Most people pass the scattered, thatched-roofed, mud-brick huts of Kumu without stopping and head directly to the white spray of the Kumu Falls to splash about in the cold waters roaring off the mountain.
The falls, which lie at the foot of the Kanuku Mountains, has been attracting visitors for years and in recent times, with the development of trails, the number of local, as well as Brazilian, tourists have increased. “There are times when the Brazilians alone come; you don’t find Guyanese,” said Peter Joseph, who constructed tiny thatched huts, cleared the road and built a bridge leading to the falls, and now calls the jungle clearing his office.
A free-lance tour guide, Joseph’s drive to develop the falls as a tourist attraction is paying off as visitor numbers increase. The area is relatively unspoiled and the water tumbles over the gray-brown rocks in a cold, never-ending white spray amid the different shades of green of the surrounding jungle. Here, in the cold mountain stream that splashes its