LITTLE ROCK
LETHEM

The Casino & The Rock Room

A two-level house of its own: the gaming floor and the Takutu Bar & Lounge below, its own porte-cochère, a covered walk to the hotel lobby — and upstairs, The Rock Room, the house brand after hours. Brazil is five minutes across the bridge.

Casino subject to licensing

The Essequibo Grand Hall

The mightiest river for the mightiest room. A divisible hall for weddings, conferences, rodeo balls and state dinners — 400 in theatre, a stage, a foyer, its own drop-off — and the Kaieteur Terrace above the foyer for vows at golden hour.

The Grounds — the arrival, the pool, the gardens

In through The Engineer’s Gate — the piers he set in 2009 — round a drop-off loop and a fountain, under a porte-cochère to a double-height entrance veranda on the axis he drew. Inside, the courtyard pool; around it, palms, flowering trees and lawns down to the road; and the savannah terrace at the Grand Hall for the sunset.

The Grand Lobby & the Rupununi Room

Twin stairs, coffered greenheart ceilings, a brass chandelier and a compass rose in the marble — the arrival. Then dinner on the restaurant veranda: farine, tasso and the peppered beef of the ranches, the Kanukus going purple in the window.

Pulsar Star & the Benab

At the heart of the courtyard, the Pulsar Star swim-up bar keeps its lighthouse beam turning over the pool by night. In the forecourt gardens, the Benab — where 88.5 Rock FM and Channel 10 go live from Lethem — and beyond the back gate, the tea-dark Tabatinga Creek.

Kaieteur & the Rupununi

Lethem sits where Guyana’s great southern savannah meets Brazil at the Takutu River — the Kanuku Mountains on the horizon, the Rupununi Rodeo in the town, giant otters and black caiman in the creeks, and Kaieteur Falls a short flight north. A paved road runs to Boa Vista. This is the gateway, and it has never had a house like this.