Mainstay Lake

A resort has been built next to the lake, a seven miles from the region’s administrative hub at Anna Regina, or through the resort on a twenty-minute flight from Georgetown to the resort’s airstrip. Mainstay Lake Resort hosts an annual regatta as well as a regular Easter Car and Bike Show.[1] The resort was closed for seven months in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2][3]

A pineapple processing facility was established in Mainstay/Whyaka in 2002, an initiative of the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) and Amazon Caribbean Ltd (AMCAR).[4] Due to declining pineapple farming in the area, AMCAR closed the facility in 2014;[5] there were talks of reopening in 2019.[6]

Whyaka or Whyak is a thirteen square-mile Amerindian community[7] of mostly Arawak people. Arawaks were the first to inhabit the Mainstay area who called it ‘Quacabuka’ meaning ‘in-between'.[4] The village has a population of 576[8] and features a primary school (once known as St. Vincent Anglican School) and a nursery school, a health centre, a community centre, a ballfield, a chicken farm, a pine factory, a heritage park.[4] Secondary schooling is done in Anna Regina or Cotton Field.[4] The toshao is Milton Fredericks.[9] The location of the Mainstay Village is 07°14′09″N 58°32′25″W.[10]