There were tears, raised voices, accusations, counter-accusations and promises of money. It was a new venture and not everyone was happy with the way it was going.
Like the Essequibo River, running dark and deep just 200 metres away in this jungle village in Region Nine, the undercurrents ran deep at the meeting hall in Apoteri. For this indigenous community, isolated in the jungle, far from most everywhere, but surrounded by pristine wilderness and abundant wildlife, tourism, more specifically, eco-tourism, seemed the direction in which to go.
But a few had already taken that leap. And as the meeting progressed one morning in September, it was clear that a majority of villagers were not happy with the status quo. A village leader and his daughter who ran the
