The Hotel of Revolution and Tropical Ballet. As hotels go, the Cara Lodge (pictured) in Georgetown, Guyana, has a pretty exotic history. I loved this place, and occasionally stayed there whenever I needed to be downtown.
In a city of lacy buildings, this was the laciest of all. From the outside, it reminded me of a wedding dress, all spotlessly white and frilly. But, on the inside, it was dark and breezy, with wide open decks, and wooden walls that creaked and yawed like a ship.
Once, it had been the family home of the Taitt family, and here, they’d hosted British Guiana’s first philharmonic orchestra, its first Marxist party, its first basketball team and its first school of ballet.
Even Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham had conspired here, before they’d fallen out. This, I was told, made it inviolable. Even Burnham wouldn’t touch it after that, and so it became the centre of resistance. Those who opposed his rule (including Dr Walter Rodney) plotted acts of sabotage in the rooms upstairs, where some of the rebels lived. Then Dr Rodney was killed in a sabotage exercise in June 1980, and the rebels’ cover was blown.
It was still the Taitts’ house at this stage, and so they had to flee. After that, the dissidents had to take over the house and run it for them, as a little hotel (which is how it is today).
