The Guianas occupy a green corner of South America that most travelers never reach. The region runs from the Orinoco delta in the west to the Oyapock River in the east, bounded by the Atlantic to the north and the Amazon basin to the south. Across that span the land is dominated by primary rainforest, savannah and rivers, with population concentrated along a narrow coastal strip.
Politically the three countries are very different. Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America and is now an oil and gas economy in transformation. Suriname is a former Dutch colony, the smallest country on the continent by population, and one of the most ethnically diverse places on earth. French Guiana is an overseas department of France, part of the European Union, where the European Space Agency launches Ariane rockets from the equator.
What ties them together is geography and forest cover. All three are more than 80 percent forested, all three are sparsely populated, and all three sit outside the standard South America itinerary. Travelers who reach them are typically experienced and curious, drawn by the access, the wildlife and the cultural complexity that has built up across centuries of plantation economies, Maroon resistance, indentured labor and Amerindian continuity.
