A fascinating eco-tour

By Venessa Deosaran

Guyana is a big country – the entire island of Barbados can fit in one of our rivers – so nature trips can take days, but there is now a half-day tour of several East Coast villages, where visitors encounter our Guyanese heritage, a thriving mangrove forest, a wetland teeming with fish and birdlife, and a towering sugar estate house, in the company of charming hosts from the village. And that’s only part of the story in the Golden Grove/Belfield Mangrove Reserve – 20 minutes from Georgetown.
The tours run in the daytime from 7:00hrs to18:00hrs and they all begin at Golden Grove, a former plantation, where 150 years ago the concept of wind energy was already in use in the sugar mill there. A roadside highlight in the next village, Nabaclis, is ‘Parliament’ – a massive 150-year-old tamarind tree so named because it is a social meeting place for residents there.
Guyana is known for its rambling wooden structures, with the graceful and distinctive Demerara shutters, and one of these, the sprawling 3-storey plantation house at the village of Cove and John is the next stop.  Dominating 5 acres of land covered with the biggest mango trees you’ve ever seen in the midst of an herbal garden, the house reflects an early grandeur in its hewn-greenheart beams, pine floors and antique cast iron pillars. Supporting the building’s front gallery are pillars made from bricks brought to Guyana as ballast for sailing ships in colonial days. The estate house now serves as the visitor centre for the mangrove reserve, with displays telling the mangrove story in detail and a beautiful hand-painted mural of the coastline depicting the coastal forests and rich birdlife found there.
The Victoria women’s group offers mangrove honey, breadfruit chips, and spicy pepper sauces attractively packaged and reasonably priced at the centre.  These home-grown village products are free of preservatives and full of natural flavour. The group’s artisans also make hand-woven place mats and coasters made from East Coast sawgrass.
From the breezy visitor centre, the tour moves east to Victoria village, the first village bought by former slaves following emancipation in 1838, and you can pause at the original hut where slaves collected their weekly pay packages. It’s now a busy village shop, and vendors outside offer fresh coconut water. The tour turns briefly toward the sea, and then curves westward where you catch sight of one of the many kokers (a Dutch word meaning ‘sluice’) that dot the Guyana landscape.  Shortly after, on the left, are the beautiful temples of the local ashram where Hindu followers come to worship.
You are now in the heart of the Golden Grove/ Belfield Mangrove Reserve – the first community-owned and managed mangrove reserve in Guyana. Visitors are guided along a trail, fringing the sea, with all the mangrove species – black, white, red and buttonwood – found within the first 100ft stretch.   It’s a fascinating sight: hundreds of fully grown mangrove trees, many of them over 20 feet tall, making a dense forest that developed, completely on its own, on the swampy foreshore, and now serves as a barrier to the Atlantic tides in the area. On the other side of the trail is a wide wetland area teeming with scarlet ibis, snowy egrets and pelicans; it has become a popular bird-watching stop. A unique part of the wetland is a shallow pond teeming with fish (tilapia, hassar, patwa, and sunfish), ideal for recreational fishing. If you’re in luck, you will see local fishermen beating the water to chase the fish into their nets.
Along the trail in this area, tour guides point out the array of medicinal plants used by Guyanese for generations. Growing wild along the path are “black sage” – a brew from the leaves said to help combat hypertension and diabetes, and the rigid stems of the plant make a toothbrush substitute.  Also there is “sweet sage” used to treat colds, “belly ache bush” that is said combats gum disease, and a brew from the “tulsi” plant that they say works to relieve flatulence.  The leaves of the “noni” plant are used to alleviate pain, and its fruit are claimed to build up the immune system.  There is also a plant, “carrion crow bush”, the brew of which, according to folklore, is used to terminate pregnancy.
In the middle of the wetland is a small island of lush black mangrove where bee keepers operate. The nectar from the black mangrove blossom produces delectable golden-coloured honey; you can purchase some at the end of the tour from Victoria bee-keepers Carlotta and Colin deJesus.
As the tour winds back to the visitor centre, you can stop at Ingrid’s roadside stand for some local snacks and Guyana’s legendary fresh cane juice.
If you’re looking for a short intensive look at our natural world and our Guyanese culture, this 3-hour tour is the ticket.