We and our friends arranged through Wilderness Explorers to spend our last two nights in Guyana at the Arrowpoint Nature Resort. Rather than spending an hour going into Georgetown (which we had already seen) they suggested the much more time efficient plan of airport pickup and transfer to the dock, an 8 minute ride away, where the resort's boat would take the four of us, via a stop at Santa Mission, to the resort. The transfers worked perfectly and Edward, our guide, was helpful in loading our bags and giving us all heavy tarps in case it rained, which it REALLY, really did for about 5 minutes on the boat ride! As he said later, we don't call it a rainforest for nothing!!
The stop at Santa Mission was worthwhile mainly for the wonderful handicrafts for sale in their shop (exquisitie handwoven baskets from the fibers of the ete palm!) and it was interesting to see the school and get a sense of what the housing was for the Amerindians there.
We were welcomed on arrival by Sharon, the wonderful manager, and her great staff. They offered us the buffet lunch before walking the short distance to our rooms. Zena, the cook, accomplished near miracles with the variety and quality of the meals, which were always on time and hot. She accommodated those of us who were vegetarian although if you don't eat eggs, the breakfast choices were limited.
All the buildings are closely located to the main building which has a pier on the river and the kitchen and dining area. (The staff all sleep in bunk beds in the main building.) Our bunkhouse consisted of a queen bed (with a big mosquito net) and a double bunk bed.. Thanks to solar power and a backup generator, there is electricity 24/7 but for our room we needed to flip a switch whenever we needed water (shower, sink and toilet). The water was room temperature (not hot) but the weather was warm and this was not a problem.Bottled drinking water was provided every day whenever needed.
There was a standing fan in our room which we used in the middle of the day but we had no need for it at night or in the early morning, as we kept several of the windows open while we slept.
There was a big group of daytrippers visiting from Canada when we arrived and they were good company and interesting to talk to. For the rest of the stay, it was just the 4 of us and charming "Uncle Louie" from Trinidad, who was making his 17 overnight stay at the resort!
I went swimming right in front of the resort and the black river water had beautiful reflections of the trees and plants. Even with my swimming googles on, I couldn't see a thing in the river.
A major feature of the resort are the trails through the rainforest. The trails start from one point just up the hill from the cabins and no one is allowed to go on them without a guide. We very much enjoyed the walk with Edward to the spot where three kayaks were left waiting for us (with life jackets) and we then paddled through some winding small rivers back to the resort. We also enjoyed the longer walk to the crashed single engine plane but we didn't see much wildlife on that walk. We did the night time cruise looking for caiman in the water and saw about 3 of them but the sunrise bird tour on the water was more fun and more interesting. We were disappointed that the Resort did not have enough head lamps for us to do the night time walk in the forest to see the nighttime creatures.
Wi-fi and the internet are only available to the staff (and I assume to the visitor in case of a real emergency) but it was nice to get away from all of that and back to nature. The sounds of the birds and crickets were a wonderful way to fall asleep and to wake up. We didn't even mind the bats flying about in our room at night. We were made to feel welcome and we experienced a lot in just two nights there.
The boat ride back to the dock by the airport was just wonderful (without the rain) and the twists and the turns with the wonderful trees and plants and birds was idyllic.
Highly recommended!