Guyana: Open the Door to the Last, Least-Visited Corner of South America
Fancy leaving your friends both jealous and scrambling for the world map? Guyana boasts vast, unspoiled rainforests, healthy populations of jaguar, tapir, and caiman, plus an English-speaking Indigenous population.
Few bother—or even dare—to venture into the northeast corner of South America. When told you’re going to Guyana, even your best-traveled friends may offer quizzical stares or uncertain (and hopelessly incorrect) mutterings about the risks associated with “that part of Africa.” But travellers who want to leave the tourist circuit far behind in search of genuine, personal, eye-popping adventure are amply rewarded for their efforts to set foot in this remarkable, lost land.
Guyana has preserved the vast majority of its rainforest in pristine form, replete with all the creatures, big and small, who call it home. This presents an opportunity for first-hand exploration found in few other places on earth. No touts; no tour bus traffic jams; even postcards and souvenirs are in short supply. When you visit Guyana, you encounter something that’s hard to find these days: a magnificent, untrammeled place.
As South America’s only English-speaking country, Guyana also offers something less dramatic, but equally valuable to the curious traveller: opportunities to engage directly with the people. Interior Guyana’s small and dispersed Amerindian population is warm and welcoming, eager to share its traditional knowledge of the rainforest and its rich treasures. The spirit of community in Guyana is strong and unmistakably evident at every turn.
It may not have the name recognition of Brazil or Peru, but the small South American country of Guyana has quietly become one of the world’s leading destinations for eco-tourism. Bordering the Atlantic, Venezuela, Brazil, and lesser-known Suriname, Guyana has fewer than a million people, but what it lacks in population, it makes up for with untouched wilderness.
If words can’t convey the beauty of Guyana, then click here to see a short 60 second video of all that Guyana has to offer.
Despite its relative obscurity, Guyana is accessible to North American travellers and offers adventure that doesn’t compromise the natural environment. In fact, Guyana recently won the Best of Ecotourism Award for 2019, which ranks it as the best destination for sustainable tourism in the entire world. Head to Guyana to see why its natural wonders are worth defending so vigorously.
Getting to Guyana is simple with direct flights from Miami, New York, and Toronto with Caribbean Airlines and many choices with United, American, and Air Canada via Trinidad and Tobago, as well as options with COPA via Panama City. With COPA, you also get a free stopover in Panama.
Goway offers a complete itinerary of this South American hidden gem in the form of its Jaguars, Otters & Jungles adventure. This 9-day round trip from Georgetown takes you to see the exotic wildlife, natural beauty, and authentic Indigenous culture of one of Latin America’s least-explored countries.
Guyana is for true adventurers and eco-conscious travellers. What are you waiting for?
