A Wild Connection in the neighborhood https://www.facebook.com/awildconnection
SAVANNA
CAIMAN HOUSE ECOLODGE is in the heart of Yupukari Village. Among our savanna and village-based activities are:
EL DORADO
An early morning search for giant anteater and burrowing owls, touring termite mounds via Land Rover. Just outside Yupukari, an ancient portage linked the Rupununi River to the Amazon in the lowlands and wetlands of bygone Lake Parime — the road to El Dorado that Walter Raleigh claimed for Guyana.
AWARIKRU LAKE & FISHING
We’ll take you out paddling for giant waterlilies, bird watching and wildlife-spotting in a dugout canoe. We’ll teach you how to fish, local-style. (HINT: it often starts with knocking on a tree.)
ARTISAN STUDIO
In the village, craftspeople weave, sew, carve, print and make furniture and bags from cowhide. You can watch, or learn if you wish.
You sleep at Caiman House — two nights at the start of a SaFoRi, and one more on your way out.
Neighbor spotted by Ashley Holland, Yupukari-based river guide
FOREST
A few scenic hours by boat from Yupukari, and you’re in the thick of the rainforest, at Mapari Wilderness Camp and its harpy eagle nesting site, 5 species of monkeys, 6 species of cats, 89 bat species, 441 birds… You sleep at Mapari — three nights or more.
Thank you, Helen Lawrence!
Steve Backshall visits the neighborhood…
RIVER
BLACK CAIMAN RESEARCH
Guests accompany our caiman research crew (in dry season) observing capture from a separate boat, and may then assist in data collection. Caiman are weighed, measured, sexed, tagged and released. Depending on the season, caiman nests are also studied, and so are the hatchlings. Yes, little baby caiman.
CREATURES OF THE NIGHT
Just after darkness settles on the Rupununi River many creatures emerge, such as black caiman, spectacled caiman, tree boas, iguanas, frogs, and many fish species (arawana, piranha…). Sleeping birds (kingfishers, small perching birds), nightjars, potoos, boat-billed herons and other aquatic birds, bats, (harmless) spiders, insects, moths, and more, can be closely approached in way not possible during the hours of light. Less likely, but not rare night sights include possums, tree dwelling rodents, capybara and sleeping monkeys (esp. squirrel monkeys) amongst other mammals. Few nights pass without some unusual offering.
About the Rupununi
There is a place in South America where, in high-water years, the Amazon, Essequibo, and certain of their tributaries overflow and mix, and many aquatic species meet, in the floodplain of the Rupununi River. This geographic nexus has given rise to one the most diverse fish habitats on earth. Guyana is sometimes called a "land of giants:" the largest alligator, ant, anteater, armadillo, eagle, otter. rodent, constricting snake, and spider in the world all make the Rupununi their home.
