Did you know? If you tell someone you’re about to visit Guyana, they may respond: “Wow that’s great. You’re going to Africa!”. But as you smile with, “Yeah – I should be so lucky” the following will help you enlighten them:
Guyana is in South America. With a 430-kilometer (267 miles) Atlantic coastline on the northeast, it is bounded by Venezuela on the west, Brazil on the west and south, and Suriname on the east. And:
With a land area of approximately 197,000 square kilometers (76062.13 sq. mi) Guyana is about the size of Idaho. The country is situated between 1 and 9 north latitude and between 56 and 62 west longitude.[1]
Easiest way to familiarity with Guyana is imagine flying south and past Cuba, Jamaica, Barbados, and finally, Trinidad. Yup. Keep going, 350 miles later, you’ll seem to hear “Welcome to Guyana & South America!”
Your intro to Guyana’s geography apart from travel back then may be “magical” as Sir Walter Raleigh’s. In 1595 he discovered what he thought led to El Dorado – City of Gold. Today, broad welcoming smiles, enjoyable sights and sounds of this warm, breezy tropical hub remain. But Guyana’s best geographic finds are relatively, still unknown…
Yup. The “big” of Guyana’s geography are in distant flings of her Amazonian edge rainforest. There you can discover flora and fauna samplings of Creation’s best kept secrets. So, after the angst or adventure of city, scenic race of shores and rivers to the vast Atlantic Ocean, plan to witness some “interior geography gems of a Guyana few happen to know.
It may be said Guyana has two seasons – lots of sun, and lots of rain”. Adventure Life notes:
The tepuis, the soaring mesas of Guyana, are often much cooler than the rainforest immediately below. In general, the average shade temperature is 27°C (81°F). Average maximum is 31°C (88°F) and the mean minimum is 24°C (75°F). Particularly along the coast, the heat is greatly tempered by cooling breezes from the sea.[2]
Key to making the best of Guyana’s seasons is familiarity with them. Reportedly, February through April is the first, and September through November the second dry seasons of the year. The real advantage to this ‘heads up” is being prepared to travel or “get around”, especially in Guyana’s interior.
Compared to travel in and around Georgetown the Capital, and other coastal cities, travel over the interior’s unpaved roadways is problematic during the rainy season. So, the happy anticipation of an enjoyable journey into the wide expanse of savannah country can become a challenging or worse, abandoned trip.
But what’s neat about Guyana’s wet season is the surprising brevity of a harsh mid-day explosion of rain. Yup. A savagely loud downpour locals call “a buckit a drap”.
Yet just as suddenly, and in what’s usually called “a short while”, all’s quiet and dry again, by blissful “sea breezes” off the Atlantic Ocean, and sun that simply, “stayed put”.
Tip. To plan a great trip to Guyana, be sure to include light fabric or easy drying long sleeved shirts and sturdy sneaks. But you won’t need a bucket list to best savor the miracle of Guyana. Just an honest urge to witness God’s quintessentially excellent blend of geography, climate, and genuinely friendly Guyanese – will do.
Carlton J. Bruce aka Dr B.
GO! Editor & Ministry Partnership Development
[1] countrystudies.us/guyana/19.htm
[2] www.adventure-life.com
Photo Credit: worldatlas.com