Rock View Lodge

Rock View Lodge is a destination unto itself. Located on the rolling hills and savannahs, the Rupununi River and wooded mountains nearby. Evenings may be spent in the old family ranch house with a fine art collection, library and good music. All buildings have electricity and running water from a deep well. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with hundreds of palms, fruit and flower trees that enhance the natural beauty of the Rupununi Savannah.

A range of activities and itineraries is provided. Visitors are accommodated in comfortable, well furnished, self-contained suites. The Lodge has a Toyota Hilux pickup, a four-wheel drive Bedford truck, horses, bicycles and boats for your transportation needs and requirements.

The Rock View Lodge has been recognized as one of the world's inspiring places worldwide that is striving to be environmentally and socially responsible.

Rock View Lodge is managed by an English family closely associated with Guyana since 1969. Their love for the Guyanese interior, the arts and the people of both Guyana and Brazil may be seen in this unusual lodge and working farm which is both environmentally friendly and has a special relationship with the community development efforts of the surrounding Amerindian villages. The efficient and friendly staff are both members of the family as well as neighbours around Rock View. They are mostly trilingual, speaking a combination of English, Portuguese and their native Makushi language.

Facilities
Two guest houses can take single, twin and triple accommodation in self-contained suites. In addition to this, sleep out in hammocks in the verandahs or camp out in the open.

The cokerite palm-thatched traditional round Benab next to the guest houses can be used to relax in hammocks out of the sun or to hold meetings, workshops and retreats.

The Rock View swimming pool with its rocks and boulders, clumps of cacti and succulents is both cool and warm.

Rocking gently in the shade of the cashew tree you can relax in a hammock with a refreshing drink and a book after a day picnicking, boating, riding or hiking.

Activities
NATURE TOURS
Nature tours will allow the visitor intimate contact with the diverse ecosystems around Rock View. Learn more about the delicate balance between the communities and the natural resources. See the plant and animal life through the eyes of the people who have depended on the natural resources for the past number of centuries.

Reference books can be taken into the field for a better understanding of the biological diversity and our guides will do their best to explain the significance of the resources to their daily lives.

COMMUNITY CONSERVATION SITES
These sites are sponsored by Iwokrama, and managed by the villagers themselves. Examples of this are the Paurine tree conservation project by the village of Rupertee, the Cock of the Rock lekking site by the community of Wowetta and the rainforest camp and nature trail at Aranaputa.

BIRDING
Rock View has become a favourite location for bird watchers from North America and Europe. Exciting bird lists have been prepared for the villages of Annai and Surama as well as for the Iwokrama rainforest. Visitors can see for themselves how the distribution of birds varies from savannahs to mountain, river and rainforest. Enthusiasts will be able to have the thrill of being able to add to these lists for future bird watchers.

HORSE RIDING, CYCLING, HIKING
Rock View makes an ideal base for cycling or hiking across the savannahs and villages around. Ride out with local vacqueiros and take the cattle out to the savannah for a day's grazing.

BOATING
Outings to see the Victoria Regia lilies on ox-bow lakes, sports fishing and picnics on the sand banks.

PHOTOGRAPHY & PAINTING
The peace and creative tranquility of the Rupununi, where time is never against you, is ideally suited to photography and painting. The sitting room of the old ranch house has a wide collection of arts and craft from the region and other cultures, books on sculpture, painting and photography, reference documents on the ecology of the region, journals and novels.

History
Rock View was famous in the past when the only contact with the outside was when the Dakota flight would come in from the coast for supplies of beef, tobacco and peanuts. The Dakota Bar would then come to life with the gossip and political intrigue that, the old timers say, helped to bring about the 1969 Rupununi uprising. Guests can now have a beer, rum and swank, with appetizers, or even a bar-b-q and enjoy darts and dominoes with the villagers in these more peaceful times.

Location
Rock View Lodge is nestled between the Amerindian villages of Annai and Rupertee on the North Rupununi Savannahs of Guyana, where the foothills of the Pakaraima mountain range meet the tropical rainforest. The Iwokrama International Centre Field Research Station, the Canopy Walkway, the fourteen villages of the indigenous Makushi people, excellent birding locations and other resorts such as Karanambu Resort and Cattle Ranch are easily accessible from Rock View. The Lodge may be reached by air or road from Georgetown and Brazil (Boa Vista and Bon Fin).

Savannah Weather
The Rupununi has two rainy periods each year, the main rainy season which occurs between May and August and a shorter season commonly known as the cashew rains which falls around the Christmas and New Year season. On average the annual rain fall is around 1,800 mm. or about 70 inches with a monthly peak during the months of June and July when one can expect anything up to about 400 mm. in one month. The rains make it more difficult to drive around off the high roads and are also responsible for more insects such as mosquitoes and sand flies. However the biting kabaura flies are not present at Rock View as this insect is almost exclusive to the river banks of the white water rivers such as the Rupununi. The mosquitoes of the savannahs are not of the malaria carrying Anopheles type. The temperature will vary from 22 degrees Celsius (72 degrees Fahrenheit) at night to 36 degrees Celsius (97 degrees Fahrenheit) during the heat of the afternoon with a relative humidity of between 42 per cent saturation in the afternoons of the dry season to about 80 per cent saturation in the mornings of the rainy season.