The forgotten garden. This is Mabaruma, in north-west Guyana, which was built high above the forest on an enormous hillock of green. Up here, running along the ridge, is an avenue of stately rubber trees, and a pleasing sprawl of orchards, paddocks, tiny wooden farms, and tobacco-coloured cows.
The forgotten garden. This is Mabaruma, in north-west Guyana, which was built high above the forest on an enormous hillock of green. Up here, running along the ridge, is an avenue of stately rubber trees, and a pleasing sprawl of orchards, paddocks, tiny wooden farms, and tobacco-coloured cows. There's also a miniature hospital, an ambulance without any tyres, and a shop that sells nerve tonic, barbed wire and jeans.
This was once the garden of Guyana, and every week ships had left here, stuffed to the gunnels with fruit. These days, the fruit ships no longer call, and the great sleep that had overwhelmed Mabaruma is now in its third decade. The paint has peeled, the machines have stopped, and the mangoes plop – unclaimed – into the grass.
