– as Kara Kyaking comes on board to promote beautiful mining town

TOUR company Kara Kyaking and Adventures Tours is set to be the first to provide guided tours to the plethora of tourism hot spots in the mining town of Linden.

While the tourism company has been in existence for some time, with the lack of marketing and support, business was a bit dormant, but with the recent media frenzy surrounding the beautiful Kara Kara blue lakes of Linden, tourism advocate Deon Anderson has collaborated with the company to promote the mining town.

The company is based in Linden and will be providing guided tours called the Kyaking experience with professional swimmers, life guards, safety gear and historical backgrounds of the amazing sites in Linden.

Anderson explained that the touring company will be selling the amazing landscapes of Linden, which include not only the blue lakes but the valleys, overhead springs, colourful sand hills and mountains and black water creeks among other things with which nature and years of bauxite mining have blessed Linden.

“Linden in itself is a unique  tourism spot, especially for nature lovers; the  blue lakes are comparable to the Caribbean beaches for its natural beauty and surrounding landscapes and many in and out of Guyana have never even seen these views before. So providing persons with an option to see, experience and enjoy all this would be an ideal venture to embark on. Against this backdrop, we have partnered with a tour company founded right in Linden to offer tours, packages and a unique Linden experience for those who desire to see this pristine, untouched beautiful site,” Anderson explained.

Since he brought alive the blue lakes a few months ago, hundreds of Guyanese have been clamouring to experience the lakes, but because there were some issues with the safety of the water, given its unique blue colour and having its genesis in bauxite mining, Anderson, who is a chemical engineer, collaborated with entities whose mandate it is to monitor the quality and safety of recreational and potentially recreational areas such as swimming pools, creeks, rivers and lakes. “Such collaboration has resulted in sampling and monitoring of the water quality at the blue lake, creeks on the Linden highway, and even public swimming pools. Participating laboratories include Kaizen environmental services (from Trinidad); IAST (in UG compound) and GuySuCo. So far, indications are that the water quality is within safe limits,” Anderson revealed.

While the blue lakes are extremely deep, safety always comes first and as such, safety gear and on-the-spot lifeguards will also be made available during tours.
Anderson related that in a week’s time, official contact information and online access should be made available of ‘Kara Kayaking and Adventure Tours.’

Linden’s tourism potential has always been realised, but regional officials at the Region 10 Tourism Association have never completely succeeded in bringing alive Linden’s tourism industry. In 2016, the United Nations dubbed Linden as a prospective world tourism destination. The announcement was made at a World Tourism Summit in Chonqing, China, that was attended by former Mayor of Linden Carwyn Holland and Regional Chairman Renis Morian. Holland said he was amused to see Linden’s rich scenic beauty and natural, picturesque landscape and majestic sandy hills being featured in the presence of international leaders. The city of Chonqing eventually twinned with Linden, in an effort to develop its untapped tourism gems.