What is Bushmasters all about? Why do it?

The idea behind Bushmasters was many years in the planning, most of those spent in the jungles of Central or South America. The rainforest environment is so amazing and yet so few people really get the chance to see the jungle up close outside the normal tourist traps. Very few people also get the opportunity to take part in challenging and exciting trips to places that few, if any, westerners have ever been before. No matter how amazing 'Machu Picchu' is for example, you are not really going to get that sense of exploration with the other thousand or so people there.

Over the years here we have expanded to include trips into the savannahs either by 4x4 or on horseback, including trips to the ranches working as true vaqueros (cowboys) as they have here for hundreds of years.

We wanted to continue the same ethos of true adventure, where you do the work and expand this into other environments. We are looking at trips to the Sahara, Himalaya and Arabia from late 2010 onwards.

Bushmasters was formed to give a more exciting, extreme, and remote experience. Be warned, it is not intended for people who want to waltz into the jungle with a host of porters carrying all their gear, lighting all their fires, cooking all their food. Unlike most companies, we do not take you on jungle trails that have been cut so wide that you could almost drive a car along them, nor do we take you to luxury jungle lodges with high-speed internet connections and luxury spa treatments. Our trips are completely different, deliberately so. They are designed for people who want fun, adventure and are willing to push themselves.

The idea behind Bushmasters is to bring back the true adventurous spirit for those who are game for the challenge.

This includes:

• Unique experiences and a story to dine out on for life.
• Tough, remote and true adventures.
• Return to age-old explorer spirit.
• The client does the work, not some hired hand.
• Conservation of the environment.

Sustainable Eco-Tourism

Bushmasters also aims to provide a rewarding future for young Guyanese people in the guiding industry. Many young people go off to the mines or to work in Brazil as there is little to offer them at home. Bushmasters aims to run training courses for these young people every year and also to finance young guides on our trips. On a trip you may see the two senior guides, but also an additional younger guide who is being mentored by the others and funded by Bushmasters to take part in these trips and learn all the weird, strange things that us foreigners bring to the party. It is very much a fair partnership between the local people and Bushmasters.

Bushmasters is also keen to support conservation and community development within Guyana. Man is destroying many of the world's amazing places and it is only man that can save them. Unfortunately in this day and age that means giving everything a financial value. Rarely do people do the right thing just because it is the right thing, especially big companies. To them the jungle is a commodity; the lumber, medicinal products, animals, clearing the land for soya crops and so on, all have a massive value. Each year something like $26 billion is made from the jungle in the private sector. Conservation projects have only a few hundred million dollars to protect it each year; there is no way they are going to win in the long run with those odds.

Therefore, the jungle needs a value, which will keep the profit seekers happy without chopping it down. It needs to be sustainable. There are sustainable logging practices, animal extraction, fishing projects and so on around the world. They are not the norm as yet and their effectiveness is open to debate, however Bushmasters is interested in one aspect, the benefits from sound eco-tourism. Without the jungle there will be no tourism of this kind, so we have to keep it intact, and help the local people develop in the manner they want to. Too many areas have far too many tourists, where local ways of life have been destroyed, and an amazing array of social ills imported and often the wildlife scared into hiding or worse.

We are very keen to protect the environment where we work whilst at the same time assisting the local communities. We adhere to best practice in this area. There is a great deal of pressure to log, mine for gold or diamonds or export wild animals from the rainforest and with Guyana becoming better known, these pressures are increasing. There are a number of logging operations and a fair amount of illegal hunting and wildlife capture. A Scarlet Macaw is worth thousands of Dollars in the US, but will be bought for just a few dollars from the local guy who captures it here in the wild. This is inevitable as Western influences encroach in these environments; it is often the only way the local people can improve their lot, get better health care, better education and everything else that we take for granted. It is then a little hypocritical to ask them not to exploit their lands, just as we have for hundreds of years, and to give no alternative to allow their lifestyles to improve.

Tourism like Bushmasters is a way to allow the local people to gain an additional income from their lands without destroying them. We use local guides and the resources of the local communities, from their eco lodges, to boats to the mosquito nets that are made by women from the Amerindian villages.

In all, Bushmasters works with local communities, adheres to and believes in, sound environmental and sustainable tourism practices.