How a couple’s dream turned into one of Guyana’s top destinations

PANDAMA Retreat and Winery is more than meets the eye and offers far more than just peace and quiet. Pandama is a legacy built on love. Beginning with the dream of a young couple, it has become one of Guyana’s most visited and well-known destinations. Today, Tracy Douglas is keeping the business going. She shares the story of the love behind Pandama that made it what it is today and how she has kept it thriving.

The Story
Tracy and Warren Douglas met over 18 years ago. Warren, a Guyanese, and Tracy, a US national, were a unique pair seemingly made for each other. Warren had no intention of returning to Guyana to stay after moving overseas, but after returning to Guyana in 2007, Tracy fell in love with the country. Beginning Pandama was not the couple’s initial intention, but over time, Pandama simply blossomed.

As Tracy explained, “Warren and I started Pandama, I guess, really, since we came to Guyana. My first time in Guyana was in 2007. Warren had no intentions of coming back home. He was a Guyanese who had left. And when I talked about the idea of coming, he’s like, maybe 8 to 10 years. I was like, no, we got to go.” She further added that upon her first time in Guyana, “I fell in love with Guyana. I was on a mission to come. We went to the wharf. I remember you could buy a bucket of fish for 10 US dollars. And that was like, oh. Because if you want to live someplace, you want to make sure you can afford it. And so that was like a check. We went to the market. And I was like, oh my God. All those fresh vegetables and fruits and my mind was just running, running, running. And then we were blessed to find this space.”

The well-known name Pandama has become synonymous with rest, relaxation, and of course, wine. However, like so many other things in Pandama, the name came from nature. “One of the things very prominent on the land was the Pandama Palm. We didn’t know what it was, but it was the Pandama palm. And it’s just like this green and yellow plant, very different. The root system is very different. And he said whatever the name of this palm is, is what I would like us to name our business after. And he went and met quite a few people from the plant society… and discovered what the name of the plant was,” Tracy explained.

The couple behind Pandama
Tracy and Warren Douglas were the original power couple. They shared the responsibilities of Pandama, with Warren as winemaker and Tracy managing the home and business aspects. Together, they made Pandama the brand it is today. However, the couple faced challenges from the opinions of others. As Tracy explained, “I remember somebody saying to Warren, it must be really hard to have a smart wife. And I’m like, I looked at him, and I was like, but doesn’t everybody want a smart wife? Like, that would make sense to me, but I had to learn, I had to learn, like, that balance of being okay with who I am, not being less smart, in terms of being in certain communities, and how to show up, and finding that flow.”

With the loss of Warren two years ago, Tracy has kept Pandama alive and well. Contrary to what most people thought, the loss of Warren was not the loss of Pandama. “They would say, well, Warren, you do all of this, and he would say, no, I do the wine, she does everything else. And they would look at him as if he was just being modest, like, of course he does everything, and she just does nothing. In his transitioning, the clear assumption was Pandama was done. It’s like, okay, that’s it, that’s the chapter done.”

Not the end of a legacy
Warren’s death came as a surprise to many people. However, to Tracy and his family, Warren’s story goes far beyond what most people know. Warren battled heart issues for many years. Tracy knew about his challenges and was committed to standing beside him for as long as he had. Warren lived far beyond his life expectancy. Tracy says love and wine are what he owed his blissful life to. As she stated, “I know that the community was very surprised when he made his transition because nobody knew the story he was walking with. When Warren and I met, he was actually on the heart transplant list and he did not want to get the surgery. He when he looked and said his life expectancy would be like 10 to 12 years if he had the surgery and with complications and all of that. And he just said, I’m going to live however long I’m going to live. And so that’s how we’re meeting. I think back, and I was like, ‘Tracy, what was in your head to get involved with somebody who’s on the heart transplant list?’ It made no sense. But yet, it made all the sense in the world for us to go on that path together on that journey. And I said, ‘Well, if you need a new heart, you need love, no stress, and you need to change your diet.” Warren and Tracy lived a happy life together for more than 16 years. And with Tracy’s determination, Pandama will continue to thrive.