The first European to see the falls was British geological surveyor C. Barrington Brown, who ran across them in 1870 while searching in the interior for gold and other minerals. The only regular visitors for years were naturalists as access was difficult and Guyana did nothing to push tourism or change its sour international reputation. We've had a negative overseas image. We're trying to build sustainable tourism. The area atop the Kaieteur precipice is lush vegetation thick with plants including the bird of paradise, the sprawling rubber cupa and the sundue, a small carnivorous insect eater.
Swifts swoop over the gorge and silver foxes, tapirs, monkeys and anteaters lurk around the park.
Aside from the small airstrip with a hut nearby, the only sign of humans is the government guest house, a Spartan affair that sleeps few. But investors have chatted up the government about 200-room hotels to coax more people to the falls, which currently attract a couple of thousand visitors a year. Da Silva admits the money is enticing, but the government leans toward a 15-20 room chalet on a creek nearby, complemented by a series of walkways around the falls and a visitors centre. This lack of infrastructure is what keeps Kaieteur different from the other famous falls. There are no roads, no shops, no tacky souvenirs, no hotels, no rails and very few people.