Dutch and British colonisation made an indelible mark on Guyana, leaving behind a now dilapidated colonial capital, a volatile mix of peoples and a curious political geography. The country’s natural attractions, however, are impressive, unspoiled on a scale that dwarfs human endeavour. Guyana has immense falls, vast tropical rainforest, and grasslands teeming with wildlife. lf the government doesn’t destoy the environment in a bid to pay off its huge foreign debt, it could be the ecotourism destination of the future.

At the end of either rainy season: late January or late August

Revelling in the spray of South America’s most majestic waterfalls, Kaieteur Falls Visiting lwokrama, a rainforest conservation and development centre Trucking on an unforgettable overland crossing from Georgetown to Lethem Taking a wildlife-viewing excursion to a local ranch in the Rupununi Savanna ,a vast area of grassland, termite mounds and forested hill Exploring the gold and diamond fields near Bartica

Read the country’s best known work of literature, ER Braithwaite’s Sir With Love; or Ninety-Two Days Evelyn Waugh wheezed his way through Guyana’s rugged interior to write

Listen to Eddy Grant, who had a hit with ‘Electric Avenue’ in the early eighties

Watch The Mighty Quinn starring Guyanese-born Norman Beaton

Eat peperpot (a spicy stew cooked in bitter cassava juice), souse (jellied cow’s head) or try an East lndian curry and roti

Drink Banks beer, local rum El Dorado 5 Star, or delicious fruit punches

Cat a ketch rat, but he a teef he massa fish (good and evil come from the same source)

Crime; the Jim Jones tragedy: having the national football team in south America; internationally renowned cricketer Clive Lloyd

An estimated 30% of lwokrama’s flora and fauna is still unidentified; the national indoor pursuit is dominoes

Nibbee fiber, extrated from forest vines, is the most distinctive and appealing local product and is used to make everything from hats to furniture. The Macushi of the southwest have developed a unique art form based on carving forest scenes and creatures from the hardened latex of the balata tree.