Expect giant animals, pristine landscapes, and Indigenous culture.
The coarse hair of a capybara brushing against skin, the delicious smell of afternoon rain on the savannah, a chorus of cicadas at nightfall: Guyana takes hold of the senses and doesn’t let go.
For a long time, Guyana – a tiny country roughly the size of Idaho sandwiched between Venezuela, Brazil, Suriname, and the Atlantic on South America’s northern hump – wasn’t really on travelers’ radars. But that’s quickly changing. Thanks to the discovery of offshore oil in 2015, leading to a windfall of wealth, Guyana’s government has heavily invested in promoting the country as a premier ecotourism destination. It appears to be working; last year, the country received nearly 500,000 international visitors, its biggest number yet.
Kirsten Harrington 