Guyana Jungle Survival

Day 1 Arrive Georgetown

Arrive to Guyana and transfer to your hotel in Georgetown. You will be staying in Cara Lodge, a 150-year-old heritage house converted into a small hotel.

Day 2 Surama Village (B,L,D)

You are picked up early this morning for your internal flight from Ogle Airstrip to Annai, located at Rock View Lodge. After landing, enjoy breakfast at the lodge before continuing by 4x4 vehicle on to Surama Village. The village is located deep in the rainforest, in a small savannah surrounded by forested hills. The famous Charles Waterton once explored this region and was stunned by the beauty of the spot. Surama's inhabitants are from the Makushi tribe; they still observe many of their traditional practices. When you arrive, you are greeted by local staff and settle into your accommodations. Enjoy lunch and then spend the afternoon learning some basic jungle survival skills, such as collecting food and fuel material. Overnight at the eco-lodge.

Day 3 Jungle Survival (B,L,D)

Following an early breakfast, set out with your guide and begin your outdoor training for the day.  Learn how to make your shelter for the evening, how to fish, hunt, and look for other food and water sources.  Your Amerindian guide will show you how to make fire with traditional materials. Your guide will also take you out and show you their method for hunting and fishing. Make a wabini (elevated platform) from where you can make a base to observe the wildlife at night. Spend the night in your own shelter, your only night of camping on your Guyana adventure.

Day 4 Iwokrama Rainforest (B,L,D)

This morning enjoy breakfast in your survival camp before returning to Surama. After lunch take your 4x4 vehicle and transfer by way of a trail through the Iwokrama Forest. Keep your eyes peeled for the amazing Guianian Cock-of-the-rock bird. Iwokrama Rainforest Reserve is a vast area of one million acres that protects one of the last four untouched tropical rainforests in the world. Iwokrama is exceptional in its conservation because of its intimate collaboration with the local people in every aspect of its work. The forest is the homeland of the Makushi people, who have lived off the forest for thousands of years.

Continue to follow the trail through Iwokrama, keeping your eyes ready to spot birds and even jaguar. The Iwokrama Forest is rapidly gaining international acclaim for its healthy jaguar populations. Watch for a myriad of bird species as you drive this route, the only North-South road in all of Guyana. Travelers often see agouti, Tayra, puma, Parrot, Trumpeters, tapirs, and Black Curassows.

Arrive to the Iwokrama Canopy Walkway, where you can birdwatch from 35 m in the Canopy. From this vantage, you can sometimes spot howler monkeys, spider monkeys, and many birds. Continue on to your rainforest lodge this evening and settle in.

Day 5 Georgetown (B)

Enjoy the bird chorus that awakens you this morning and hop out onto the canopy to spot the many birds that come alive at dawn. The timid Black Curassow can often be seen in this region in the mornings.  After breakfast, transfer by 4x4 to Rock View Lodge and the Annai airstrip for your mid-morning flight back to Georgetown.

This afternoon set out on a guided city tour of Georgetown City which highlights the unique architecture - excellent examples of old colonial homes and buildings constructed of tropical hardwoods. The famous Stabroek Market, once described as a "bizarre bazaar", contains every conceivable item from household goods to gold jewelery. The Botanical Gardens and zoo house one of the most extensive collections of tropical flora in the Caribbean and over 100 species of Guyanese wildlife including jaguar, river otter, birds, snakes and other reptiles.

Day 6 Kaieteur Falls and Orinduik Falls (B,L)

Early this morning you will be picked up and transfer to Ogle Airstrip for the flight to Kaieteur and Orinduik Falls.  Kaieteur, the world’s highest free-falling waterfall. Kaieteur is a single, massive, thundering waterfall 100 meters wide created as the Potaro River makes a sheer drop of 228 meters, nearly five times the height of Niagara. This natural beauty is located in a very remote location and it may be likely to be the only ones viewing it on any given day!  Keep your eyes peeled for white-chinned and white-tipped swifts swirling over the gorge. The flight then continues onto Orinduik Falls on the Brazilian border before you return to Ogle and then Georgetown.

Day 7 Return Home (B)

Add on to your Guyana travel an extension south to visit the Rupununi Savannah, or return home.