And that is the end of the story. Thanks for following along!

Well, actually, there are some other cool things too. There is this tiny endemic golden frog that lives in the terrestrial bromeliads… an endemic carnivorous sundew plants… hard table rock that gives the Tepuis their shape… and the super spunky cliff flycatchers. We loved it all.

There are no signs, no guard rails, no gift shops or light shows. Just an *amazing* spectacle surrounded by forest.

Kaieteur Falls is the tallest single-drop waterfall in the world (apparently). UNLIKE basically every natural wonder I have been to, it is almost completely undeveloped. There is no road. The only people there with us were the other 10 people on the charter flight and 1 ranger.

Just vacation! We are back now… classes start tomorrow!

We caught up with the Yellow-browed sparrow on a previous trip to Brazil, so this lovely little Grassland Sparrow was the last in the genus I hadn’t seen. If I were to come back to Guyana, I would definitely plan more time in these arid regions.

My absolute favourite was finding and photographing a cousin of the Grasshopper Sparrow (a species that I have worked on in N America). Since a major taxonomic reshuffling a decade ago, it is now the only NA member of the genus Ammodramus, the other 2 being S American.

We did see rather more than 11 fork tailed flycatchers here, along with several other grassland obligates.

Leaving Surama, we drove to Letham on Brazil border. The patch of savanna at Surama is a precursor for bigger grasslands, due in part to rain shadow from the Tepuis. I adored this drive—the wet forest gave way to tropical dry forest(?) in foothills of the Pacaraima mtns with grassy flatlands.

I didn’t count the few bats we identified (Proboscis, Northern Ghost, Fishing bat fishing!!) nor the non-native mongoose along the seawall in Georgetown 😢

We didn’t do that great on mammals (sadly, no giant anteater or cats), but had some nice sightings. In addition to those pictured, we saw Giant otter, Black Spider Monkey, Crab eating fox, Red-rumped agouti, White lipped and Collared peccaries.

this is every day in London Ontario

The capital sits 2 m below the high tide line (yikes), where the Demerara river empties to the sea. Water has to be actively pumped out of the city—a scary experience if you happen to find yourself cut off by gushing effluent for half an hour (as the tide rose)!

We found these guys in costal flats and in nearby wetlands alongside MANY other waders. The word Guyana apparently comes from an indigenous word meaning many waters which is very apt.

After Harpies, this was probably my next most hoped-for bird, and thankfully, far easier to find! I also think this one qualifies as a pink bird (check out the immature plumage!).

Beyond that, mainly unbroken forest to the horizon—a rarity anywhere now. There are an increasing number of remote mines leaving horrifying environmental disasters. The one unpaved road, limiting traffic to the interior but in the process of being paved. How long will this landscape will persist?

The vast majority of the population lives within 10 km of the coast on old sugarcane plantation land, ditched and drained by slave labour under Dutch rule.

Toronto-JFK & JFK-Georgetown (return), and 2 out-and-back excursions to the interior. From a 737 Max8 to 12-seater Cessna 208 Grand caravan. Flying over Guyana was just spectacular.