From all tree Guyanas, the “lands of the many waters”, Suriname (formerly Dutch, French Guyana (still heavily French), Guyana (formerly British) is the most spectacular. While living in Rio, my wife and me traveled to Guyana via the beautiful city of Belém, on the mouth of the Amazon. From there it was a short hop over rainforest to Guyana’s capital, Georgetown. To get the spirit of the place we first spent a couple of days in the oceanside capital. Accompanied by lots of cheers from easygoing Reggae-type locals it was fun to browse streets full of quirky colourful colonial houses and to observe local ladies, dressed to their finest white and crowned by noble hats, flocking to Sunday mess at the beautifully white, wooden cathedral. I ended up at Stabroek market, a massive red-white half-timbered structure. I entered the hustle of the market via the huge clock tower entrance. Mere steps away from Sheik Mohamed selling Cuirass and Pacu fish, Radha Krishna was selling jewellery from his yellow cabin. The high ceilings held by lofty white-steel frames gave all five market halls an airy atmosphere.

Stallholders did not sell their products just from simple market stalls or vending tables but had rather constructed veritable wooden cabins. Colourful artworks in themselves,Food-wise, I loved Georgetown, too. Locals of Chinese or Indian origin who were pulling, sometimes since colonial times, a lot of strings in Guyana, were doing a great job: Indian Roti and Beijing-sliced roasted duck – heaven.

While Georgetown felt mostly Caribbean, as soon as my plane turned inland, winding rivers amid endless Amazon rainforest appeared. According to statistics, 90% of Guyana’s territory was covered by it. After two hours of flying or so, the plains gave way to spectacular gorges, shrouded by jungle and clouds. The plane spiralled down, and when the clouds opened a bit, I got my first glimpse of majestic Kaiteur Falls, whose waters had milled an extra-deep canyon into the rainforest. There I stood, mere centimeters close to a 226 meter drop, thankful for not suffering from any vertigo. Spray quickly was fogging my glasses while thunder of one of the earth’s mightiest falls dominated the scenery. Later thousands of swifts were making their way back to their habitat behind the falls.

Another hop brought us even deeper into the rainforest, not far from the Brazilian border. Here, in the middle of nowhere, in the Amerindian village of Surama, locals still preferred to sleep in hammocks, hunt otters in rivers and collected fruits to be used as medicine. After dinner we embarked on a postprandial walk around the village. We had just found the dirt track leading to the next village and were following it a bit, as we suddenly met half of the villagers standing with their mobile phones to the ear on the road, each display illuminating its user’s face in the twilight. Obviously, mobile reception was here still not a matter of course. We learned that this spot, thanks to its slightly elevated position, was the only place where they could call their loved ones in Georgetown or overseas.How would our lives change if we would need to go for every WhatsApp to an elevated clearing in the forest?