RUPUNUNI REVIEW – year 1 – edition 1 – January 201

In our Health and Lifestyle item of the week: Rupununi Restyle
Although it’s still the middle of winter now, one has to start thinking about spring 2011. The time of redecorating, preparing your house for summer. New and fresh! The latest trend that our stylists have spotted is the minimalistic industrial Rupununi Home. Cement, zink, careless painting and emptiness are key in this latest trend. Why spend tons of money on useless items in your house, when it is perfectly fine to live with a little less? Less is more, less inspires, less helps you to go back to your inner spirit and let loose of useless gibberish in your life. The industrial character of this trend breathes peace and feng shui.
A number of tips for Rupununi Restyle:
Cement: In a newly build house leave the floors as they are. Let the grey cement give your house an earthy feeling. Are your cement floors covered with wood, linoleum, carpet or anything else of that matter? Rip it out! Make sure you get all the glue of and enjoy the industrial feel that has filled your house.
Zink: The ultimate feel of the Rupununi home is zink. Zink roofs are easy and keeps you connected to nature. The zink leaves a space between the roof and the walls which makes sure there is a constant cooling breeze.
Careless painting: Be less uptight people! Let yourself go. Who ever came up with the idea that painted walls have to be neatly painted? Why not just let your spirit go free!
Emptiness: Fill your house with only the absolute necessary. Who needs sofas when you can have plastic chairs or hammocks? The rest should be empty, leave room for the air and spontaneous dances.
Trickling cold showers: Revive your skin, cold water is good for skin and hair. To get the ultimate Rupununi feeling only open the tap half way, let the water trickle on your skin. Washing hair takes longer but will help you to get in touch with your inner self.

Adventure tales: Danger in the jungle
The village of Wowetta houses one of Guyana’s most famous birds, with the remarkable name: cock of the rock. An orange bird, it’s habitat hidden deep down in the jungle preferable among rocks or caves. Conquering it’s female by making exceptional dances, the male with the nicest dance will be picked by the picky female. I decide to go on a tour of about 8 hours of walking to spot this wonder of Guyana. The first part can be done by motorbike until the forest gets to dense. We walk with the five of us, two colleagues and two Amerindian guides through this humid but beautiful part of Guyana that was still unknown to me. On the way the guides explain us the medicinal strength of numerous plants and trees. I am questioning myself why we use all those chemical substances while the forest is so rich. Remedies for everything: snake bites, birth control, nausea etc. On our way we spot fresh trails, according to our guides a big cat, possibly a jaguar. It looks like he scratches the sand, to mark it’s territory, our guide explains. We walk on and don’t think too much of it, there is just a small number of locals that has ever spotted a jaguar while they have lived in this area all their lives. It would be silly to think that we will run into it on basically one of our first proper hikes through the jungle. A growl, a couple more, in the distance. Our guides look alarmed, they look at each other and whisper simultaneously: a jaguar. We don’t move, are almost too afraid to breathe and silently listen how the jaguar moves through the trees. Silence again, it seems to have disappeared. We talk a bit louder again and decide to carry on, our hearts still pounding. A couple of meters down the trail we are still talking about our unique experience when we all suddenly stop again by hearing a growl, this time much closer. Our guides tell us to get down and sit still. It’s not even 10 meters away from us, we can’t see it but it’s making a lot of noise which sounds awfully close. One of our guides walks over carefully while ducking to the sound. We see some bushes moving, a glimpse, the jaguar turns around away from the trail, he must have smelled us.
All this excitement almost made us forget about the unique orange bird. But nature seems to have other events in mind for us. An hour further down the trail we spot spider monkeys high up in the canopy. We seem a lot happier to see them than the other way around, they start to throw awfully large pieces of branches from the trees. In an attempt to chase us away, since one of the females is pregnant, our guide explains. If one of those branches would hit you it would have definitely knocked you out. It seems not to be too smart to hang around the monkeys for too long so we carry on. Finally, an orange spot in a tree, there it is, the cock of the rock!
In the end I was much more impressed by the jaguar than by the bird. Going on this tour an encounter with a jaguar can not be guaranteed obviously. Although even without the jaguar the trail was worthwhile and great learning about the richness of the jungle.
Also interested in spotting the cock of the rock? Send a message to the editor. Tickets to Guyana (from Amsterdam) cost approximately €1000,- via Paramaribo, Suriname.

Rupununi Recipes: Pancakes without pancake mix or eggs
Always wondered how to make pancakes without having pancake mix around? Our chef has tried out to make pancakes from scratch, which appeared to be a success!
Ingredients (for 4 pancakes – ideal for breakfast for 2):
- flour (2 cups)
- sugar (2 table spoons)
- baking powder (0,5 table spoon)
- salt (a pinch)
- water
Put the 2 cups of flour, 2 table spoons of sugar, half table spoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Carefully add water, not too much at the same time, add it gradually. Mix it together until it has the thickness of yoghurt. If you’ve added too much water add a little bit more flour. Make sure all the clumps have disappeared. Take a frying pan and put a bit of butter in the pan until it has melted. Add a soup spoon full of pancake mix in the pan and wait until the upper part is dry, then turn it onto the other side. Make sure the fire is not too high otherwise it will burn before the upper part has dried. Ready is your pancake!

The next edition of Rupununi Review will come out in March, the month of February our writers, editors and photographers will spend in the South Pakaraimas without computers or any other means of communication around.