The Rupununi sits between the Iwokrama rainforest to the north and the Kanuku Mountains to the south. In the dry season the grass turns golden and the plains look like a painting. In the wet season, huge areas flood and the rivers spread out into shallow lakes full of fish and wading birds. The landscape changes completely from one season to the next.
Ranching has been part of Rupununi life for well over a hundred years. Guyanese cowboys — called vaqueiros — herd cattle across the grasslands on horseback, just as their parents and grandparents did. Many come from Wapishana or Makushi Indigenous communities whose families have managed cattle and land here for generations.
The Rupununi is one of the best places in South America to spot a jaguar, particularly near the water during the dry season when animals gather to drink. Giant otters — the largest otters in the world, up to nearly two metres long — fish in the rivers in noisy, playful family groups. Enormous jabiru storks stalk through the shallows on legs that look like stilts.
Local communities run small eco-lodges where visitors stay and help count wildlife. This community tourism means that the animals are worth more alive and roaming than anything else — so the people who live here have a good reason to protect them. The Rupununi shows how people and wild animals can share the same landscape.