Recap: Guyana, South America

We just returned stateside after spending most of February in Guyana, the only Caribbean state that’s not an island. Locals call Guyana “the land of many waters” and it’s a wonderfully, remarkably diverse place. We spent much of the time outside the capital Georgetown in the heart of the Rupununi savannah, which US Ambassador Hardt described to us as “one of the most remote, pristine, untouched places on Earth.” He was right. After a bush-plane flight to a one-lane landing strip in the savannah, we unloaded our instruments for a weekend at the first annual Rupununi Music Festival. We spent three days in this paradise, meeting musicians from all over Guyana and the world as well as dozens of local villagers from Annai and neighboring towns. We were the only rock band at the festival– many in the audience had never seen an electrified rock band before, so they were excited to talk to us afterward about the performance and our instruments.

After the festival, we drove on a 300-mile dirt road back to Georgetown through narrow, red-mud roads that weaved us through the rainforest like a scene out of Jurassic park. We spent the final week performing to audiences throughout the city, as well as leading master classes at many of the middle and high schools in Guyana, such as Queens College, the National School of Music, Kuru Kuru Training Center, and the Ptolemy Rehabilitation Center.

To all in Guyana, thanks for welcoming us to your beautiful homeland. We will forever cherish the memories and look forward to our continued friendship.

– PTC&J