Lodge

Just in case you thought we were getting soft with a luxury cruise in Antarctica, winery lunches in Chile and hanging out in Buenos Aires just because we can - here we are in Guyana to toughen up a little.
We didn’t know much about Guyana before arriving so we’ll share a bit of what we’ve learned so far:
• It’s a small country with fewer than 1 million people
• The majority of the population descends from African slaves and indentured East Indian laborers - Amerindians (indigenous people) make up less than 10%
• Before Independence it was a Spanish, French, Dutch and then British colony – you can see the Dutch influence in the many canals and the British in the buildings and English language (it’s odd to be in an English speaking country in South America, though Creole is the unofficial language here)
• Despite plentiful natural resources (mining, forestry and oil), it’s the 2nd poorest country in South America after Bolivia (damn corruption!)
• It’s very expensive to travel here – a simple meal from a local restaurant with a drink costs ~$10 and transportation is also very expensive (a guide told us he has to spend almost his entire monthly earnings to visit home – a 2 day bus trip away)
• Infrastructure is pretty limited with only ~7% of the country’s few roads being paved and many buildings look as if they haven’t been maintained since well before independence in 1966.Read more