This golden sunset was captured travelling home to Yupukari on Guyana’s Rupununi river where Anne and I were married. I wear a wedding ring made with Guyana gold. Throughout my time in the Rupununi I came across miners drawn to Guyana’s interior by the lure of gold. The lost city of gold called El Dorado was associated with the parish I served which witnessed a flow of European treasure hunters from 1492 when Columbus came on the South American scene. Literally meaning ‘Golden Man’ El Dorado has also been associated with legendary kings of the Muisca people populating the northern Andes who were initiated by being covered in gold dust before leaping into Lake Guatavita. The gold lust impacts to this day the indigenous people of Guyana adversely caught up for centuries in the quest for gold and the conflicts associated with it.
