoastal.com Website: www.grandcoastal.com

4. Herdmanston Lodge 65 Peter Rose & Anira Streets, Queenstown, Georgetown Tel: (592)225-0808/ 0811 Fax: (592)231-7904 Email: stay@herdmanstonlodge.com Website: www.herdmanstonlodge.gy

5. Palace De Leon Hospitality Inc. 60 & 61 Croal Street, Stabroek, Georgetown Tel; (592) 227-7019/226-4349 Email: leonlesruth@yahoo.com Facebook: Palace de Leon Apartments/Suites

7. Roraima Duke Lodge 94-95 Duke Street, Kingston, Georgetown Tel: (592) 231 7220, 227 2213 Fax: (592) 227 3816 Email: roraimadukelodge@hotmail.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com

8. Windjammer International Cuisine & Comfort Inn. 27 Queen Street, Kitty, Georgetown, Guyana Contact: Carey Griffith/Rita Thomas, Tel: 592 227-7478, 226-3407, 231-7044 Email: info@windjammer-gy.com Website: www.windjammer-gy.com Facebook Page: Windjammer Guyana

6. Roraima Residence Inn R8 Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park, Georgetown.

Tel: (592)225-9647-8/225-9650, Fax: (592)225-9646 Email: rriops@hotmail.com / rriops@gmail.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com

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Eco-Resorts, Interior Lodges & Attractions

Adel’s Rainforest Resort Akawini Creek, Pomeroon River Tel: 592 771 5391 US Tel: 301-384-2396 Email: adelresort@gmail.com Website: www.adelresort.com

Arrowpoint Nature Resort Office: R8 Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park, Georgetown.

Kamuni Creek: Tel: 261-9286 Georgetown Tel: 225-9647-8 Fax: 225-9646 Email: ral@roraimaairways.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com

Atta Rainforest Lodge (CATS) C/o Wilderness Explorers 141 4th Street Campbellville, Georgetown Tel: (592) 226 2085, 225-1045 Fax: (592) 226 2085 Email: info@iwokramacanopywalkway.com Skype: iwokramacanopywalkway Website: www.iwokramacanopywalkway.com

Baganara Island Resort Essequibo River, Guyana Head Office: Ogle International Airport E.C.D Tel: 222-8050/222-8046/222-8055 Fax: 222-6117 Email: bookbaganara@baganara.net Website: www.baganara.net Facebook: Baganara Island Resort

Caiman House Field Station and Lodge Yupukari Village Tel: 592 772 9291 Email:Delene Lawrence - rli.delenelawrence19@gmail.com Fernando Li - rli.fernando.li@gmail.com or info@rupununilearners.com Website: www.rupununilearners.com

Hurakabra River Resort

Essequibo River Georgetown Office: 168 Century Palm Gdns, Durban Backlands, Lodge Tel: 225-3557, 226-0240 Mobile: 624-8694, 640-4497 Fax: 226-0240 Email: gemmadhoo@gmail.com Website: www.hurakabra.com Facebook: Hurakabra River Resort

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Iwokrama River Lodge Office: 77 High Street, Kingston, G/Town, South America.

Facility Location: Potaro/Siparuni. Region 8, Kurupukari Tel: 225-1504/225-1181 Fax: 225-9199 Email: tourism@iwokrama.org Website: www.iwokramariverlodge.org www.iwokrama.org

Jubilee Resort Dakara Creek, Timheri Office: 106-107 Lamaha & Carmichael Street Georgetown Tel: 225-4020/ 626-4263/ 691-7313 Fax: 226-5340 Email: charmiandemendonca@yahoo.com Website: www.jubileeresort.com

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North Rupununi District Development Board (NRDDB) C/o Wilderness Explorers, Cara Suites Address: 141 4th Street, Campbellville, Georgetown Tel: (592) 226 2085, 227-7698 Fax: (592) 226 2085 Email: info@wilderness-explorers.com Skype: wildernessguyana/tonywildex Website: www,wilderness-explorers.com

Ori Hotel Lot 118 Lethem Rupununi, Guyana Tel: (592) 772 2124, Mobile: (592) 641 3764, 654-6317 Email; orihotel@yahoo.com info@origuyana.com Website: www.origuyana.com

Karanambu Lodge Inc.

Rewa Eco Lodge / Rewa

Karanambu North Rupununi Guyana Andrea and Salvador de Caires Email: TheGREENHEART.elements@gmail.com Lodge cell phone: 592 613-0455 Website: http://www.karanambutrustandlodge.org

Contact Information for Reservation: Rudolph Edwards, Dicky Alvin, Mildred Ignacio Email: ecolodgerewa@gmail.com Website: http://www.rewaguyana.com

Rock View Lodge Annai, North Rupununi, Region 9 Email: info@rockviewlodge.com, colin@rockviewlodge.com Website: www.rockviewlodge.com Tel: 592.645.9675 (Colin) – 592.614.1060 (Office)

Savannah Inn Lethem, Region 9 Tel: (592) 772-2035, Mobile: 699-1515, 609 8089 Email: ramsaran4al@yahoo.com, lindakhan4@yahoo.com Website: www.savannahguyana.com

Surama Eco-Lodge, Surama North Rupununi, Guyana Email: info @ suramaecolodge.com Website: www.suramaecolodge.com

Splashmin’s Resort Eco Adventure Tours

Facility: Madewini Creek, Linden Soesdyke Highway Office: 48 High & Hadfield Sts., Werk-en-Rust Georgetown Tel: 223-7301-3 Email: info@splashmins.com Website: www.splashmins.com

Sloth Island Nature Resort

The Rupununi Eco Hotel

Essequibo River C/o Dagron Tours 91 Middle Street, Georgetown Tel: 592 223-7921, 227-5570, Mobile: 610-7597 Email: slothisland@yahoo.com Website: www.slothisland.com

51 Commercial Area, Lethem, Rupununi, Guyana, South America.

Tel: (592) 592-227-1834, Mobile: 592-653-4564 / 592-623-3060 Email: RupununiEcoHotel@gmail.com

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TOURISM SERVICE PROVIDERS INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES Caribbean Airlines Limited 91-92 Avenue of the Republic & Regent Street, Georgetown Tel: 592 227-3024, 227-1661 Fax: 225 7437 Call centre: 1 800 744 2225.

Email: mail@caribbean-airlines.com Website: www.caribbean-airlines.com

AIR SERVICES DOMESTIC CHARTER & CARGO Air Services Limited Ogle International Airport Inc. East Coast Demerara Tel: 222-4368, 222-4357 Fax: 222-6739 Email: res@aslgy.com Website: www.aslgy.com Roraima Airways Charters Ogle International Airport Inc. East Coast Demerara Tel: 222-2337, 222-4032 Fax: 222-4033 Email: raiflightops.geo@gmail.com, ral@roraimaairways.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com Trans Guyana Airways Ogle International Airport Inc. East Coast Demerara Tel: 222-2525/222- 3013 Fax: 222-6117 Email: commercial@transguyana.net, Website: www.transguyana.net Wings Aviation Ltd. Hangar 5-6 Ogle International Airport Inc. East Coast Demerara Tel: 222-6513, 222-5361 Email: info@airguyana.net/wingjet2@networksgy.com, Website: www.airguyana.biz

RESTAURANTS & BARS

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The Rock Bar – Roraima Residence Inn R 8 Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park Georgetown.

Tel: (592)225-9647-8/225-9650, Fax: (592)225-9646 Email: rriops@hotmail.com,/ rriops@gmail.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com Bottle Bar & Restaurant - Cara Lodge 294 Quamina Street. P.O.Box 10833, Georgetown.

Tel: (592)225-5301-5 Fax: (592)225-5310 Email: caralodge@carahotels.com, Website: www.carahotels.com

Café Tepuy – Roraima Residence Inn R8 Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park Georgetown Tel: (592)225-9647-8/225-9650, Fax: (592)225-9646 Email: rriops@hotmail.com/ rriops@gmail.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com Caribbean Soul Restaurant -Grand Coastal Hotel 1 & 2 Area M Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara Tel: (592)220-1091/ 220-1288/ 220-2046 Fax: (592)220-1498 Email: reservations@grandcoastal.com, ceo@grandcoastal.com Website: www.grandcoastal.com Savannah Inn Restaurant & Bar Lethem, Region 9 Tel: (592) 772-2035, Mobile: 699-1515, 609-8089 Email: ramsaran4al@yahoo.com, lindakhan4@yahoo.com Website: www.savannahguyana.com Under the Mango Tree Cara Lodge 294 Quamina Street. P.O.Box 10833, Georgetown.

Tel: (592)225-5301-5 Fax: (592)225-5310 Email: caralodge@carahotels.com, Website: www.carahotels.com

ALLIED MEMBERS

ADVERTISING & PUBLISHING COMPANIES Advertising & Marketing Services 213 B Camp Street P.O.Box 582, Georgetown Tel: 225-5384. Fax: 225-5383 Email: info@amsguyana.com Website: www.amsstlucia.com Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Company Ltd (CORPORATE SPONSOR) 79 Brickdam, Stabroek, Georgetown Tel: 225-1315 Fax: 225 –9320 Website: www.gtt.co.gy

COMPANIES & ORGANISATIONS Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development 77 High St., Kingston, Georgetown Tel: (592)225-1504/225-1186 Fax: (592)225-9199 Email: tourism@iwokrama.org Website: www.iwokrama.org

TOURISM CONSULTANTS Public Communication Consultants Ltd. 168 Century Palm Gardens Durban Backlands, G/town Tel: 225-3557, 226-0240, 640-4497 Fax: 226-0240 Email: kitnasc@gmail.com, Website: www.hurakabra.com

Videomega Productions 176 Middle Street, Cummingsburg, Georgetown Tel : 592 226 9555, 2251594 Email: cathy@videomegaproductions.com Website: www.videomegaproductions.com

TOUR OPERATORS Adventure Guianas Mickel Plaza, 53 Pere Street, Kitty, G/Town, Guyana, SA Tel: 227-4713 Fax: 220-2123 Email:info@adventureguianas.com, Website: www.adventureguianas.com Air Guyana Tours Hangar 5-6, Ogle International Airport Inc. East Coast Demerara Tel: 222-6513, 222-5361 Email: info@airguyana.net/wingjet2@networksgy.com, Website: www.airguyana.biz Bushmasters Inc. 40 Beverly Hills Drive, Lethem, Guyana, South America Email: amazon@bushmasters.co.uk Website: www.bushmasters.co.uk

Old Fort Tours 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg Georgetown Tel: 225-1035 Fax: 225-1037 Email: oldforttours_resort@hotmail.com, Website: www.angcamgy.com Roraima Tours R 8 Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park Georgetown.

Tel: (592)225-9647-8 Fax: (592)225-9646 Email: ral@roraimaairways.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com Savannah Inn Tours Lethem, Region 9 Tel: (592) 772-2035, Mobile: 699-1515, 609-8089 Email: ramsaran4al@yahoo.com, lindakhan4@yahoo.com Website: www.savannahguyana.com Wilderness Explorers 141 4th Street, Campbellville, Georgetown Tel: 227-7698 Fax: 226-2085 Email: info@wilderness-explorers.com Website: www.wilderness-explorers.com Skype: wildernessguyana or tonywildex

TRAVEL AGENCIES

Dagron Tours Guyana 91 Middle Street, Georgetown, Guyana Tel: 223-7921, 227-1166 Fax: 227-1174 Email: reservations@dagron-tours.com Website: www.dagron-tours.com

Angellina’s Travel Agency 1995 Parika Highway, East Bank Essequibo Tel: 260-4536-37 Fax: 260-4537 Email: angellinastravel@hotmail.com Website: www.angcamgy.com

Evergreen Adventures Ogle International Airport Inc., East Coast Demerara Tel: 222-8050/222-8046/222-8055 Fax: 222-6117 Email: reservations@evergreenadventuresgy.com Website: www.evergreenadventuresgy.com Facebook: Evergreen Adventures

Roraima International Travel Agency R8 Eping Avenue, Bel Air Park, Georgetown Tel: 225-9647-8/225-9650 Fax: 225-9646 Email: rriops@gmail.com/ rriops@hotmail.com Website: www.roraimaairways.com

Hurakabra Tours 168 Century Palm Gardens, Durban Backlands, Lodge, G/Town Tel: 225-3557, Mobile: 640-4497 Fax: 226-0240 Email: gemmadhoo@gmail.com Website: www.hurakabra.com

Connections Travel 6 Avenue of the Republic, Georgetown Tel: 225 0380. 227-2810, 227-2832 Fax: 227-2999 Email: connections@connectionsgy.com Website: www.connectionsgy.com

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Events calendar of

Special Events & Public Holidays

January 1 January 1 January 3

New Year’s Day (National Holiday) Kashif & Shanghai Schoolboys Football Competition Finals Youman Nabi (National Holiday)

February 13-15 Rupununi Music Festival February 23 Flag Raising Ceremony at the Public Buildings in Georgetown Later on that same day the MASHRAMANI Road March moves off from Camp and Church Streets

Other activities held during the month are -Steel Pan Competitions, Children Costume Parade and Masquerade Competition just to name a few.

March International Motor Racing March 6 Phagwah (National Holiday) March/April Pakaraima Safari Cross-Country March Roraima Airways Inc : Annual Wedding Expo – Bridal

Festival by the Roraima Duke Lodge April 3-6 Easter Weekend Celebrations that commences with the church

services on Good Friday across the country followed by

family oriented entertainment such as Kite flying in the

Parks across the city and along the Sea Wall, the Bartica

River Regatta and the Rupununi Rodeo. Locals and -- visitors alike converge on these locations for a weekend of fun in the sun!

April 3-6 April 3-6 April (Final Week of the Month)

Bartica Easter Regatta Rupununi Rodeo Linden Town Week

May 1 Labour Day (National Holiday) May 5 Indian Arrival Day (National Holiday) May 26 Independence Day (National Holiday) May Moruca Expo has become an annual event since

it was launched in 2005 in the Region One district, a perfect occasion for marketing products produced in Amerindian communities and displaying their marvellous and unique culture. These lend to promoting tourism through craft and food displays, aquatic competitions and the most anticipated event, the Miss Moruca Pageant.

May 31- June 5 June 5 July 6 July July July 1-30 July 17

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Environmental Awareness Week World Environmental Day Caricom Day (National Holiday) Berbice Expo Mahdia Expo El Dorado Heritage Month Eid-Ul-Fitr

August 1 Emancipation Day (Day of Commemoration/National Holiday) August JamZone Week of Events

Bartica Summer Regatta

Lake Mainstay Regatta

Guyana Festival

Hopetown Soiree August 28 Porkknocker’s Day

2015

September 1-30 September

September 23

Amerindian Awareness Month including the Amerindian Pageant and Community Activities across the country Queen of Essequibo Pageant at Anna Regina Centre Ground Eid-Ul-Azha (National Holiday)

October 1- 31

Agriculture Awareness Month

October GUYEXPO is a Trade and Investment Exposition is hosted

annually by the Ministry of Tourism Industry and Commerce to showcase locally produced goods and services. it also offers business associates the opportunity to meet, network and negotiate deals with international companies and entrepreneurs. Visit www.guyexpo.net for more information.

October Car & Bike Show

National Trust Heritage Week

Rockstone Fish Festival

Canje Nite, Berbice

Essequibo Nite, Anna Regina, Essequibo Coast November 1-30 Tourism Awareness Month November 11 Diwali (Festival of Lights) (National Holiday) November

South Rupununi Safari (SRS) Ministry of Tourism Christmas Tree Light up International Motor Racing New Amsterdam Town Day Main Street Lighting Up (Courts)

3rd week November

Rupununi Expo

December December 24 December 25 December 26

Christmas Village Christmas Eve Christmas Day (National Holiday) Boxing Day (National Holiday)

December 26-January 1

December 31 .

Kwanza Old Year’s Day

Share the excitement when in Guyana Annually Guyanese celebrate a number of special occasions based on its rich cultural heritage and diverse ethnic population. Many of these activities are celebrated across Guyana or staged in specific parts of the country. Be sure to plan your vacation to visit Guyana whether it be to celebrate Mashramani our local carnival, Phagwah the Hindu Spring festival, motor racing or all the thrills of International Cricket, the nation’s number one sport.

*Dates subject to change. Please visit our website www.exploreguyana.org for confirmed dates.

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