Caiman House, Yurupakari, Guyana

Four-star reptile haunt. This is Caiman House, in Yurupakari (Guyana). It was originally built by a herpetologist (one who studies reptiles), and it's a bit like Fort Apache, behind an enormous stockade. Inside, there's a grand, red library, finished in hardwood, and, all day, it cheeps with computers and children (who come here to study) . There are over 20,000 new books, too, and so the library is now radiating literacy across the Rupununi.

Caiman House also rents out its rooms (I slept in a turret above the gate). It's all decorated with polished panelling, four-poster beds, Amerindian tapestries, and handsome reptile skulls. I don’t know what you call this style. Makushi chic? Whatever it was, this had to be a first: an alligator-lover’s boutique hotel.