Alastair Sawday's 
Earthscan's 
Lonely Planet's 
Ethical holiday: Surama Village, Guyana
Surama is a traditional Amerindian village in the forest-covered Pakaraima mountains 300km south of the capital Georgetown. It's the home of the Makushi tribe, and though you might come across men going out to hunt with bows and arrows, don't expect an after-dinner tribal dance...
The Surama people run the show here as part of a community-based tourism initiative with a tour operator based in Georgetown. There are four huts just outside the village, which are basic, but dry and cool. Guides take you on a tour of the village to watch the pounding of cassava and on dawn walks across the Rupununi savannah and up Surama mountain.
Nearby is the 30m-high Iwokrama Canopy Walkway (iwokramacanopywalkway.com) and a hammock camp on the river edge that provides a base for canoe trips on the Burro Burro river to see giant otters, tapirs and spider monkeys.
· A hut costs US$110 full board including guides. Book through Last Frontiers (lastfrontiers.com, 01296 653000).
This article, by Richard Hammond, was first published in the Guardian.
surama growth
interesting to see how surama is growing and developing. we visited at christmas 1999. the main entertainment then was watching “titanic” on a television powered by a car battery. when the power ran low, they put the battery back in the jeep and drove back and forth to charge it up again. via the internet, i see that they now have traditional dances based on wildlife themes.
the best memories of surama were the home made meals; our guide who took us through the rain forest, on the river in a canoe, vainly tried to teach us archery and patiently answered all of our naive questions (sorry, can’t remember his name. "roland"?); and hitching a ride to the village with sidney allicock in a delivery truck (the ride took about 12 hours over a sand road through the rain forest. somewhat reminiscent of friedkin's movie "sorcerer", but without the dynamite or string bridges.)
thanks for the write-up and posting the picture!