Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana: March 5, 2026 to March 20, 2026

Our first stop: Georgetown, Guyana

Our first few days were in Georgetown, Guyana which was about an hour from the airport on a slow, busy road. We stayed at Cara Lodge. The hotel was in what felt like an old wooden house. Our room was on the third (top) floor in a large loft apartment. It was spacious, but the ceilings were low enough that we had to be careful not to hit our heads. It is a bit more rustic than places we usually stay, but it was clean and the restaurant was in a lovely, open courtyard with good, local food.

While in Georgetown we did the obligatory tourist attractions: walked around St. George's Cathedral, down Main Street and along the Sea Wall. We saw many children in their school uniforms and the streets didn't feel as threatening as the US State Depart had said they would be. Interestingly most of the streets running east-west were missing sidewalks and with the busy streets we needed to be very strategic about getting around. The weather was hot and muggy, except along the Sea Wall where the breeze kept us cooler.

Filip posing with the president of Guyana along Main Street

St. George's Cathedral

We watched the mongooses playing along the rocks by the seawall

On Friday we drove to the harbor, via Stabroek Market, a large outdoor market, for a river taxi along the Demerara River. The market was crowded, but impressive with many fresh and unique fruits and vegetables - we were a bit envious given the market in Panama. Friday is the big market day in Georgetown and the market stays open over night until Saturday morning. The river boat tour was nice, we saw many birds, the old pontoon bridge and the new suspension bridge (which just opened last November as a political ploy). At sunset, we saw many Scarlet Ibis and Snowy Egrets settling into the trees for the evening.

Scarlet Ibis landing in the trees

Kaiteur Falls

One of the biggest attractions in Guyana is Kaiteur Falls, but it requires a short flight to see it. We were shuttled to the airport for our quick day trip and waited a long time to get on our small Cesna with ~11 other people. When boarding, the flight agent pulled me aside and said I was going to be the co-pilot- which was both very neat and a little scary (but required no work).

Micki as co-pilot, Filip in the back

At the falls, we did a short hike with the same people from our flight to 3 different view points of the falls. We kept our eye out for the golden rocket frog among the giant tank bromeliads. Filip impressed our group by finding one almost immediately.

Kaiteur Falls

Golden Rocket Frog

Irokrama Forest

On Sunday we took another short flight into the Iwokrama Forest for a few days in the woods. We had lunch at the Iwokrama River Lodge and Research Centre and then took a short skiff ride along the Essequibo River to the Turtleback Mountain for a hike to the top. The hike was about 2 miles each direction and while it was hot and humid the view at the top was vast and beautiful.

View from the top of Turtleback Mountain

Skiff ride along the Essequibo River 

After the hike we were driven to Atta River Lodge which is known for its canopy walkways. One of the very notable aspects of Guyana that we didn't appreciate it is how many birders there were. There was a large group at Atta when we arrived with their birding lists in hand. While we enjoy our NOCS, the slow nature of true birding is not our thing (at least not yet).

Atta River Lodge was very rustic, we had a small room (although with a king size bed), a small bathroom and a fan. There was no AC and no hot water, but - on the plus side, the shower was open air with pretty amazing star viewing. There was an open lodge area with a small bar, WiFi and tables for communal dinners of authentic Guyanian food.

While at Atta we did a few walks - the canopies, a small loop trail around the camp and then a couple along the road. The ones along the road were the best as we saw many colorful birds.

Family of black curassow lived at Atta (you can see a baby chick in the middle)

Filip walking across the first canopy 

Macaw in its nest
 

We saw many macaws (b/n 15 and 20) - and several varieties 

The wetlands and the savannah 

After Atta lodge we moved to Karanambu - which was truly the highlight of Guyana, and even though we often say we won't return to a place we have visited, this may be an exception. They mimicked the African-safari experience with early morning game drives to look for giant anteaters and then evening excursions to see the lily-pad flowers open, river birds and river otters. The resort is known for adopting baby river otters that have been abandoned by their mothers and preparing them for release. They had one baby while we were there, Ivar - he was really cute. The meals were all communal- and while that is something we ordinarily wouldn't always welcome, it was really nice - we liked all the people we met. Ironically several people from our tour group at the Kaiteur Falls were also there. 

During our evening boat ride we sat beside this flower pod (5:40pm)

These black-capped donacobius did a unique song and dance for us while we waited

Same pod at 6:30

Ivar the baby giant river otter swimming

We saw many caiman

It took 2 tries, but we finally saw a giant ant-eater (and this was small one)

Back to Georgetown 

After Karanambu we went back to Georgetown where we had 24 hours of bespoke dining experiences. 

It started with dinner at the home of the singing chef, Eon John and his wife Jessica. They fixed us a lovely dinner of pumpkin soup, fish, bora (long beans) and a cassava cake followed by a chocolate-tasting dessert that had no chocolate in it (only cassava). Chef Eon then pulled out his guitar and sang us 3 songs before sending us on our way (including one about nasty mosquitos requiring a little participation.)  

The next morning we had an early pick up to go to the Bourda Market where we met Chef Devlen Adams. He hand picked out several Guyanese dishes for our breakfast from a street vendor - "Auntie Satie" who seemed to be loved by everyone.

With Delven and Auntie Satie infant of her food stand

Ironically, that morning Time Magazine published their list of the Worlds Greatest Places of 2026 and Delven's restaurant, The Backyard Cafe, our lunch spot for later -  was on the list. It was a surreal experience to spend the morning with him as he was constantly interrupted by interviewers and fans while displaying both excitement and tears at getting this award. 

After breakfast we spent the morning walking through the market as Delven explained the various fruits, vegetables and herbs specific to Guyana while we chatted about our lunch menu. After the market we went to a park and fed some manatees.

Feeding the manatees 

Lunch - at the Backyard Cafe- was peperpot - a traditional Guyanese dish-  and wow! - it was really different and really good- spiced with orange peel and cinnamon as well as metemgee - another traditional dish of root vegetables and fried fish. Delven kindly fixed the metemgee because, as we were walking through the market, we had asked him about how to prepare some of the root vegetables we see in Panama. And as we had seen much of Georgetown (we were supposed to go on a city tour while he prepared the lunch), he kindly invited us into his kitchen to watch.

In Delven's kitchen with the chefs

French Guiana via Suriname

After lunch we were shuttled to the airport for a flight to Suriname. We were only in Suriname overnight and had an early car to drive us to the French Guiana. After about a couple of hours we made it to Albina for our boarder crossing into French Guiana, which was seamless despite the many forms we had to complete prior to arrival. After going through passport control we got on a very small boat to go across the river and into Saint-Laurent du-Maroni

Our small boat

Our guide for the next couple of days, Gwen, met us at passport control in France and then we headed to the car. We spent some time touring in St Laurent where Gwen taught us about the convicts who had been sent to French Guiana. We saw the many barracks as well as solitary confinement cells. Interestingly, the previous mayor of St. Laurent was a descendant of one of the convicts and had restored the camp and repurposed several of the barracks. 

In front of an old colonial building in St Laurant

As we were touring the grounds we came across 4 baby owls that were sitting one of the buildings - they let us get surprisingly close to them.

Baby owls at the prison camp

We spent the night in Kourou and in the morning rode a catamaran to the Iles du Salut, a triangle of three islands commonly referred to (collectively) as Devils Island. (Ironically we visited both Royal Island and James Island but Devil Island itself was closed to visitors.) The catamaran was very crowded and the waves were big. We had been warned that the seas could get rough, but we didn't appreciate how rough. (There were 2-3 men lined up to help get people to the back of the boat with buckets if they felt sick and then to rinse the buckets between vomits.)

Our time spent on Royal Island was wet- it rained the whole time, but we still managed to see most of the buildings and then had lunch in the local restaurant. We had a nice view of Devils Island at lunch but the winds and rains made it difficult to see. Our time on James Island was much better- the rain stopped and we saw the ruins of the old prison. At this camp, prisoners were not allowed to talk, they were required to stand all day or sit on the floor of their cells which were manned from above by guards. The solitary confinement cells were enclosed completely and pitch black. The ruins themselves were dilapidated and covered in tree roots and rust- we felt lucky to see them as they may not survive too many more years.

View of Devil's Island in the rain from lunch on Royal Island

Entering the prison camp


Walking through the prison walls

Filip in one of the cells - notice the open air ceiling where the guards patrolled

In front of Devil's Island on James Island after the rain stopped.

Back to Suriname- our last stop

We had a relatively low key couple of days in Suriname - we went to the Peperpot Plantation for a short hike. We saw a very cool yellow woodpecker, a very strange, very large furry yellow caterpillar, and lots of monkeys and lizards. We also toured Fort Nieuw Amsterdam- which included another old jail, and unlike other old forts we have visited, had no real visible walls. We also ate lots of cheap (but tasty) Indonesian food.

This cream-coloured wood pecker performed for us

Furry catepillar- we are still trying to figure out what kind - possibly tiger, possibly flannel - but one thing all AI tools agree on is- don't touch!!

At the fort in front of the Suriname flag

Overall, we were a little nervous about this trip, we had pretty low expectations (not to mention the state department warnings), but we are really happy we did this-- we had a really great time.