Country Facts

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Information

Area: 214.970 sq km (about the size of the UK, a third the size of Texas and slightly smaller than Ecuador)
Capital: Georgetown
Country code: (592)
Electricity: 127V, 60Hz
Languages: English, Creole, Hindi, Urdu, Amerindian
Money: US$ 1 = 179 Guyanese dollars
Population: 698,200 (2002 estimate)
Time: GMT minus 4 hours
Tipping: 10% in restaurants and hotels if not included; none in taxis
Traveler’s checks: Cashed at nationwide banks and cambios; commission varies
Visas: US$ 16 for three months; if not required, 30-day visas granted at borders.

Geography

Guyana border countries are as follows: Venezuela (North East and East), Brazil (East, South East and South), and Suriname (West). It presents a shore to the Atlantic Ocean.

Environment

From East to West, Guyana’s main rivers and waterways are Demerara, Essequibo, and Berbice. All of them are flowing North. The narrow Coastal plain (4% of total land area) is home to 90% of the total population. Dutch polders reclaimed the marshy lands on the Coastal plain. It is there where most agriculture happens.

Tropical rain forest covers the interior, but in the southwestern territories. There, Guyana presents an extensive savanna between the Rupununi River and the Brazilian border.

Climate

This tropical country presents two main wet seasons. One starts in late April and finishes in early August. The other goes from November to January. Therefore, the best times for visiting the country are between January to February and August to September.

Families Represented: 77 out of the 92 South American Families
Number of Species Recorded: 825+
Endemic species: None
Spectacular species: Grey-bellied goshawk, Rufous crab-hawk, Yellow-knobbed curassow, Sunbittern, Racket-tailed coquette, Blood-coloured woodpecker, Rio Branco spinetail, Guianan red-cotinga, Dusky purpletuft, Purple-breasted and Pompadour cotingas, Crimson fruitcrow, Capuchinbird, Guianan cock-of-the-rock, Tepui manakin, Saffron-crested tyrant-manakin, Painted tody-flycatcher, Bearded tachuri, Guianan gnatcatcher, Finsch’s euphonia and Great-billed seed-finch.