CLAUDIA & CARSTEN'S WORLD EXPEDITION

Campamento Yakoo

Our first morning in Venezuela! We slept in this camp in the city of Santa Elena de Uairén and are ready to start our trekking to Roraima!

Start of the journey

After being driven from Santa Elena, we enter Canaima National Park.

Walking

Tepuis Roraima and Kukenán

Finally we are getting closer to one of our biggest dreams! "Tepui" means mountain in Arekuna language. These rock formations date back to the Precambrian period, when the world as we know it today, was just starting to be formed, around 4 billion years ago. Arekunas, also called Pemon indians, inhabit all the Gran Sabana area in Venezuela, Guyana and Brazil.

End of Day 1

We walked around 12 km this first day and we camped in an area called Rio Tek. This was our first meeting with the most infamous of all biting flies....the Puri Puri...there is no other fly which has the capability of leaving wounds that itch for a whole month!!!

Day 2 walking to the second camp

Roger was our guide for this trip. He is an Arekuna, originally born in Guyana.

Porters walking

These porters carry around 80 kilos on their back, walking with Crocs shoes, and they finish the day setting up the camp and cooking our meals. Venezuela is under an extreme scarcity situation. There are no basic products to buy for Venezuelan people, but tourists are treated differently because we are one of the few income sources the country still has. In spite of scarcity, these guys managed to cook excellent, and abundant, meals for us everyday. We were really grateful.

Tepuy Roraima in the back

This was our second camping site, we walked around 12 kms to get here.

Day 3 - Walking up to Roraima

This part of the trek was not very long, around 4 km to get to the top, but it is steep. We were lucky to have excellent weather, so the road was dry and not slippery, but walking here under rainy conditions cannot be very nice. It has amazingly beautiful scenery along the way, both the landscapes and the vegetation.

Walking up to Roraima

We made it to the top!

Roraima is around 2.800 mt high.

At the top

Exploring the top of Roraima

I dreamed to going to Roraima ever since I read "The Lost World" from Conan Doyle when I was a child. It really is very interesting. Barren but yet has animals and vegetation you cannot find anywhere else in the world.

Inhabitants of Roraima

This little frog is unique to Roraima and is as closely related to a dinosaur as you can get. No pterodachtyles from Professor Challenger in Roraima....

View from the top into Venezuela

View from the top into Venezuela

Our camping site at the top

Day 4 - at the Viewpoint

We woke up on day four to the most beautiful clear sky morning and we went very early to Roraima's view point into Guyana. Roger said this was the first time in a year he was able to see Guyana from here, as most days Roraima's top is covered in clouds. This was our group, Iris and Stefan from Switzerland, Rosa and Karol from Manaus and our three porters and cooks.

We are here!

Pools at the top

The constant clouds and rains create these natural pools at the top of the Tepui.

Exploring the top of the Tepui

Day 5 - Back again in Rio Tek

This day was our longest journey as we had to walk from the top all the way to Rio Tek. When we arrived we were very tired.

Day 6 - End of the journey in Pacaraima

The next morning we walked from Rio Tek to the entrance of the park in Pacaraima and were picked up to be driven back to Santa Elena. 4WD is mandatory on these roads as they are in horrible conditions. Venezuela has the worst roads we saw in all of our trips, much worse than Africa.

From Pacaraima to Puerto Ordaz

After our first adventure, we spent one night close to Pacaraima and were driven to Puerto Ordaz. The south of Venezuela is a mining area. Many illegal mining operations are present in the area and there are plenty of products smuggled from Colombia and Brazil which are for sale here. That means people from the north travel all the way here to buy shampoo, toilet paper, soap, rice and all kind of first necessity products for which they pay more than 10 or 20 times the "official" price.

El Callao

This is where the real Woman del Callao comes from....

From Puerto Ordaz to Canaima

After spending one night in a 5 star hotel in Puerto Ordaz, where the price tag said USD 30 per night, we took a small plane to fly to Canaima. This place is in the same National Park as Roraima but there are no roads that connect both areas, so you need to drive 8 hours north and then fly one hour south to get there.

Arrival to Canaima Airport

Canaima Lagoon

This lagoon was beautiful and if we had not been on a tour, we could easily have spent one week there.

View from Canaima Lagoon

El Hacha Fall

El Sapo Fall

The canoes taking us to Angel Fall

This is a view from the Carrao river. You need to sail up river for 6 hours and into the Churrún river to reach the point where you can walk to Angel Fall's viewpoint.

Up the river it goes

It is difficult to describe how incredibly beautiful and unspoiled the nature on this river trip is. Everything looks and feels so ancient, we expected to see a dinosaur coming out of the jungle anytime!

Up the river

Short trekking to the Viewpoint

Once you get off the boat you need to walk for around 40 minutes to reach the famous Angel Fall viewpoint.

Angel Fall in the Auyantepui

This is the highest "uninterrupted" waterfall and it has a height of 979 mt. We were looking straight at our second biggest travel dream! And now we know it is also possible to do a 12 day trek where you can reach the top of the Auyantepui, so that will be our next adventure in Venezuela.

Happy campers!

Well deserved dinner

This was our travel group to the falls, a very nice group of dentists from Caracas, which had come to Canaima to do social service helping the locals.

Returning to Puerto Ordaz

Delta del Orinoco

After returning from Canaima to Puerto Ordaz, we were driven into a small town called Bocas del Uracoa, which is the starting point to visit the delta of the Orinoco river.

Restaurant in Campamento Abujene

Campamento Abujene at night

5AM canoeing trip

Cacao de agua

Return to camp at 7AM

Oropéndola nests

Our cabin

Warao indians building canoes

The Warao indians inhabit the northeastern areas of Venezuela and the west of Guyana.

Warao kids

Heat of the day fishing piranhas

Fishing

Fishing very small piranhas

Tucan

Tucans can only be seen and heard very early in the morning (5-6AM) or in the evening.

Warao women

Warao houses

Return to Bocas del Uracoa

Self propaganda

Stopped by the Indians in Brazil

We crossed the border into Brazil in Santa Elena again, and we were stopped on the Brazilian side by a protest of the local indigenous people. Rice growers had taken indigenous land illegally and planted it for years. The government had returned the land to the Indians but the growers had not left after 2 years, so the Indians decided to stop all traffic going back and forth. We spent 18 hours waiting in the car until they let us through at 05:00 AM the next morning.