Reel Guyana takes us on another daring adventure in the mythical outdoors

Through INSIDE REEL…

By Lakhram Bhagirat

Guyana is indeed an adventurer’s dream and what Alex Arjoon and his Reel Guyana team have been doing over the years is showcasing just exactly what Guyana has to offer. They often times travel to the most remote places and share their journey with the world.

This, in turn, encourages people to visit those very places which serve as getaways from the hustle and bustle of t city life.
On August 2, Reel Guyana launched its second instalment of INSIDE REEL taking us on another daring adventure in the mythical outdoors. Starting from the village of Yupukari, the Reel Team commenced their journey on the Rupununi River into the south as they showcased Guyana’s adventure tourism product.

In the first episode, viewers not only got to know the team behind the production – Alex, his sister Victoria, and Petar Veljacic – but also witnessed the unfiltered conversations as they snaked their way through the Rupununi River with their friends and guides. The banter about bread and converting Jamaican dancehall lyrics in the country-western genre was anything but scripted.
The authentic conversations were accompanied by high-quality video.
Looking back on his first instalment of INSIDE REEL, Alex explained that he knew that he had to create something that can continue to showcase the unique aspects of Guyana. He acknowledged that many travellers, both foreign and local, make videos about Guyana’s hinterland region and do, in fact, capture its tremendous beauty, but he felt that he needed to do something different.

From that thought came the idea of taking his viewers along with him on the unfiltered journey.
“Being a filmmaker forces you to think outside the box to make your work stand out. Even though I may not have been the first person to explore the destinations I featured, I know that my experiences are unique and worth sharing from my perspective,” he notes.
Guyana is one of the few countries left in the world where travellers can truly go off the beaten path and immerse themselves in the undiscovered. This involves embracing the harsh elements of the outdoors, pushing through obstacles that take you out of your comfort zone and having faith in your ability to adapt and overcome so that you will eventually get to where you’re going. Those are the things that Alex and his Reel Guyana team aim to showcase in this series.

Their main focus is on Guyana’s adventure tourism product and they hope to capture the essence in their four-part series.
“On my trip, I took a boat from Yupukari village in the Northern Rupununi on the Rupununi River and made my way into the Southern Rupununi, going through the Kanuku Mountains. We spent about three days travelling on the river before we eventually ended up at Wichabai, our base in the South.
“While in the South I got to experience the Southern Rupununi culture which is vastly different from the north. The landscape is made up of beautiful open savannahs and scattered mountains which make for great hiking. Hiking in this area is something I strongly recommend to anyone seeking true adventure,” Alex relates.
Cattle ranching is a huge part of the Southern Rupununi experience. Vaqueros have a culture of their own that goes back generations and even though ranching is not the main economic activity in the Region, it is still held in high regard and is on full display every year at the Rupununi Rodeo in Lethem.
Once the trip was over, Alex was able to sit with the material for a few months before he began compiling the series.

Elaborating on the process of compiling the series, Alex says:
“I knew going back into the footage of my trip would essentially be a chance for me to relive the whole experience. Upon starting, I felt it to be very challenging. Many of the ideas I previously held were no longer fresh in my mind. I found myself having to fill in gaps and rework narratives that I thought to have confirmed.
“However, I eventually saw this as a good thing. My sister, who had also joined me on the trip and who now helps me run the company, had offered a lot of insight into how we can present this series in ways that I had never considered. It took us a lot longer to formulate and structure our ideas, but ultimately, I felt that the end product was completely worth it.”
The overall goal is to use these personalised videos to share Guyana with Guyanese and the world at large. Guyana is a country with unlimited potential and with the right push, we can truly be a force to reckon with on the world stage as it relates to eco-tourism.
Episode 2 premieres today at 20:00h on Reel Guyana’s Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channels. Tune in and join Alex and his team on this breath-taking adventure.