life is changing in Guyana’s interior. But
the focus seems to be on improving what
they have, not mercilessly chasing proit.
Development may or may not be a human
right, but for now these communities are still
able to interpret it as they wish.The secrets of Kaieteur
As it turns out, the most striking
interruption to Guyana’s great green expanse
isn’t man-made at all. From another small
plane, mighty Kaieteur Falls appears as a
gorgeous tear in this ininite carpet of trees.
The propellers have barely stopped
spinning before we’re following a guide for
15 minutes along a narrow path, then
emerging on a clif edge, the giant waterfall
waiting for us as it does for a few thousand
visitors each year. If Guyana has anything
that can be regarded as a tourist attraction,
then Kaieteur is it.
Dumping the Potaro River 741t over its
precipice, it’s the world’s largest single-
drop waterfall by volume. There’s a near
constant shimmer of rainbows jetting out of
its beautiful belly. More than that, its mists
breathe life into a yawning valley, sustaining
everything from jaguars to tiny golden tree
frogs that live their whole lives inside giant
tank bromeliads.
Despite how ludicrously photogenic it is,
Kaieteur Falls is far from crowded. I’ve seen
many of the world’s most famous waterfalls:
squeezing in with the masses at IguazuFalls, dodging selie sticks at Niagara Falls,
patiently waiting for bus groups to move out
of the way at Iceland’s near-frozen Skógafoss.
Within moments of seeing it, I realise that
Kaieteur is indeed something special.
Aside from dropping your camera
into its unguarded abyss, it’s hard to
imagine how you could take a bad photo
here and yet, during our visit, we’re the
only people present.
If the falls were all Kaieteur National
Park had to ofer, it’d still be absolutely
worth the journey, but every night in the
sky above, a colossal 20,000-strong lock
of swits gathers like a storm cloud. As
more and more birds arrive, they seem to
be waiting to reach a critical mass before
plunging headlong towards Kaieteur like
black rain. Their goal is their roost in a cave
behind the watery curtain.
On the night we’re there, just before
the swits begin this fraught ceremony, a
red-breasted hawk begins a skulduggerous
patrol beneath them, forcing them into a
tight, black ball, like sardines being stalked
by dolphins.
In 2004, the brilliant — and strange
— German ilmmaker Werner Herzog
released The White Diamond, a documentary
largely shot on location in Guyana. Some of
the most memorable scenes were captured
around Kaieteur when the director’s on-site
physician asked to be lowered over the edge
to see where the swits go.ABOVE: Local guide
Vivian looks out across
the Rewa basin
March 2020 111GUYANA