Jaunted

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Drop Dead Gorgeous

Each week, Jaunted will choose a destination we feel is somehow underrated. Readers who would like to nominate locations, if only to get us to stop mocking Detroit and Philadelphia, should send their suggestions to tipsATjauntedDOTcom.

This week's Underrated Destination is to the country of Guyana. Guyana piqued our interest after we saw Werner Herzog's film The White Diamond. It follows a hot-air balloon maker who wants to build a balloon to film the canopy of the Guyanese rainforest.

The biggest draws there are the rainforest and Kaieteur waterfall. With a 741-foot freefall drop, the waterfall is four times as big as Niagara. What's more, Guyana is the only country in South America where English is the native language. The rainforest is chock-full of rare creatures like the cock-of-the-rock bird and golden tree-frogs--Guyana was the inspiration for Conan Doyle's The Lost World.

Even with all those great qualities, Guyana remains overlooked, although visits to Kaieteur have increased of late (to 4,000 people a year). There is little of the accompanying leisure tourism infrastructure of a place like Costa Rica, though Guyana is only a five hour flight from New York. Would you rather go to Buffalo?

[Image via Chennette/Flickr]

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