Guyana- Lethem to Mabura Hill

Guyana
Entering in from Brazil, you can visually see the difference in conditions.
First off the boarder for Brazil is just a small trailer with the immigration and police to stamp your passport. From there you needed to get over a bridge that has a blockade from the Brazilian side- not sure why but they let us through.

Then when you reach the town of Lethem you need to find the police station which is straight up the road about 3 minutes (just slightly around the bend on the left). From there you need to go back to customs which is a simple house that a guy lives in. When we arrived he was out for about 4 hours and the night before no one was home. The info we have says the carne is not required for Guyana so we simply said screw it and left.

From there we hit pure red mud/dirt roads. It was simply too late in the day to move on so we broke out the Footprints book to see where to stay (the book said 4 US, we were charged 20.00 us-who knows).

The place was a little hard to find as it is in the centre of town and it is not a traditional drive into the centre of town, you simply need to ask a lot of people where it is and eventually you get there.

Guyana is an English speaking country so it is much easier to get around.

This country is very rustic, from Lethem to Iwokrama there is one small village where we got gas- by small I am referring to 3 houses. The road was amazingly diverse. It started out flat with spur attic small hearty trees with the occasional termite hill. From there it moves closer to the mountains. The mountains are a beautiful plus green with a bit of grass moss mixed with jungle vines and trees. The plains are full of water and wet land foliage. Next we get into the mountain area that turns to forest (jungle forest).The land moves in so close to the road that it actually takes over ½ of the road in some spots. This area also is a mixture of smooth rolling hills that makes for a dramatic back drop.

Now let’s talk about the roads. The roads are red clay like material that becomes very slick when wet. There are so many pot holes that on a motorbike your speed ranges from 5 km to 60 max; for the most part closer to 20 to 40km, not to mention the constant deep rutted wash board littering the road. Part of the speed also has to do with the fact that there are no shoulders as it has been taken over by marsh land or by jungle and the road is on a curve complete curve so if you got to close to the edge you would wind up in the marsh. I must say that although challenging this has to be the best part of motorbike riding yet.

After a full day on the road we come to another blockade upon the entrance to the Iwokrama rainforest where the police wanted to see our documentation including our permission for the bikes to be in the country- yikes. We danced around it by saying that we had the carnets and a guarantee to his country that we would not sell them and that the bikes and all parts of it must be return to Canada or we do not get our money back. All was good and we were off.

20 minutes down the road there is a sign for the canopy walk 1.6 km in so we parked the bikes and walked in. To where we found a jungle oases and a gentleman named Gabriel.
We talked and agreed we could go right away plus spend the night.

The sounds of the jungle are captivating, the birds, monkeys, and bees, frogs it is all full of life and captures your full attention. The best time to do the walk is during the dry season as from the canopy you can see all little movements of creatures below; also a sunny day seems to bring more out.



The Iwokrama forest has an incredible animal diversity estimated at least 200 mammals, 500 birds, 420 fish and 150 species of amphibians and reptiles. More than 30% of the mammals and many are listed as endangered under the international convention on the trade in endangered species (CITES)
Iwokrama boasts some animal kingdom extremes and rarities:

Worlds highest number of fish and bats (90) species for any area this size

Worlds largest freshwater fish- Arapaima – You tube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUj5rADPUVo

Worlds largest otter- Giant Otter

Worlds largest pit viper- Bushmaster

Worlds largest freshwater turtle- Giant River Turtle - Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffxiPjncOPY

Worlds largest caiman- Black caiman

Americas largest cat- Jaguar

South Americas largest bat- False Vampire Bat

South Americas largest eagle- Harpy Eagle Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ErqVDccwH4&feature=related

South Americas largest snake- Anaconda.

The walk way was funded by Canadian International Centre ($180,000) and managed by Community and Tourism Services (CATS) in conjunction with NGO Indigenous Makushi communities of Surama and two privet sectors.

The walk way is 30 meters high and 154 meters in length.

Well worth going!! On $25 US each