Wichabai Ranch

Wichabai sits in the open South Rupununi savanna, two and a half hours south of Lethem, on ground the De Freitas family has worked for over a century. Rebuilt from the foundations up by Justin and Erin De Freitas starting in 2016, it runs as three things at once: a working cattle ranch, a small guesthouse with four timber cabins facing the Kanuku Mountains, and the headquarters of the South Rupununi Conservation Society, whose rangers track giant anteaters and protect the last flocks of the endangered Red Siskin.

Meals are communal, evenings run on bonfires and Guyanese rum. The cabins are solar-powered and off-grid. Birders come for the Red Siskin, riders for sunset drives and the Dadanawa corral next door. Most people come for all of it.