What is it that makes Guyana such a special place and why has it remained a secret to the rest of the world?

The answer may lie in its unique magnificence. Could this be paradise, this land of many waters? The evidence would suggest that it is: Lush rainforests fed by hundreds of rivers and streams; more than one hundred waterfalls; blackwater lakes and creeks; sprawling savannahs; spectacular mountain ranges; more than eight hundred species of bird; more than two hundred species of mammal; and more than two hundred species of reptile and amphibian.

But Guyana also has a somewhat curious history, not least, because of the challenges it has faced over the past six hundred years. The First People were overcome by invading Europeans – the Spanish, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the French and the British. Then came the forced and coerced labour of the enslaved Africans, the indentured Chinese, Portuguese and Indians, followed by the challenges faced by successive political movements and ideologies which tried to grapple with Guyana’s unusual combination of fundamental characteristics and found that acceptable solutions are sometimes not easy to come by.

Many who look at Guyana see only the misguided, external image generated by an over-zealous, ill-informed media and miss the true qualities for which this land of many peoples has become renowned: Its hospitality, considered among the fi nest in the world; its freshness; its unspoilt natural beauty; its contradictory people, curiously both naïve and sophisticated at the same time. They miss the sensual energy that pervades its atmosphere and fail to notice that, in Guyana, the skies seem bluer, the stars seem brighter and the air is blessed with an ambrosial succulence that stirs the senses and lulls the brain into forgetting day-to-day concerns.

Guyana is moving onward and upward, and there is so much to see, and so much to do.

• 280 x 215 mm
• 248 pages
• Hardback