Wild Guyana part 2

Wild Guyana part 2

The Next leg of my journey took me to the Amerindian community of Annai where the very comfortable Rock View Lodge was the base. This lodge offers some of the best accommodation in the interior with a particularly welcoming swimming pool. Although the lodge is not in the most strategic position for wildlife, even here I saw a surprisingly high diversity of wildlife including a giant anteater with a baby on its back on the savannah just at the back of the property. We also walked up the Panorama trail here which leads up a large hill into stunted forest. Here I saw some good birds as well the striking yellow banded poison dart frog.

 

 

(Yellow banded poison dart frog © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

Lastly I made the lengthy but fully worthwhile journey to the remote community of Rewa. The community of approximately 220 people here 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 so that they could establish a sustainable eco-tourism business. My favorite feature of the lodge is the breakfast table which is positioned overlooking the Rewa River and dense rainforested banks so you can watch macaws flying overhead and black caiman swimming past while your breakfast.

 

(Blue and yellow macaws © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

(Seasonal lake at Rewa © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

The community was exceptionally friendly and even invited me to see their school. Primates were particularly abundant here and Venezuelan red howler and brown and weeping capuchin, Guianan brown-bearded and white faced saki, black spider and common squirrel monkey are all regularly spotted. The best primate for me though was a troop of rare golden-handed tamarins which passed through the forest bordering the lodge just before breakfast.

 

(Golden-handed tamarin © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

Another highlight here was finding a group of giant otters hunting along the Rewa River. There was a youngster in the group who was particularly curious about us and we were able to watch the adults haul up and munch through some impressive catfish.

 

(Giant otter © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

The Force of the Falls

My first view of Guyana’s number one attraction was just a cloud of mist rising from a clearing in the sea of rainforest below. As we neared, a Mexican wave of gasps of awe spread through the plane as we were all treated to our first views 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 their first experience. Kaieteur thunders over a precipice, plummeting two hundred and twenty four metres, making it the longest single drop waterfall in the world.

 

(Kaieteur Falls © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

(Kaieteur Falls © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

Once on firm ground, I made my way to Johnson’s viewpoint which is the furthest point from the falls but gave the greatest sense of scale of this natural wonder. Here I learnt about most enduring story for the name of the falls which is that of Kaie, a great old chief of the local 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. On the way to the next major viewpoint I explored the unique cloud forest ecosystem created by the microclimate of the falls. Here I enjoyed the impressive tank bromeliads - the world’s largest and themselves home to the tiny, endemic golden rocket frog which after some searching I eventually tracked down hiding deep inside one of the more shaded bromeliads. Further along the trail I emerged at the aptly named rainbow viewpoint which for me was the most impressive view of all.

 

 

(Kaieteur golden rocket frog © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

 

(Tank bromeliads © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

 

(Kaieteur Falls © Ian Loyd Reef and Rainforest Tours)

 

The final viewpoint however was from the top of the falls, which allows you to walk right up the edge and look down on the dramatic cascade 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 tremendous feeling of adventure and discovery.