St Cuthberts Mission is quickly establishing itself as a tourism hotspot in Region Four.
Newly elected Toshao Alvoro Simon, during a recent interview with the Department of Public Information, announced that the village created its first-day tour itinerary, and will provide a full experience of the Amerindian way of life.
He noted that the Destination St Cuthberts project caters for day and night tours as the village has accommodation facilities.
“You are going to experience the way of life when it comes to hunting, our cultural dances, our poetry, maybe a few stories. We want to make it as inclusive as possible,” Simon stated.
He noted that the new village council is working to revive as much of the culture as possible in the next three years.
“The food as well, cassava bread, the piwari and the cassareep and so on that we were known for back in the days which is very slowly going away. We want to bring it up back to par where tourists can come here and experience everything flat out when they come to visit the village,” he said.
He noted that there has been increased interest in St Cuthberts Mission as a tourist destination, with the community facilitating approximately three tours per week.
Simon noted that the privately owned Bimichi Eco Lodge also boosts the tourism drive in the community.
“The day tour entails transportation, return passage from here to Georgetown, lunch, traditional wine tasting, it entails boat ride, bird watching, traditional games and stuff like that,” he noted. The village council owns a 32-seater bus which is available for rental to take visitors to the community.
Meanwhile, Part owner of the Bimichi Eco Lodge, Joshua Mahadeo stated that there has been a boost in visitors to the community.
“We’re getting visitors coming regularly, a lot of overseas visitors, persons who work with the oil companies, have the weekends off they bring their families and we have also observed that there are a lot of holidaymakers who come from England,” he said.
The lodge is currently hosting three persons. Later this week, fifty-three persons are expected to arrive from different countries for a family reunion. He noted that the itinerary launched by the village compliments is a good initiative.
“I think it would work well, Bimichi alone, sometimes we cannot handle teams that are coming in, secondly it would be good too because they would be able to upgrade themselves at the landing and at the Mahaica creek there, out better facilities, look at the road and I think it’s a step in the right direction for the village council,” he stated.
Simon noted the support received from the Guyana Tourism Authority in training opportunities and also the support of the current village council.
